I feel compelled to respond to a poorly argued opinion article published in Blueprint of March 11, 2021, written by one Abdullahi Nura from Utako, Abuja in which he called on Senator Abdullahi Adamu of Nasarawa West to retire from politics. I suspect that this is the opinion of some ambitious politicians who are unable to wait patiently to build up their own political clouts and are instead looking for a short cut in politics by trying to stampede more accomplished political actors to make way for them.
Nura’s article showered encomiums on Senator Abdullahi Adamu and listed some of his giant achievements in politics at the local, state and national levels through several republics. He mentioned, among others, that Adamu was a state party secretary and chairman in the Second Republic, was a Federal Minister, was a two-term governor, first chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, was secretary of the party board of trustees, was a founding member of APC and has been a senator for many years, among others.
He didn’t just hold party and public offices, but as Nura himself wrote, Adamu left indelible imprints on his immediate constituency, on Nasarawa state and on this country as a whole through landmark policies and programmes including the Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
Any political party and any senatorial district that is desirous of progress in these challenging times will shop for just such a highly experienced and highly accomplished public servant and put him in leadership position. At a time when APC as a party, Nasarawa state and Nigeria as a whole are facing challenges on many fronts, Nura wants us to hand the party and the country over to neophytes. It doesn’t occur to him that this will be a dangerous experiment and it is likely to compound our problems as a party and as a country.
The wise thing to do in these times is to put our best foot forward by tapping our most experienced and most accomplished hands to take the lead, while they also couch the younger generation and prepare them to take over the leadership in the not-too-distant future. That is the way of the wise.
Mahdi Sallama,
Kaduna.
