Lamido: Taking editors down Nigeria’s political path

At its recent standing committee meeting held in Dutse, Jigawa state, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) had a first-hand knowledge of what Jigawa is and what is not. ABDULRAHMAN A. ABDULRAUF writes on the interaction the guild had with Governor Sule Lamido

Our fear
Not too long ago, the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE), the apex professional  body of  journalism practice  in Nigeria, was in Dutse, a fast growing capital city of Jigawa state for its Standing Committee Meeting. For the standing committee members,  going to Jigawa, or any northern state at this period of the nation’s security challenge, mostly pronounced in that part of the country, was one thing nobody should ever think of.  The Boko Haram destructive phenomenon is so much that nobody is ready to take a risk to any of the northern states, not even the relatively peaceful Jigawa.

Visit to projects
But  after a lot of self conviction, the journalistic instinct took the better part of them and they opted to be there for about two days, during which they took time out to visit just a few of the projects put in place  by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP)-led government in the state. Led by its Deputy President, Hajia  Aisha Sue, the team visited the  expansive National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) named  after  former Head of State, General Yakubu

Gowon. Most members of the team could still not believe the project with fascinating facilities, was completed with less than a billion naira.  Other places visited were the sprawling and state-of-the-art state secretariat,  the fast growing Jigawa State University, far removed from the state capital and situated at  Kafin Hausa, scores of housing estates, magnificent deputy governor’s office/lodge, as well as that of the speaker and a few other principal officers. Also on the list were the splendid state High Court, the state radio and television station caged in a high rising building which is an architectural master piece, the Manpower Development Centre, School of Nursing/Midwifery, the Bamaina academy, otherwise known as School for the gifted children, among others. All these are well matched and complimented with solid road network which the governor, Sule Lamido describes as the best in the country.

Their impression
Typical of reporters, it was time for the senior journalists to interrogate the governor on what they saw on ground, and of course, what they have heard of the living father of PDP. First to speak was the team leader, Hajia Sule who declared  Jigawa as a true manifestation of the transformation agenda of the  PDP-led government. The deputy president,  who expressed the guild’s satisfaction with the level of development of the 23 year old state, said  the administration was putting the state on strong  footing for  future growth.

Also speaking, Secretary General of the guild, Isaac Ighure, who commended Governor    Lamido’s visionary leadership, said:“I have seen the airport project, the road network, and many other projects across the state. Even if you give some governors N1 trillion, they will not be able to execute all these projects.”

Ighure who noted that the governor was almost turning Jigawa to a construction site  in apparent reference to the level of infrastructural development  going on in the state,  expressed delight at the rate Lamido was taking development and civilisation to the doorstep of rural dwellers.  In the view of Ray Echebiri, a member of the standing committee, the projects are a triumph of architectural masterpiece, adding that the finishing is world class.  Having listened to these and other questions and remarks, the governor took his turn to appreciate his guests and take them along memory path of the nation’s political history.

Lamido responds
Responding to issues raised by the editors, the governor, like a teacher tutored his guests on how he came about bringing about a new Jigawa.  But before then, in a specific response to Ighure’s remark, Lamido said : “All the governors are performing. It is the environment that determines what you do.”

Narrowing  it down to Jigawa, he said: “When I took over  the administration of the state in 2007, Jigawa manifested all indices of a failed state. There was first and foremost the task of uniting the state after the divisive tendencies that usually characterise any election.

“At a stakeholders meeting,  it was clearly stated that the people own the process and they are to determine how the government runs. What this achieved in the long run was trust, transparency and openness because the people see the Jigawa project as theirs, mine is just to play the role of an overseer. With that in place, then the government started running.
“For us in jigawa, we know our history, and that will continue to guide us. In Jigawa, we are APC, CPC, PDP. But the thing is how do we rescue ourselves from ourselves?.”

Pre-1999 Nigeria
Taking the discourse to a broader and national level, Governor Lamido recalled the nation’s chequered history under the military,  saying  at the approach of democracy in 1999, Nigeria could only boast of a younger generation defined by a prism of abuse of human rights and culture of impunity by the military.
And on 2015,  the governor   was also of the view that sentiments must not be the guiding principle of  political parties in picking their flag bearers during elections.  According to him, any aspirant must enjoy the confidence of the people if  he or she truly has  the required will to work for the people.

He believed the PDP restored Nigeria to the path of sanity to give it hope, saying without PDP the contraption called APC will collapse. “That is why we in PDP must behave because a good PDP is a good Nigeria and a bad PDP is a bad Nigeria,” he added.

Taking a jab at APC
According to him, the APC is  a party with no real attributes of democratic ideology that would take the nation to the Promised Land.  Describing the party as one with no political history, Lamido  said Nigerians cannot take the risk of entrusting power to a group of aggrieved politicians who left their former political parties simply because they were denied tickets to contest for leadership positions.

While also describing the opposition party as being built around the personae of former head of state, Muhammadu Buhari,  the governor  said without him, APC would not last for three months, adding that most of those making noise in the party today could not dare do such in the pre-1999 Nigeria  for fear of incarceration.
“So, all I am saying is that , it  is either PDP or PDP.  There is no alternative to our party, the only party that is owned by Nigerians”, he said.

Memory lane
He recalled the pre-1999 tribulations succinctly: “We stood against Abacha and formed the PDP, which restored hope and value to the Nigerian citizens.  Masari, Ribadu and the rest were also the invention of the PDP that made them to recover their lost voices.
“Even though the PDP’s choice of zoning of the presidency is wrong, we applied democracy according to the need of the country, it is supposed to address our own peculiar needs. ”

“In 1998, we zoned the presidency to the South-west because we wanted a Yoruba to be Nigeria’s president and we chose Obasanjo, even though his people did not like him, but we did so for his passion for this country, which made other political parties to  begin  copying us.
“The choice of Obasanjo though he was in prison, became necessary in order to appease the Yorubas who were angry over the annulment of Chief Abiola(MKO)’s election by Babangida, and at that time the people from the North were viewed with contempt and disdain because of the past military leadership,” the governor eloquently recalled.

Of course, APC had unsuccessfully courted this ardent disciple of the late  Mallam Aminu Kano, he nonetheless believed in PDP and what it represents. According to him,  “the PDP of today can thrive without any personality within the party,  and this is not the same in other political parties  anchored around somebody’s fame or popularity,” stressing that, “Nigeria as the largest nation of blacks people, cannot be governed by fame.”

Challenge to editors
In view of the foregoing,  the governor challenged the editors to raise issues in the nation’s polity, especially those that will strengthen its unity, and not to turn themselves to pawns in the nation’s political chess game.

He specifically told editors from the South who were apprehensive of coming to the state because of insecurity in some parts of the North, to educate their people on the true situation in the North, adding that as members of the fourth estate of the realm, their write-ups could go a long way in shaping public opinion.

Corroborations
Without doubt, the new world, as Jigawa often prides itself is undergoing a major transformation since its creation in 1991, a view corroborated by Bonaventure Melah,  a public commentator in a piece admonishing Lamido not to leave PDP for APC. He writes:  “In Dutse, I saw the G-34 Estate Lamido built in honour of the founding fathers of the PDP, whom he described as patriots that sacrificed their comfort so that Nigeria may enjoy democracy and liberty.

“If Lamido leaves PDP, what would happen to his avowed passion for the party as well as the monuments he has erected in memory of its yesterday leaders? Can a large-hearted, detribalized leader like Lamido survive in the midst of largely ethnic champions that are currently wooing him?
“No matter what EFCC officials say they are looking for in Dutse, what no one can take from Lamido is that he has distinguished himself as Governor of Jigawa State under the umbrella of the PDP.

“While some governors are busy complaining that allocations to their states are poor, you, Lamido have transformed Jigawa State to a place of envy with massive infrastructural provisions the extent of which have continued to surprise visitors to the state. What you and Akpabio have achieved in your states is a proof that it is not the amount of money you have that matters in governance. It is the vision, the determination, the patriotism and commitment to make a difference.”

And in a similar view,  Adagbo Onoja, a former media aide to the governor, queried:  “The question is, why do people still say that Jigawa is still the poorest state of the federation, poorer  than Osun, Enugu, Benue and some of these other lumpen  states across the country?  Is it still on the basis of school enrollment, television sets, savings profile, etc which the CBN used to arrive at that misleading finding? In what way is a state where the poorest of the poor peasant family can boast of at least 5 cows, many goats and chicken, (meaning milk and protein) be the poorest?

“Has anybody talked to the CBN, the Federal Office of Statistics or whatever it is called now, five or so years after the CBN made its declaration on Jigawa? Without denying Governor Sule Lamido, the propaganda value of the poverty rating of Jigawa, it is time to challenge the analogy that Jigawa is the poorest state.”

Job well done
Certainly, the editors at the end of the visit had a change of mind as they all showered accolades on the Jigawa helmsman for turning around the state.  In a hushed tone, some editors believe a leader in the mould of Lamido is what the nation desires at this critical period.  And in a fitting remark, another member of the standing committee,  Ken Ugbecie described Jigawa  thus: “In a country where infrastructure is deficient and successive governments have looked  away from the attendant  rot, it is such a great feeling to find an oasis of hope in a desert of despair.”
“If tomorrow comes and Jigawa becomes the Japan of Nigeria, it is because a Sule Lamido planned  the seed today,” Ugbecie concluded.