Re-Upending democracy in Bauchi, by Musa Ismail Jahun

With 2019 general elections getting closer, the good, the bad and ugly media campaigns in all sorts of write-up will now inundate people, especially the gullible ones as well as the typical Nigerian politicians.
Typical of such jaundiced write up was a back-page column in Leadership newspaper of Monday, June 4, 2018 written by one Mariam Mohammed with the headline, Upending democracy in Bauchi. The article was nothing but biased narratives, chauvinism, and a mind trip to ridicule the Bauchi state governor and APC.
Besides being personal views, columnists are expected to do an in-depth analysis on issues without prejudice but Mariam seemed to be bollixed and screwed up by the choice of her words on Governor M.A. Abubakar and misrepresentation of facts as far as Bauchi politics is concerned. And that has seriously plunged the credibility of the writer into dubiety and public demurral which has raised suspicion whether she was enticed and cajoled to pen her opinion on Bauchi politics.
It is worrisome that this grossly misguided propaganda is appearing in column which should not only be objective but an avenue to rely on in search for an enlightened and refined analysis with veritable sourced content. With this kind of bias and partiality displayed by this writer, are we to trust her column again? Ordinarily, I won’t have glorified such a wild short with a response but, my silence and that of other Bauchi state indigenes who are in the know about the political happenings in the state and the good fortunes brought by the Abubakar administration won’t help matters. It is indeed compelling to set the record straight.
Mariam Mohammed last column was an accusation, innuendoes and character assassination which was short on proving specific instances and evidence to back up its dubious assertions regarding the alleged autocratic bent of Governor Abubakar. It’s quite unfortunate that, the writer referred to the governor as ‘emperor like mien’ without giving one solid instance of the display of such tyranny either in the day to day management of the affairs of the state or the conduct of the just concluded ward congresses where she trickily got her basis of attack. And unknown to her, the congresses in Bauchi has already received a pass mark from the validating authorities, the APC national leadership and different groups except Dogara and his cohorts who were busy recessing at his farm in Nasarawa state while the congresses were conducted.
Though, in the contest for political or partisan advantage there can only be one victor and one or many vanquished. And it is instructive that those that felt lost out in the congresses including Dogara and his political sidekicks have largely lost touch with the electorate and party faithful. The resorted to pontificate and posture from the relative comfort of Abuja rather than to get down and muddy with the masses that are the sole determinant of the political direction and destiny of the state or the nation for that matter.
In Bauchi state, those opposed internal democracy and envy Governor Abubakar’s drive to move the state forward are well known faces who cannot hide under any guise to bamboozle us again. It’s unfortunate that, throughout his stay as governor, M.A. Abubakar has witnessed an unremitting and relenting hostility from the Abuja based politicians for no just reasons instead of joining hands with him to move the state forward.
Early in his tenure, Yakubu Dogara granted a wide-ranging interview where he planted the political crisis in the state positing and bragging that, he and others installed the governor and so they see no reason he should not display loyalty to them to the disservice of voters and Bauchi citizens that have entrusted their mandate to the governor. This public display of arrogation of divine prerogative is unbecoming of a leader who occupies the exalted office of Speaker of the House of Representatives.
How can Dogara arrogate the almighty power of determining the destiny of a fellow man to himself when he was elected on a mandate that is numerically inferior to that of the governor who was entrusted by 654,934 votes compared to the speaker with only 73,438 votes; can a tail wag the dog or the dog wags the tail? The fact is that, M.A has decided to be positively responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of the people of Bauchi state than the self-absorbed minority led by Dogara’s camp. And if internal democracy as promulgated by the writer is to succumb to whims and caprices of the egocentric splinter group, we in Bauchi state have repudiates it in entirety. We’ll never trust someone whose defection to APC was akin to a rat bailing from a sinking ship to save its skin rather than any ideological affinity for his new-found party.
Also, Mariam Mohammed in her meandering article listed a number of resignations from the Bauchi governor’s cabinet without giving us the latent reasons for their opting out of office, thus citing instances without giving cogent reasons for their occurrence. Many appointees have stepped aside given the fact that there is no fortune to amass in Bauchi Government House as Governor M.A. Abubakar does not believe in executive largesse or political patronage preferring to abide strictly by the equal pay for equal work mantra.
So, those of them that took up cabinet positions with the hope of recouping financially from their previous campaigns or activities on behalf of the party may have resigned in frustration or disappointment, no fault of the transparent Bauchi state helmsman. If the truth must be told, Governor Abubakar has been running a government for the many and not the few, a novelty in Bauchi state politics for quite some time as those who regard themselves as divine power brokers or unreconstructed godfathers in the state’s socio-political dynamics have found themselves holding the short end of the stick.
It is instructive that Mariam Mohammed’s biased article did not point to one single infraction, abuse of power or financial impropriety on the part of the Bauchi state governor but was merely a repetition of unsubstantiated allegations against him by the Abuja based politicians which means she was acting a script.

Jahun writes from Bauchi, Bauchi state

Politics

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