The cerebral and vociferous former representative of the Kaduna central in the red chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani, said, the very first action of the newly sworn in governor of Sokoto state was like Sani Abacha’s way of “firing in all directions”. Almost all that have commented on Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s initial steps on assumption of office share the unflattering and uncomplimentary remarks of Shehu Sani.
The first official decision and action taken by the newly sworn in governor Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto state was the sweeping reversal or abrogation of all actions and appointments made within three months before he took over the mantle from his predecessor, Right Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
Barely one day in office, Aliyu announced the “nullification” of all appointments, redeployments and postings in the state civil service, after March 19. Similarly affected were the local council caretaker committee chairmen who were appointed as interim supervisors of the area councils consequent on the expiration of the term of the elected council chairmen.
The Government House statement further directed the revocation of land allocations and sale of public structures and residential homes done in the period of the preceding political authority in the state. Beneficiaries of the transactions were warned to either give up such properties or be “forced to do so.”
The order of revocations and reversals by the new administration also affected many traditional rulers. The statement decreed “with immediate effect” the reversal of the appointments of 14 monarchs comprising district heads including the highly respected Magajin Garin Sakkwato.
The executive order was unmindful of the fact that the appointments of the traditional rulers had been done months ago in accordance with laid down procedure and practice of selection from among qualified persons, by virtue of inheritance and lineage of the appointees to the ruling houses. Also, such appointments are procedurally done by the Sultanate Council and formal ratification by the state governor.
The gale of sacks and reversals similarly affected the decision of the Tambuwal government to rename certain tertiary institutions after some eminent personalities, living and dead, in recognition of their heroic exploits in the evolution, development and progress of Sokoto state.
Prominent historic figures that Tambuwal’s renaming exercise sought to immortalise included Sheikh Abdullahi Dan Fodio, younger brother to the great Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio after who the State University is renamed. Besides his pioneering role in the conceptualisation and actualisation of the 19th Century Sokoto Jihad, Sheikh Abdullahi Dan Fodio is revered for his vast intellectual endeavours that have earned Sokoto a glorious and conspicuous spot in the world map of scholarship.
Other state-owned institutions renamed after great historic people included the State College of Education named after Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki; the State University of Education renamed, Shehu Shagari University of Education and the State University Teaching Hospital, renamed, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar Teaching Hospital.
The immediate past government also renamed the College of Legal Studies, Wamakko, Haliru Binji College of Legal Studies; the School of Nursing Sciences, Balaraba Buda School of Nursing Sciences and, the State College of Agriculture, Wurno named after the late erudite scholar, diplomat and business mogul, Ambassador Shehu Malami, Sarkin Sudan Na Wurno.
The action of Ahmed Aliyu did not in the least come as a surprise to the people who are informed about the mental makeup, frame of mind and disposition of the characters now at the helm of political affairs in Sokoto state. To many, Ahmed Aliyu did not disappoint.
A knowledge of their antecedents and the propelling motif force behind their craving for political power, will reveal that the crass and abrasive action of the new administration in Sokoto state barely one day after swearing in, was merely the first salvo in a general and well-articulated agenda of vendetta and witch-hunt against perceived and imaginary political adversaries.
With the fore knowledge of the impending storm, droves of senior civil servants, directors and permanent secretaries had voluntarily retired from service before the hand over on May 29. They did so in order to avoid the fate that befell their colleagues in last Tuesday’s order of reversals of appointments of certain officers in the civil service.
Governor Aliyu’s assault on the state civil service is reminiscent of the actions of his political godfather and mentor, Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, who as a governor, made nepotism or victimisation of civil servants a routine practice. Under Wamakko, it was not uncommon to demote permanent secretaries to deputy directors or the catapulting of clerical officers to permanent secretaries.
Similarly, the reversal of the appointments of the traditional rulers by Governor Aliyu is a replication of the attitude of disdain for monarchs prevalent in the Wamakko regime. Scores of district heads were either deposed and exiled, degraded or treated to punitive, humiliating redeployments. One of the high points of the assault on the traditional institution was the dethronement of late Alhaji Muhammadu Jabbi as the district head of Wamakko and the brazen act of his replacement with Alhaji Salihu Wamakko, a biological brother to the governor. Alhaji Jabbi later died a depressed man in far away Kwarre, where he was exiled after his dethronement
The questions agitating the minds of people within and outside Sokoto include: Why would any citizen of Sokoto state be opposed to the naming of the state university in honour of Sheikh Abdullahi Dan Fodio? Why is the APC administration of Aliyu so vehement and crude in its aversion to the decision to immortalise Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Sheikh Haliru Binji and Ambassador Shehu Malami? Why should myopic partisan considerations be allowed to stand in the way of the actualisation of a noble idea that seeks to project the sublime history and glorious past of the state?
Aliyu’s cancelation of the renaming of the tertiary institutions, his reversal of the appointments of 14 district heads and permanent secretaries will be viewed by some people as an act of political rivalry or bickering carried too far.
Many are of the view that the governor should have demonstrated discretion and sound judgement. That, he should have separated the message from the messenger by doing the more sane and credible act of sifting the grains from the chaffs instead of the rash and reprehensible act of throwing away the baby with the bathwater as he did. In other words, it is bad politics and poor leadership for an incumbent to discard all the policies or programmes of his predecessor, regardless of their popularity, merits and benefits to society.
However, to those with insight into the agenda of the new drivers of the political affairs of Sokoto state, one is getting it wrong, completely off the mark to portray the actions of the governor as akin to somebody who is momentarily under the influence of the elixir and the intoxication of power. Or, the boisterous pranks and brashness of a boy who suddenly ran into fortunes.
It is also, uncharitable as it is simplistic to regard the new governor of Sokoto state as one who does not understand the import and repercussions of his actions. This is because he is an educated and enlightened adult who has come a long way on the political landscape and should, therefore, know enough to appreciate the rudimentary intricacies and peculiar demands of the exalted office of the governor of Sokoto state.
To political pundits with incisive knowledge of the power play in Sokoto, Aliyu is more appropriately seen as a clear-sighted, intelligent and a well focused actor who is, simply, dexterously and consciously embarking on the attainment of the goals and objectives of the agenda or blueprint of the forces on whose back he rode to power. Talk of the puppet and the puppeteers or the adage of: “He who pays the piper dictates the tune.”
Informed observers view the reversal of the appointments by the Tambuwal regime in the civil service, as the first manifestation of the new administration’s agenda towards senior civil servants deemed to have doubtful loyalty on account of their resistance to the promptings to engage in the hideous scheme of sabotaging the immediate past political dispensation which was hatched and perpetuated by the APC in the buildup to the last elections.
Similarly, certain traditional rulers are said to have been specially earmarked for even more lethal darts of venoms. In this framework, the sacking of the 14 district heads is more like the starters in the potpourri of the acerbic, unpalatable meals that will be served the targeted traditional rulers in the passage of time.
In sum, even as the judiciary is yet to finally resolve the pending matter over the real winner of the 2023 governorship election, the people of Sokoto state and the rest of the country should be expecting several more barrages of deafening, shocking and earthshaking salvos from Governor Aliyu. What was heard from him penultimate Tuesday, a day after he was sworn in, would therefore amount to mere warning shots or, a child’s play.
As Aliyu and the godfathers of the APC in Sokoto state savour the aroma of power, they may do well to tread with caution. One of the lessons that political gladiators should learn from the country’s recent political trajectory is the universal lesson that power on earth is transient and deceitful.
That is just as history of the world teaches that vendetta, vindictiveness and malicious use of the levers of powers can very often, turn out to boomerang. At the end, what we had seen as conquests and triumphs become nothing but pyrrhic victories. In the words of William Shakespeare, “Much ado about nothing”. Softly, softly, Your Excellency, Alhaji Doctor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, Executive Governor of Sokoto state, today.
Ibrahim Saifullah writes from
Jellani Mabera, Sokoto state.
