By Ibrahim Dosara
I will begin this piece with a commendation to a fellow professional colleague in the media practice, Malam Mahmud Jega for his fashion to putting a perspective about the current political crisis rocking Zamfara state.
For me, the perspective has opened the eyes of millions of Nigerians who have been reading series of fictions and folktales about Zamfara in the last one week. The piece has exposed the conspiracy popularized by the Nigerian media in an attempt to tarnish the political reputation of Governor Yari and good people of Zamfara.
The perspective by Jega at the back page of Daily Trust Monday July 25th 2016, is no more than fiction or a folktale being told to suit readers interest because it did not reflect the current political realities of the state.
From the inception, the writer had tightened himself with rope when he declared that, ‘though I live far away from Zamfara state, I heard about the plot when all the assembly’s members went in to hidden to perfect it.’ I want to remind him that in the theory of political analysis, ‘a person who is hundreds of kilometers away from a political environment remains ignorant of it and whatever he says about the development in that environment, he may end up telling a fiction or folktales. Again for him to set a foundation of his analysis with that scary perception, it shows how crippled his conclusion would look like.
Jega moved an inch to declare in the Monday article that, ‘Governor Yari flatly denied, ‘there was an impeachment plot against him’. I think he needs to extend a hand of request to Voice of America, BBC and Radio France Hausa Services to get a copy of interviews made with some members of the State House of Assembly, particularly, Alhaji Umar Mua’zu Faru, Mannir Gidan Jaja, Mansur Bungudu and Malam Mani Bukkuyum. They have testified that, there was never a time they discussed anything that has to do with the governor’s impeachment. With these testimonies by the embattled members, is there any crime for the governor to corroborate same position?
On the interview granted at the Sultan Abubakar III International Airport, it was pertinent that the governor emphasised that ‘even if there was that attempt, it must be a mastermind of some selfish politicians in the state’.
But as I said earlier, because of the media trial the governor faces from the likes of Jega, such submission has to be doctored to suit the interest of their ill-motivated political analysis.
In the same article, Jega accused the governor of constructing a difficult-to-follow procedure as the reason why the MPs could not easily access him, I think the author of the write-up has gone extremely partisan to arrive at that conclusion because, for the past five years, the state legislature has been receiving official correspondences, from the governor and his lieutenants, meeting with him from time to time to share thoughts as well as championing several numbers of citizen oriented projects with their legislative approval as contained in the annual appropriation law.
Besides, the Speaker himself has been chairing sensitive committees, including that of payment of over N3bilion retirement benefits, committee on allocation of contracts for renovation of primary schools under the UBE whole schools’ renovation programme, committee for the reception of decamped party members and that of the Ramadan and Sallah welfare packages, just to mention, but a few of the numerous gestures and privileges to the legislative arm.
Quite a number of times, the state governor handed over the state to the current speaker as acting governor during which he took several decisions without the governor questioning his authority. Just recently, during the signing of the 2016 budget, the speaker declared publically at the Government House, Gusau that “our relationship with the governor and members of his executive council is very cordial and we would continue to support him in his quest to transforming the lives of Zamfara citizens.”
So, what accessibility is denied?
Again, in the same article, the writer quoted the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Mannir Gidan Jaja, alleging that the governor is involved in some corrupt practices including, corrupt usage of local government funds for state purpose, inadequate explanation of N1billion commercial agriculture loan, gross misappropriation of federal government bailout funds to settle workers’ salaries, including N10billion for 2014 and N1.46billion in 2016.
For me, these allegations sound like a fiction on the simple ground that, there is no fiscal year since the inception of Yari’s administration when the appropriation bills of the entire 14 local government councils to the state legislature for scrutiny and passage.
If all the local government council chairs go to the House each year to defend their annual budget in terms of revenue and expenditure, I don’t know which misappropriation Jega and the lawmakers are talking about, because the state governor does not implement budget for council chairmen. And in the past five years, where have they been getting money to run their local government councils?
Even if Jega is referring to the 25 kilometers township roads constructed by the administration of Yari in each of the local governments, the governor has done marvellously well.
In fact, he has done what no other governor in Nigeria has done, because the projects were executed in partnership with the state government funds and no council chairman in Zamfara can deny the facts that, he has given his consent for those citizen oriented projects. The citizens of Zamfara have also appreciated and celebrated the wonderful gestures.
Talking about one-billion-naira commercial agriculture loan, it is laughable because, the funds from the said loan is yet to be received by the state government. So, I wonder how and where a loan that is yet to be obtained can be misappropriated.
On the issue of bailout, for me it’s an act of ingratitude for any public/civil servant to raise that issue because, if the bailout is provided to help states ensure stability in the payment of salaries and pension, I think there is no state that has delivered to that presidential mandate than Zamfara. Ours is among the few states in the federation that has no arrears of salary or pension and I challenged anybody including Mahmud Jega to prove me wrong.
We have seen a situation where, in spite of the bailout collected, some states are still having five to eight months arrears of salary and pension.
Again, I wonder what diversion this writer and the lawmakers are talking about, except the meaning of diversion has changed in the 21st century to mean another thing. For the 9 months of the economic hardship brought by the fall in the international oil market when almost all states of the federation could not pay their respective workers’ salaries, Governor Yari has been borrowing to ensure that his state workers were paid, before the arrival of the bailout which he initiated as the Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum.
When the bailout came, the governor sat with the legislators to agree on the purpose for which it was to be used. One expects Jega to have verified the lawmakers claims and balanced same with the Executive
Finally, in as much as we welcome constructive criticisms from concerned citizens of Zamfara state in particular and the country at large, we also caution that one needs to avoid misleading fictions and folktales based on politically motivated articles and publications. One needs to always explore and exploit the use of developmental journalism through investigative journalism to make developmental reporting and publications. This helps in objective analysis of issues that would be of benefit to the society rather than using sentiments to disintegrate the society. I hope this would serve as food for thought for Jega.
Dosara, Special Adviser, Media & Public Enlightenment to Zamafara state governor, wrote from Gusau
