Chamba Simeh
From the signatures on our political wall, the gerontocrats, who have been ruling the country for decades, are not ready to quit. If immortality existed, some of them would have schemed or bribed their ways into obtaining it so that they could lead Nigeria forever. This is confirmed by the conspiracies and mischief currently orchestrated in Niger in the build up to 2015 governorship election of the state.
Having endured gerontocracy, which has been leading them from one quagmire to another in spite of the wisdom it allegedly comes with, youth in the state have thrown partisan politics into the trash bin to support the aspiration of Alhaji Umar Mohammed Nasko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for his youthfulness and antecedents, but the gerontocrats would not allow the choice of the majority to have a smooth sail.
I am not from the state. My attention was only drawn to its politics during a recent trip to Minna, the state capital, at a ‘mai shayi’ joint, as well as the fireworks I read in the media against Nasko’s candidacy. From the logic, one does not need an oracle to tell him that the fireworks are handiwork of his opponents who are losing out. In a ploy to ridicule his hard-earned popularity, they have been hammering on his age and educational qualifications. I will return to these issues later.
At the ‘mai shayi’ joint, I met four men who should be in their late 20s or early 30s ‘ranting’ about their support for Nasko ‘ko ta ya’, as one of them said in Hausa. The crux of their ‘rant’ was that the systemic failure in the country was caused by the elders in leadership positions, so it is high time the youth are given the opportunity because they probably could enhance the much-touted transformation.
One of them observed that, of the commissioners appointed by the Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu administration since 2007 when it debuted, none has created sustainable projects as Nasko, who is the youngest among them, did. According to him, when Nasko was the state’s commissioner for environment, he initiated the Green Guards through which a horde of jobless youths in the state were employed to protect its ecosystem by stopping deforestation and advocating afforestation. The initiative, as a friend from the state told me, has reduced the depletion of the state’s famous forest reserves by illegal lumbers and charcoal makers.
In the same vein, as they discussed, the serenity currently enjoyed in the state capital was as a result of his tenure in the same ministry. The residents would take their garbage boxes to designated dumpsites where sanitation workers promptly collect the wastes for proper disposal. This initiative reduced the number of dumpsites in the city since the end of the military junta in 1999, when sanitation was strictly enforced.
“Wallahi”, the one who, to me, spoke the best English among the four noted, “the guy’s presence was felt when he was commissioner for tourism and culture, the same thing when he was taken to ministry for transport and infrastructural development, and his best came at environment and forest resources ministry. If he is given a bigger platform, he will definitely do better, that is why the youths as well as all the masses are supporting him.”
From my discussions with a number of Nigerlites, Nasko has so far earned wide acceptance from the masses, despite the fact that he is the ‘anointed’ candidate of the incumbent government. As we all know, ‘anointed’ candidates rarely gain the acceptance of the masses; it is however different when it comes to Nasko. The young man’s only problem now is the power brokers in the state as well as those vying for the same seat with him, especially in the PDP.
Having preached to people that a man of Nasko’s age isn’t fit to goad the affairs of the state successfully hence shouldn’t be given PDP’s ticket, as their popularity wane in the wake of Nasko’s ever-increasing popularity they have resorted to blackmail and character-assassination. On top of the chart is the doubt cast against his educational qualifications. While anybody who forges qualifications is a criminal and should be duly prosecuted, it is mischievious to smear a man’s reputation by any act possible, even with a blatant lie for political advantage? One of the hatchet men even went as far as writing in Sahara Reporters on Sunday that he had a correspondence with one of the universities that Nasko attended and was told that the former was never a student of the institution. However, email exchanges between the public relations officer of the school on Monday confirmed that nobody or organisation had ever contacted any unit of the institution on the issue.
As widely believed, the voice of the people is the voice of God; it is high time we expunge character assassination and blackmail from our political lexicon. If you want to win the hearts of the majority, let your antecedents and your campaign strategies speak for you.
