By; Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo
Dear Governor Muhammad A. Abubakar Esquire,
I hope your first week
in office is as hectic as never before in your previous ones, and would never
come to be in your future ones as well. I know well the state in which you assumed
your current seat is not a bit neither cozy nor comfortable, so, it is assumed
natural that you find it worrisome, even disturbing.
As much as I am humbled
to write these few pages to you Sir, that is as much as I am obliged.
Let me start by
confessing to you Sir, that, I am not a pro-you and neither am I an anti-you,
at least not yet. I am although a member of the APC, and yes, I am a
progressive. For this reason I chose to sit on the fence, at least till the end
of your first hundred days in office. But something tells me a hundred days is quiet
too much a time for someone in your stand. The rumor already has it that you
are still undecided as to whom you would appoint as the next Secretary to the
State Government. That I think says a lot about the thirty days to come, where
all focus will be strained to observing who you appoint as your executives,
whereas those thirty days will have to define the sixty days to follow, wherein
the people’s enthusiasm will be stuck in between what projects you launch, and
how tenacious and efficient a leader you could be in supervising the
assignments you oblige your Civil Servants with. As it always has been, the
first ninety days of every leader in office, determines whether his tenure
would be a successful one or not. At this juncture then, I will wish you the
very bests of lucks in your first thirty days as the Chief Servant of my State.
Sir, you might have
known well that your ascension to power came almost exactly as your
predecessor’s. For, if not for the time, circumstances, and characters that
took roles in making your victory a possibility, I would have declared it an
exact scenario to that of Governor Isa Yuguda’s in 2007.
When you decamped to
APC from the PDP just three months to the commencement of the party’s primary
elections, you quiet clearly distorted the party’s political settings knowing
well that the party was still juvenile and disoriented by the internal
sentimental politicking being played. In seeing that, you ceased the advantage
of taking charge using your former party’s tradition, it was said that you
bought almost the entire party’s officials in about just a month. That in my
opinion qualifies you to being an ‘opportunist,’ which in due regards to
certain past events also aligns you with your predecessor.
I came to learn that
after you became a member of the party, an offer, though secretly, was made to
you to contest for the seat of Senator (Bauchi South)-to which you declined. I
think that was rude. Those were people whom conduced a lot in the creation of
this party both in the National and State levels, for that I think it was too
much a generous offer to be declined. You as a politician must know that a
courtesy of due regards is always relayed on to the people who marveled in such
a formidable act.
Prior to your primary
elections Sir, speculations were circulated that you are, but an element
implanted by the PDP to cause confusion and distortions within the party. That same
speculation I recall was spread about your deputy in 2011 when he came to
contest for the seat of Governor under the flag of the defunct CPC Party. If
the rumors were true, then your deputy must be considered successful for
achieving your former party’s primary objective. You on the other hand would be
regarded unsuccessful by your former party. And again, I would personally
regard your victory as a “paradox of success” where dual purposes were achieved
to sooth one interest. But of course that interest would be wholly yours, since
your former party had its primary interests too. But that of course would
depend only on if the speculations were true.
I wouldn’t stress wondering
what school of thought your choice of picking Engr. Nuhu Gidado as your running
mate might have created, knowing quiet well that a preponderance of the Bauchi
State populace still have little or no confidence in him. Since in essence to
his past political records, your pair could only at best be reckoned as “birds
of the same feather”.
Subsequent to your
victory in the gubernatorial primaries though, I must clarify to you Sir, two
schools of thoughts were created. There were those who perceived that you had an
agreement with Governor Isa Yuguda, where it was asserted that he will clear
all grounds for you so your victory would come trouble-free. But that of course
would go contrary to his interests, except, it was said that you guaranteed him
that his administration would go un-probed if you happened to emerge the winner
in the general elections. And that is where the former school’s pretext
surmounts’ over the latter’s. The latter school believes that all these
speculations were rumors architected by your fellow counterparts to diminish
your credibility. A rather obscure third school was formed, although almost
abstract. They perceived that these propagandas were spread by those who loss
to you in the primary elections. Albeit none of these assertions was
confidently supported by facts, neither of the aforementioned schools was
wholly convincing. Thus the third school only aided in setting the ambiance of
the polity in a ridiculous uncertainty.
I find it rather
obliging to also remind you of the chaos your victory as Bauchi APC gubernatorial
flag bearer brought about. After the primary elections it was speculated that
you rigged your ways during the primaries to victory. I also think you did. My
findings brought me to the awareness that the National Party officials asked
your counterparts to let go off the case for if the situation surpasses, the
State might come to lose the general bid to PDP, again, as it did in 2011 when
your Deputy came to contest.
In 2007 though, then
you were the INEC Commissioner for Rivers State, it was said that you announced
the general elections results on an airplane. That I couldn’t believe. I mean,
how could that be? One thing though, the election was undoubtedly rigged, and
you still announced the results anyways. That is one reason why the people of
Bauchi State still don’t find you trustworthy. You know Bauchi people and the
man “Baba Buhari”, once they hear about someone going against him… I think you
should take caution from what happened to your predecessor.
Sir, you should also
recall that thence the primary elections you were heard almost not. Everyone,
including myself was asking, “Is he still in the race?” Someone told me that
you were waiting for “Baba Buhari” to come and raise your hand to the people of
Bauchi State. At the end it appeared true. I mean it was obvious that your campaign
went numb until after “Baba” came and granted your wish. Besides, that’s what
succored the polity out of the “ridiculous uncertainty” it was in. With all due
respect Sir, I think that says ill of someone whom wills to lead a people.
My sincerest concerns
Sir are of you not making your best in deeds to see that you gain your people’s
trust. You still are that ‘vague, uncertain, un-trustworthy, I am just lucky to
be here’ person to the people of Bauchi State. Your actions are neither
encouraging nor oomph boosting. Most people think you will at the end turn out
to be the same person your immediate predecessor was.
I think you need a
rethink on what to do to win the people’s confidence. My best advice to you
would be Sir; to screen the people around you, then rid your cabinet from those
people with bad past records, they possess potential threats that might come to
cause distortions to your Governance. “I am a moderately successful lawyer”, so
you told BATV in an interview. Making a moderately successful Governor won’t be
bad either.
It is natural for every
man to have weakness, yours’ as it appears is the ignorance of the consequences
to your desires. You wanted to become a Governor, you have, but you still can’t
settle for what’s next. Perhaps, you don’t even know what is next. Now everyone
complains over why you are yet to appoint a Secretary for the State. I think
that is the result to not having a blue print before coming to contest. But of
course, for if not, how else do we define “Rebranding Bauchi State” program? I
fear your phenomenon will come to be known as “a sudden swift rise of a long
slow fall”.
When you declared that
your basic salary and your deputy’s be halved, you quiet well took some people
aback. But my interests are to know what, where and how the money can benefit
the people. You ordered the State’s accounts be frozen. All questions are at
their crucial, “why”? It can be investigated what happened in the past and yet
still be open for regular operations. In my opinion, you are faced with two
challenges at the same time. In consideration to what you inherited-two
straight month’s salary being refused to be paid to the Civil Servants, you
need to find the means to settle that debt, for that is now your burden. And
again, regarding the condition to which receded the State back to this limit of
economic depression, you need to put foremost the consideration to quicken the
creation of revenues for the State. That I think might also walk us out of the
troubles of unemployment in the State.
I learnt also Sir, that
you took role in the sanitation that took place the last Saturday of last
month. I’d be glad if a new law would be passed to stop the people from dumping
their refuses on the streets. That being amongst the past administration’s
biggest achievements in the State, it could also just come to being one of your
best.
In conclusion, those
who might have come across the appreciatory speech “To God be the Glory” I
wrote in your name prior to the general elections, might wonder as to why I am
still the same person to write this piece to you. I wish to clarify to them
that what I did then I did for the sake of my party, and I find it absolutely
compelling to offer to you my quota in advice where it appears necessary for
this is my State, which I dear most. You are a leader, and like most leaders
before you, you assumed a detrimentally rotten seat but that must not be an
excuse for you to falter in your administration. You complained a couple of
times over the debts and the ills that the immediate past administration left
behind. Forgive my intrusion, but you need not complain Sir, you need just act,
and if possible, with absolute immediate effects.
For that simple reason
I wish to remind you again Sir, this time in the words of Thomas Paine; “If we
consider what the principles are that first condense men into society, and what
the motives that regulates their mutual intercourse afterwards, we shall find,
by the time we arrive at what is called Government, that nearly the whole of
the business is performed by the natural operation of the parts upon each
other.” I see potential greatness in you Sir; I see more than four million
populace willing to ascend themselves to greatness-no matter the cost; I see
opportunities waiting for a well determined leadership to be made; I see hopes,
hopes anxiously waiting to be attained in the most responsible manners. You’ve
had your ills and weaknesses in the past, pardon me when I say they helped in
bringing you to a stand of responsibility. You are here now, and by many, you
are expected to fail. I expect you to excel. So at this point in time, allow me,
though with all due humility, to order you to take charge!
I hope you find the due
time to read this, and also the due time to reply. I shall await your response
with a fervent expectancy. Thank you.
Yours’
sincerely,
Abdul-Rahman
Baban Saibo
