# I Stand With Ahmed

 By Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo

babansaibo@gmail.com

The arrest, a misconception (?):

On Monday 14^th of this month, Ahmed Mohammed a freshman at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, was in class whence an alarm sounded in his school bag. His English teacher’s attention was caught and she asked Ahmed what was making the noise in his bag? Ahmed opened his bag and brought out his new invention. “It’s a digital clock I created.” He tells the English teacher. “It looks like a Bomb to me”, was his teacher’s first reply, but of course the boy retorted “it doesn’t look like one to me.”

Moments later Ahmed was in police custody. And so it took just an invention to end a fourteen year old American Muslim kid’s day in an interrogation room. How gravely unfortunate for Ahmed whom thought of impressing his science teacher with the digital clock he (Ahmed) invented with a pencil case, instead, it made him prime crime headliner of the day.

In Ahmed’s words “They arrested me, and told me I committed the crime of a hoax bomb-a fake bomb.” He then explained that “I repeatedly told them ‘it’s a clock’, but no matter how much I told them, I guess that’s not a bold enough answer to them.” But of course, they wanted to hear him say he’s a terrorist for that’s what he is to them.

Elhassan Mohammed (Ahmed’s father) a Sudanese immigrant whom happened to run twice for Sudan’s presidency, tells the media that “the boy was just trying to create something nice for humanity.” He then went to making excuses for what happened, “but because of what happened on September 11^th he got mistaken for a terrorist.” The question here is, would September 11^th forever remain to be an excuse for Muslims in America and the West to keep being discriminated, humiliated, harassed and segregated?

Islamophobia: A legitimate Fear or a reason for Hate?

Islamophobia (the fear of Islam) has now grown to becoming the worst fear as well as the most justifiable reason for discrimination and abuse of Muslims and Islam in the West. The average American is made to believe that Islam is a pugnacious religion which promotes violence. Unfortunately, despite the West’s ceaseless propagation of blemishing Islam, the West records its highest number of converts to Islam more than ever in history. Today in the West, Islam grows by the second, thus the reason for the bedlam.

The West and America had created the fear of Islam to globalize their hegemonic might of occupation and invasion of the Muslim lands. After September 11^th the world came to sympathize with America for the misfortune that befell her. But in order for America to exercise vengeance, it needed to set the whole world in trance, and for that they crafted a space in the project “New World Order” for “Islamophobia” just so their outraging massacre in the Muslim lands and excessive discrimination of Muslims at home would be justified in the name of ‘war against terrorism’, and ‘security’. And of course the world would find the absolutism to remain numb toward America’s violation of human rights and ungodly acts over the Muslims. – See: “Why the West fears Islam: The enemy within.” On; www.twf.org

Quiet queer for Muslims out-side America (like myself) to apprehend why Islam is a threat to Americans and the West. We so often hear Islam is the most tolerant religion in the West, we so often register that Islam and Muslims are the most victims of racial discrimination. Yet, seldom do we see them walking the streets to protest their so often violated rights. It is confusing when a particular subject remains constantly under attacks from others and yet it is claimed to pose a terrifying phobic status to the public. Paradox!

If Christianity is the most practiced religion in the West, and still remains to be the most racist religion there, why is there nothing like Christianophobia in the Western world? And that is besides the fact that over eighty percent of the American military personnel that drops the endless bombs on Baghdad and Afghanistan killing innocent people are Christians. Yet again, aside the Israeli massacre of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children, the Jews happens to control more than fifty percent of American security, Economy and Political power. I ask again, what happened to Jewophobia?

The war against Islam in the Western world, cannot wholly and solely be blamed on September 11^th, the war against Muslims is way beyond that story which is given the title Islamophobia, this war is a war raged against truth, against good, and against the plausibility of both reigning in a world where hypocrisy and evil are the predominant ruling factors.

But, “who speaks for Muslims?” asks Dalia Mogahed (senior analyst and executive director Gallup Center for Muslim Studies), when it’s “a community that is often discussed but seldom heard.” Dalia described the occurrence as a “Hollow clash between the West and Islam.” But of course the world would come to stand with Dalia in asking ‘who speaks for Muslims’ of the Western world? According to Dr. Ali al-Mazrui, “Muslims of the world are more sinned against than sinning.”

It is a habit of the Americas and the West to blame every terrorist act on the religion of Islam, and that have been only to castigate Islam’s image. But yet the multitude of converts to Islam believes that “Islam’s doctrine is simple and rational, all believers are equal, and it is a ‘practical’ religion which lacks priesthood.” And that’s according to an American-Christian convert to Islam.

Again, Dr. Ali Al-Mazrui asks “what about relations between the American People and the Muslim people?” in his paper “Islam between clash and concord civilization: changing relations between the Muslim world and the West” (presented at Chatham house in 2007), he explained “there has also been increasing evidence of desecration of the Holy Quran by Americans guarding devout Muslims. This is quite apart from the harassment of Muslims at American airports.” He further goes to tell of his experience as a victim of the airport harassment. “Muslims who are harassed at American and international airports are beginning to multiply. On august 3^rd 2003, on arrival from overseas, I was detained at Miami airport for seven hours under repeated interrogation. Detaining a 70year old man as a potential terrorist,” he said “is a case-study of the new paranoia at airports.”

Dr. Ali al-Mazrui in the same paper asked again “But are there global war-games unfolding at the expense of the Muslim world in this day and age?” Dr. Ali iterates further, “In this new 21^st century, the values of America have continued to diverge from the principle of Islam. As the new century unfolded, homosexuality was not only legalized, it was in the process of being religiously legitimated.” And that is the Western motive against the world; to degenerate humanitarian etiquettes of moral virtues and modest characters; to promote ills and corrupt acts; to regard nudity as ones’ self pride of beauty; to embrace fornication and adultery as acts of freedom; to faithfully, morally and ethically adulterate the basic mores of humanity.

And if Islam is a religion with doctrines and dogmas that supersedes every individual rights and ideas of its believers, which gives room only to puritanical judgments, yet still, about twice the number of converts to the Christian faith in the Western world submits to it (Islam) every year, why then won’t the West be Islamophobic?

So, whither the living-hood of the Muslims of the West? And “How can America learn to trust the Muslim world a little more? How can the Muslim world in turn, be better protected from American militarism? Both (trio in this case) solutions need to restrain America’s arrogance of power.”- Dr. Ali Ameen al-Mazrui

A Fortunate Ordeal;

“It made me felt like I wasn’t human,” says Ahmed. “It made me felt like I was a criminal.” Little did he know that so long he keeps bearing “Ahmed” and continues to practice Islam in America, he’ll always be regarded as a ‘criminal’. But if his name were Dylan Roof or Craig Hicks, he’d have never been mistaken for a terrorist even if his invention succeeded in killing nine black innocent Christians or three young innocent American-Muslims.

Fortunately for young Ahmed, his predicament transcended him to becoming great. President Barack Obama invited him to the White House, and along his “hoax-bomb”. Now NASA tells young Ahmed #EngineersForAhmed. And millions around the world tweeted with pride and compassion #IStandWithAhmed. Something tells me Ahmed’s English teacher wishes she never accused the boy of hoaxing a bomb, for Ahmed has transcended to becoming someone neither she nor the entire school staffs would ever dream of becoming.

Hence, my little advice to my young brother Ahmed is but of three great principles, with which the noble Prophet of Islam lived; “Keep relations with those who cut you off. Do good to them, even if they harm you. And speak the truth even if it is against yourself.”

And to my Muslim brothers and sisters in the West, I dedicate to you INVICTUS:

“Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shades, and yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

- By William E. Henley.

Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari; “the Man of Time”

By Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo

babansaibo@gmail.com

Dear Mr. President Sir,

With all due regards and hopes for your wellbeing, with ardent anticipations of these past months and the few to come will come to be the most difficult times of your life, with fervent expectations that your nights are seen as bright as are your days, with even sheer certitude that you spare not a second to ensuring righteousness, honesty and justice are the keys to making your decisions in serving with transparency, fairness and equity the people you lead. As “A time for historic change is no time for recklessness”, says former President of the US George W. Bush. May your days of service be fruitful and of bliss, and I wish and pray that the Almighty may see you all through this quest.

I wish to begin by conveying to you Sir, that I am 29 years of age, a resident and born of Bauchi State and that I used to be a no good citizen. I have in the past broken some laws and was engaged in (let’s say) a few illegal acts. One time I made a forgery of my Local Government’s indigene certificate just to bypass the lengthy procedures to obtaining the genuine copy. During the 2011 general elections, I stood in line to vote (for you), and I did, but then I didn’t have a voters’ card. That too was unlawful. In the past, I engaged in exams malpractices, an act of which I rebuke today with utter disdain. I’ve disobeyed traffic laws, school laws and even encouraged others to violate them. I offered bribes to policemen and working staffs whenever I get whelmed in desperation over things I eagerly need. Yes, I was a no good citizen.

Regretful are these past behaviors of mine. Yes. But then again, regretful has been the civil order of this country for a very long time. A time not so near to that of which I was born. By thence I was born, all these past deeds of mine were already the regular ways things were done in this country. Although, as does all citizens, I also learnt in time, that the “regular ways” in which things were done in this country are flawed and are absolutely out-of-order. The system is sick. The people also, are sick; well, some are sick, whilst some art the sickness. Thus, in realizing such every son of the land with a healthy conscience would set forth to seeking a “change”.

Albeit still, in essence to how this country’s system worked (or still works), I plead not guilty, for it must be understood that it is my country that violated against me and not me She. Do you recall in your acceptance speech when you said to Nigerians “you have voted for change, and now change has finally come?” Well, I registered that as a promise from you Sir and for that I also have pledged to change, and I vow to never again break any laws of the State.

It is strange how one’s epiphany for the betterment of his home-land and prospects for true civil order comes from the reasons that hopes for the subsistence and liberation of an entire nation hath withered to being one man’s ultimate possibility. Very strange. I quote my confessions to Nigerians from a piece (Whither Nigerians’ faith after APC’s Presidential primaries), “Lest I remind us that albeit General Muhammadu Buhari remains Nigeria’s only best hope for a proper credible and responsible leadership as well as governance any other citizen is better than this clueless sick.” In these 100 days of your leadership in office Sir, you have proven not only to Nigerians, but to the whole world the worth of your 12years “Long Walk to Change”, as Sa’id Enagi calls it.

Permit me to remind you Sir of the wild celebrations that claimed innocent lives during that same historic evening that also claimed your victory. Blames were thrown on the dead and the injured for their recklessness, but I ask why are they to blame after having suffered a lifetime of hardship which was instilled upon them by their own brethren? Yet still, I earnestly seek to know who’s to blame for the same people would have exercised the same nefarious on others if the chance was theirs’ to rule. “Leaders do not fall from the sky.”- Abubakar Gimba (Letter to the Unborn child), do they? The same man went to iterate later in the same book “a nation is as good or as bad as the character of its men.” Why then are they to blame?

“Behold, verily may the world stop and see, the “fortunate tragedy” that befell thee. The former our freedom gained 1^st of October, the latter our canker, our grime yet moreover… and after a struggle we gained independence, ‘oh my’! How the stories of Nigeria’s confidence…” Indeed it was a “fortunate tragedy” that befell this country when she experienced the freedom of sovereignty on 1^st October 1960. But, March the 28^th 2015 will forever entail in history how this country attained independence. I would attest that Hannatu Musawa couldn’t have been blunter in that wonderful poesy “Nigeria we hail thee”. I, as a declared changed citizen of Nigeria, hereby proclaim this day (28^th March 2015) the “Self Independence day”, for you Mr. President would agree with me that, it was an independence attained by “self” with “self” and through “self”.

The very same eve of your victory came to Nigerians as though it was a long awaited dream. Perhaps it was some dream-come-true; perhaps it was some sort of mystery; and perhaps God just decided it be a turning point for the good people of Nigeria. They say “God works in mysterious ways” indeed He does. And that is why when times of change approach (especially in adverse nations such as ours) God and mystery are the prominent artists for that “Change” to edifice.

I would have forever declared your ascension to power somewhat a mystery of a circumstance, but thanks to Franz Rosenthal’s break-down of how power is swapped from a dominant dynastic tyranny to a justice led opposition all through time, in the book of Ibn Khaldun (Al-Muqaddima), Franz explained, “All dynastic history moves in circles, as it approaches senility, the dynasty slowly shrinks inwards from its borders towards its center under the persistent pressure of the new outside leader and his group. Eventually the dynasty collapses. The new leader and his group there upon constitute a new dynasty”. In the end, he (Franz) concluded that the new dynasty must “-suffer in three more generations the fate of its predecessors”. Having already experienced the empirical replica of the former, one must ardently hope and pray that we would not come to assume the theoretical replica of the latter. For, this is God’s own change for Nigeria.

In Adamu Adamu’s testimony which he titled “Unfurling the spangled”, released after Nigeria’s glorious “bloodless revolution”, he asserted that “if the elections had failed, this country would have become engulfed in a series of wars without borders-between regions and within them; between faiths and within them; and between the haves and the have-nots. And each of them would have been a fight to the finish-and so, there would have been three finishes; and Boko Haram would have waited for sides to get tired killing each other before it would come in for the final kill, and that would have been the fourth finish. ” I’d say it’s the absolute profound truth as it was told.

But to an ignorant wonderer, the question would be, “what went wrong, where, when and how”, for Adamu Adamu’s seeming horrific testimony to have been the only ends to an unjustified means? I had best answer this in Hannatu Musawa’s words as she had brilliantly aligned it in her beautiful poesy; “the fanfare in the past started with president’s address, followed by a march pass to mark our fabulous mess! Undoubtedly each party will claim “history, victory” oblivious as always of the people’s misery. Corruption is said has been fought with all might. Yet the return of the looters is plainly in sight… when 15 years ago we were promised democracy we welcomed the end of the military hypocrisy. But little did we know that a democratic dictatorship would smell even worse than a rotten potato chip!” and from thence it continued, but this time in the words of Abubakar Gimba; “Treachery and betrayal by tricksters have been turned into great attributes of wisdom smartness and intelligence. Cheating, a mean vice is venerated as a fine art of strategic thinking. Lying and dishonesty are applauded as witty maneuvering. Greed is dressed in an appealing costume as legitimate ambition and vision. Inconsiderate selfishness is hailed as a self-drive towards self-realization and fulfillment.” In Aminu Ala’s song “Bakar Malafa” (the Black Bowler-hat), he had this to submit; “Jari hujja akeyi mana mukami nasaman doka, da masu kudi da masu mulki se yadda sukayi akan doka. An yunkura maida mu bayi kana bauta da ‘yancinka… an zabi ruba-ruba namu da sunan wai wakiltarka. A basu kudi su mika mu hannu kwarya hannu bakka. Tunanin su iyalansu, su tara abinda ba tabka. Suna tsoron talau cewa, suna shakkar zama talakka.” (We face an unjustly treacherous rule, (where political) positions are above the law. The rich and the powerful do as they please regardless of the law. We are being enslaved (in our land), as one is a slave despite one’s freedom… the rotten and corrupt amongst us are chosen in the name to represent us. They collect money (bribes) to abandon us, with one hand in their plates and the other in their pockets. All their thoughts (care) are of their families, (and for them) to make what they did not earn. They are afraid of bankrupting; they are terrified of becoming poor). And this is where Hannatu would come to agreeing with Adamu by testifying that (his assertions), “will be the outcome if this conduct lasts.” And regretfully, it would have been.

Dr. George Gallup once said “if democracy is about the will of the people, then someone should go and find out what that will is.” I earnestly seek to know whether you had him (Dr. Gallup) in mind when you uttered in your Chatham House speech, “…it is globally agreed that democracy is not an event but a journey, and that the destination of this journey is democracy consolidation; the state where democracy has become so rooted and so rooting and widely accepted by all actors…,” my apprehension of your words do not only give distinguishing honor to the locus classicus specimen of leadership you possess, but it also tells extensively of your sublime efficacy. In this case then, you stand being the ‘liberator of Nigeria’s democracy’, thus, thanks to Dr. Gallup, we have found our will. You again argued that, “it’s much important that democracy must deliver on the promise of choice of freedoms, of security of lives and properties, of transparency and accountability, of rule of law, of good governance and of shared prosperity.” All I can say here Sir, is ‘my respect’.

Your answer to the three questions which a development economist threw; “what is happening to poverty; what is happening to unemployment; and what is happening to inequality?” in regards to Nigeria, is quite mesmerizing. You submitted “in Nigeria it shows that the current administration has created two economies in one country, a story tale of two nations in one country; 1) economy for a few who have so much in their tiny islands of prosperity and the other economy for the many who have so little in their vast ocean of misery.” I trust with this level of intellectual interpretation, Nigerians can attest that their economy is now in good hands.

“Let me assure you,” your words at Chatham House, “that if I am elected as President, the world will have no cost worry about Nigeria as it has so recently. That Nigeria will return to its stabilizing role in West-Africa and that no inch of Nigerian territory will ever be lost to the enemy…” I am sure I mince no words when I relay that Nigeria’s security today is far better than it was some 6 months back.

They tried to have us believe that you were no good for the seat. They told us you were a religious bigot. They said you had no certificates. They even alleged you to be the sponsor of the terrorism you are today so dedicated to annihilating. All of this they did for the fear of justice, competence and accountability. But Mr. Gimba tells us in his book, “Leadership is not conferred on those who beat their chests with pride as having the longest chain of certificates from the academia.” We sure witnessed how a doctor (PhD) sent this country to the stands of destitute. But “Recent quests of change and transformation in the world tore the masks from the faces of many and revealed their true identities, they also momentarily lifted the veil from our eyes and thus the true essence of everybody and everything became clear to our view.” Thanks to M. Fethullah Guillen for having it aptly aligned for us to comprehend.

In an address after the great “French Revolution”, Marquis de Lafayette gave a touching speech at the French congress, and from his words I excerpted these few lines to cohere the situation then with that which had opposite means but same justified ends with the previous revolution that took place in this country. “…for a nation to love liberty, it is sufficient that she knows it, and to be free, it is sufficient that she wills it… may this great monument raised to liberty serve as a lesson to the oppressors and an example to the oppressed.” Today Nigerians would arbitrarily (per say) adopt the “Main resolution of the 5^th Pan-African congress,” for we too “shall complain, appeal and arraign. We will make the world listen to the facts of our conditions. We will fight in every way we can for freedom, democracy and social betterment.” And God help us we will.

“Returned to Nigeria with new eyes, because he had seen people who lived without fear, who obeyed the law as part of their nature, who knew individual liberty.” Your great predecessor (Malam Abubakar Tafawa Balewa) wrote this in his report on his first return from England. President Muhammadu Buhari, I reckon you were not bluffing when you said at Chatham House “I am running for president to lead Nigeria to prosperity not adversity.” For that I think George Patmo was referring to you when he said “your country needs you for the rebuilding of your homeland.” Well, even if he wasn’t, we need you Sir, to reverse our land’s vicissitudes to those days where moral and ethical laws are proudly and humbly respected, as Adamu Ciroma once said “Any law which has no moral or ethical basis is not a law which will be acceptable to ordinary people.” I trust with the abundant acumen you so graciously exhibit you will bring those days to existence in our land.

Your nick name as of the moment is “Baba Go-slow”. I wonder what they will call you after you change entirely the contemporary ways things happen in this country. They fail to understand that “Buhari cannot make miracles, but can make wonders by being at his best all day.” As my brother Mukhtar Jarmajo so honestly confessed in a piece he called “A Work plan for Buhari”. I must say that I am profoundly disappointed in some respected opinionists for failing to exercise the simple prudence to envisage beyond your choice of appointments to that of the will which you have intended. Either ways Mr. Gimba explained it vividly, “men of rectitude rarely get generous applause at least at the onset of their mission.”

I was watching a movie (Grand Budapest) the other day when I heard the star actor say something that set my mind ruminating over the current happenings in this country. He (the star; Zero Mustafa) said “When the destiny of a great fortune is at stake, men’s greed spread like poison in the blood stream.” That actually made me realize why those acclaimed “Peace Committee” came to plead with you to stop the probe of past corrupt leaders. Well I must confess to you Sir, that they will not so easily let you probe them. They will fight you. They will resist you. They will try to distract you. Some will discourage you. Beware there are those of whom pose as your cartels; they might be (in the struggle to victory and glory for some selfish sentiments) but never at will and intentions. You must “resist, however the temptation to be stubborn in your resistance to the forces which would want to sweep you aside. But… resist with a bow…” Abubakar Gimba’s advice to you Sir, I understand you do exercise that virtue. He (Gimba) had these iron words to also relay onto you; “Remain who you are, or are trying to be. They and their ways represent a road and you and your ways (also) represent a road, much sooner than later, people would have to make a choice of which road to follow for societal redemption.”

So “Courage, guts, perseverance and prayers are the very essential provisions you must have for the daunting journey of transformation of our nation. Courage to dare to even start, guts to face the challenges along the route, perseverance in the pain and sacrifices occasioned by the struggles the journey entails, and prayers for providential support.” Abubakar Gimba suggests. But you and I both would agree that for a man who said “I Muhammadu Buhari will always lead from the front.” Must have these “essential provisions” indelibly inserted in him.

“… I cannot change the past.” You said, “but I can change the present and the future.” You said you couldn’t quit contesting because, “the work of making Nigeria great is not yet done, because I still think that change is possible, this time through the ballot. And most importantly, because I still have the capacity and the passion to dream and work for a Nigeria that will be respected again in the comity of nations and that all Nigerians will be proud of.”

In time men are born, in greatness men are made and in circumstances men are defined. I seldom hear greatness maketh men, but I have so often seen and read men whom made greatness. I refer to you as “the Man of time” because since time, there have been men whom pose as monumental historians of their times. These men get to eventually either rescue their people from their adversities, or elevate their social statuses. You Sir happen to fit the descriptions of uttered words and scriptures of men whom existed both in your time and the bygone. You are indeed a paragon of virtue. And for that you are Nigeria’s “MAN OF TIME”.

President Muhammadu Buhari, you have a great destiny at your stake, so go ahead and make posterity recognize you. And may Allah almighty be with you all the time.

                                                                      Yours’ Sincerely

                                                              Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo

Letter to the “New Governor of Bauchi State”

By; Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo

babansaibo@gmail.com

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