Opinions

LALONG: HOW NOT TO BE A GOVERNOR

Published

2 years ago

March 3, 2023

Ochuwa Ibrahim

LALONG: HOW NOT TO BE A GOVERNOR

BY CHRIS GYANG

At last, Mr. Lalong has come full circle. The bubble has burst. The chicken’s rump is finally exposed.

Signs that this governor would ultimately do himself in and drag the hard-earned pedigree of Plateau down the cesspit of ignominy emerged very early in the life of his administration.

In a fit of misguided exuberance, Governor Lalong had gleefully berated his fellow Samuel Ortom of Benue State before Aso Rock correspondents for implementing its anti-open grazing legislation. On New Year’s Day of 2018, herdsmen had killed about 72 people in retaliation.

The mass burial for the victims was held on January 11 – the same day Lalong openly unleashed that criticism before the entire country. Among other things, he had said: “I told the Governor of Benue when he was doing the law; I said, look, why don’t you tread softly, take other steps before you start implementation….”

Needless to say, Ortom, Benue citizens and indeed Nigerians were in a state of shock at the time. The entire country was aghast at Lalong’s obvious insensitivity, immaturity and lack of compassion for the dead and their loved ones.

But the reasons for the governor’s bold and contrived ambivalence towards such horrendous acts of violence and their consequences would soon become very clear.

Ortom had told CNN, “They had threatened to wipe out the whole state if we did not repeal the law, and allow their cattle graze wherever they like. They say cattle are more precious than human beings” (THIS DAY, January 11, 2018).

In 2021, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and Chairman of the South-West Governors’ Forum was confronted with the same situation when the state was poised to implement its own anti-open grazing law. The secretary of one of the umbrella bodies of Nigeria’s Fulani herdsmen, Saleh AlHassan, issued a press statement calling on the Federal Government to stop southern states from carrying out the law.

A determined and resolute Governor Akeredolu had declared, inter alia: “Our contemporary history is replete with events of brazen treachery as recompense for the warmth and hospitality extended to the undeserving. Various communities live with painful memories and indelible scars. We refuse to become slaves in our land…. Saleh and his sponsors should be content with the resources within his local environment if he is indeed indigenous to Nigeria.”

“No part of our land,” he warned, “will be given to foreigners who cling to a dubious regional protocol as an instrument validating dispossession. Let him practice his cultural practices on his father’s land. His likes will not be permitted to operate with impunity in Ondo State. We will defend our land. Ondo State has a law that prohibits open grazing.”

That is the stuff leaders are made of. They confront the enemies of their people with courage, integrity and self-abnegation, even at the risk of making the supreme sacrifice.

But not our own Governor Lalong. He dithers, gauges his personal interests and those of his overlords and turns his back on his people. He has abandoned Plateau people to the evil designs of their enemies.

Ordinarily, you would think that the Aso Rock gaffe would be a one-off misstep. But no, Lalong would maintain that ignoble path throughout his tenure. His verbal diarhoeah became his trademark, attracting national flak and causing Plateau citizens immense embarrassment.

On January 5, 2019, SAHARA REPORTERS quoted the governor as happily saying: “People asked why was I dying for Buhari and I told them that I will die for Buhari because he is my helper. He has helped in addressing insecurity in Plateau and gave us bail-out to clear workers’ salaries, there is nothing more than that; he will win Plateau far better than 2015.”

At the time, one of the most glaring failures of President Buhari was his inability to curb the rising waves of bloody violence in the entire country. Not only had Islamist insurgency spiked, Fulani herdsmen were becoming more and more daring while kidnapping for ransom and other forms of banditry were spiralling.

Security experts said that one of the reasons for these was the concentration of the leadership of the country’s security apparatus in the hands of Northern Muslims. Ironically, Lalong’s Plateau State was one of the hardest hit in the country.

But it was obvious that, once again, he was merely playing politics with such matters of life and death mainly to secure his own personal survival. Journalists would approach him whenever they wanted to have a hefty dose of laugher or get ridiculously sensational headlines. Such was the negative popularity of his puerile fascination with self-glorification, which almost always turned out to be self-destructive.

His apparent sophistry about the attacks in Plateau and other parts of the country would once again come to the fore when he justified the use of assault rifles.

DAILY TRUST ( February 24, 2021) quoted him as declaring during a Channels Tv programme, Sunrise Daily: “I am not justifying anybody to carry AK-47, but don’t forget that in the course of our deliberations and investigations, it was not only Fulani herdsmen that were carrying AK-47, but even farmers were also carrying AK-47.”

Farmers in Plateau State and other parts of the country who had been at the receiving end of that terrorism rose up in strong condemnation of the governor. Other Nigerians who were once again shocked by his utter insincerity and refusal to squarely place blame where it really belonged lent their voices in denouncing the governor’s wild and diversionary claims.

His reputation for well nuanced and deliberate equivocation had assumed unbearable proportions, to Plateau citizens and Nigerians as a whole.

But it was in one of his most recent outings, which may well be his last as governor, that he once again showcased his incurable capacity to shame himself and hold our state up to ridicule.

Speaking on January 17, 2023, at a presidential campaign rally in Ilorin, Kwara State, an enthusiastic Governor Lalong had told party faithful: “If you do me good, I’ll do you good. If you do good on the other side, we’ll do good on the other side, we’ll do good on this side. That is Emi Lokan…. Asiwaju [Tinubu] has done good. It is his turn, it is your turn, it is our turn. If you chop alone, you will die alone. He didn’t chop alone; so it is his turn to chop. And that is why Emi Lokan is very important.”

Recourse to such obscene, disgusting and gutter verbiage suggesting pillaging, thievery and gluttony said a lot about the way Lalong has perceived and carried on governance in the last eight years. Also, and most significantly, it points to the way the Tinubu presidency, if it survives the opposition’s legal fireworks challenging its ‘victory’, may most likely go.

In a short commentary titled, ‘Lalong’s turn for Blunders at APC Rally’, THIS DAY (January 22, 2023) noted: “Not many Nigerians were shocked at the comments by Lalong at a campaign rally. The Plateau State governor’s comments were not only a blunder, but complete embarrassment.”

The newspaper reported that the vice presidential candidate of the APC was so scandalised by Lalong’s grovelling at the Ilorin rally that he drew the attention of their host, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, “and muttered something to him.”

“Rather than telling Nigerians how they will fix the non-existent power, tackle insecurity, the country’s rising debt profile…” the tabloid complained, “all some of the party’s leaders are concerned about are bizarre and mundane things.”

Mr. Lalong has just lost his bid for the Senate. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors – Joshua Dariye and Jonah Jang. But this has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster because he has not conducted himself and led the state as a true and committed leader.

Yes, Ortom also failed his race for Senate. But he will for a long time to come hold his head high for standing with his people and offering selfless, sacrificial and inspirational leadership.

But the same can never be said of Mr. Lalong. He sacrificed the destiny of his own people on the altar of personal gains. So shall he be remembered in the annals of Nigeria.

Any semblance of credibility he possessed was progressively frittered away in the eight years he was governor. His own people resoundingly rejected him at the polls because he put the interests of his family and a few close friends above the overall good of his wider community and state as a whole. Thus, he became a pariah.

Unfortunately, this deep stain rubbed off on most other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates in the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections in the state. That is why he failed to deliver Tinubu, to whom he was national campaign Director General, even in his own polling unit!

But will Mr. Lalong also drag the remaining APC candidates in the March 11 gubernatorial and state legislature elections down with him? Absolutely.

It is widely believed that the deep rot associated with Lalong and his administration will definitely rub off on the gubernatorial candidate of the APC and its house of assembly hopefuls.

Analysts say that Plateau people are now warming up to complete the task they began on February 25. The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have clinched two senatorial seats (a re-run has been scheduled for the third one) and swept five of the eight House of Representatives positions.

Citizens are determined to remove the remaining vestiges of the APC dispensation from the space of governance on March 11. That will clear the atmosphere for that much-needed gust of fresh air to once again blow across this land.

This land that has in the last eight years been reeling from the noxious stench issuing from a governor’s indolence, hypocrisy, pandering to the whims and caprices of extraneous forces, nepotism, cronyism and reducing serious matters of state into frivolous ceremonials.

Surely, the die is irrevocably cast.

(GYANG is the Chairman of the N.G.O, Journalists Coalition for Citizens’ Rights Initiative – JCCRI. Emails: info@jccri-online.org; chrisgyang01@gmail.com)

LALONG: HOW NOT TO BE A GOVERNOR

Opinions

THE BIU FORUM: FEW THINGS TO KNOW

Published

4 months ago

August 1, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

THE BIU FORUM: FEW THINGS TO KNOW.

By: A G Abubakar

The Biu Forum was a child of circumstances. It was born in response to the fall out from the August 1991 state creation exercise by the Babangida military regime which initially located Biu in Yobe but removed same after a couple of days. To push for a redress or for an answer, the Forum was initiated. Its drivers came from the entire spectrum of the present day Biu Emirate and Shani Chiefdom, who were then resident in Lagos, the former federal capital.The first meeting was held in October 1991 at Block 4, Flat 3, the Bar Beach Towers, Victoria Island.

The inaugural and subsequent meetings of the forum were attended by such personalities as Shettima Saleh, Saidu Pindar, Tahir A.Musa, PC Abdullahi Mohammed, Musa Yamta, Hassan Bdliya, John Balami, Audu Shettima, Sanda Usman, Adamu Abdullahi, Musa Shani, Major (now Gen) Usman, Muhammad Dili, Ahmed Kuru, Jibrin A.Jibrin, A.G.Abubakar (Convener along with Musa Yamta), Mamman Audu, Paul Mari, Ishaku Abdullahi, Sale Mari Maina, Major. Ibrahim Bantam, Samaila Mamman, Sule Usman, C.D.Gali, and many more. These foundation members nurtured the Forum for years in Lagos before the seat of government was formally moved to Abuja.

Some of them are of blessed memory (may the Almighty grant them His mercy, Ameen), though a lot more are still living. The major objective of the forum at inception was to build a unity of purpose to tackle the challenges facing Biu Emirate, particularly its excision from the then newly created Yobe State. Plus, the need to call for attention to the brazen discriminations visited upon Biu people in the state’s civil service, while also pursuing the creation of a Savannah State. Same, with extending moral and material supports to victims of natural disasters and others like the then Waka-Biu crisis.

It would be recalled that after the Babangida military government decided to split old the Borno State, late General Abacha, then the Chief of Army Staff and the defacto number “two” man, who happened to be of Borno extraction, was assigned to consult with the Shehu as well as other opinion leaders on the government’s proposal to curve out a new state out of Borno. Late Bunu Sherrif, a son of the soil (Goniri), who was then serving as Minister of Labour among others, was to serve as a facilitator. The rough edges were therefore smoothened.

Eventually, Yobe was created. The configuration of which comprised three emirates, namely Biu, Fika, and Bade. Borno and Bama emirates were to remain as the New Borno State. The number of local governments was equally balanced at 22 each. Now, it is lopsidedly 17 and 27 LGAs for Yobe and Borno, respectively.

Along the line, some forces opposed to the inclusion of Biu emerged. The first one was the supposed friction between the Emirs of Biu and Fika regarding the order of protocol. A smokescreen, however, because the real reason was that Fika Emirate was promised the State capital (precisely Potiskum), but that was if Biu wasn’t part of the equation. The other reason was that Biu and Borno Emirates had a historical tie that made the duo almost conjoined. This was also untenable in that Ngazargamo that served as the capital of the old Kanem-Borno was severed into Yobe State. In the end, Biu remains part of Borno.

This development polarised the citizens of Biu Emirate into two. The Elders were not so favourably disposed towards leaving Borno, while the larger youth groups were at home with Yobe.

The advantages they averred included the possibility of playing more dominant political and economic roles in the new state, given the fact that Biu used to hold and still holds the Deputy Governor portfolio in Borno. The emirates (Fika and Biu) equally serve as the manpower base of the region . State politics could turn out to be like Adamawa, where all ethnic groups and/or stripes of faith can become the number one citizen of the state. The Emir of Biu would naturally be the most senior, in addition.

Based on the foregoing, Biu made a case for inclusion or, better still, a re-inclusion into Yobe. A move that was resisted vehemently by certain quarters under the umbrella of BEDA. Others who lent their voices included the Birma, Galadima Stanley Balami, PC Ali Biu, and Alhaji Ibrahim Damchida, all of blessed memory.

The Biu citizens who were pushing for the readjustment initially got the support of His Royal Highness, the Revered Mai Umar, who gracefully endorsed the demand document titled, “A Call For the Adjustment of Biu Emirate into Yobe State.” Or rather agreed for the document to be endorsed on his behalf, which was done. However, under pressure from all corners, His Royal Highness had to reconsider his support, as the Emirate found itself in a difficult situation. It was this development and regardless of the push back that the Biu Forum was formed as an alternative platform to still pursue the inclusion of Biu and Shani into Yobe State.

A petition to the government, was subsequently produced and forwarded. And to get a wider publicity and forestall suppression the Forum’s document was sent to the press . The rested influencial national newspaper, the Sunday Concord of 6th October 1991 carried the entire document. Yours faithfully picked the bill.

One of the the committed and highly articulate members of the Forum at the time, Alh. Muhammed Shehu Birma had his relationship with his principal, the Hon. Minister, Bunu Sheriff strained because of his role and support. Alh. Birma was one of the Special Assistants to the Minister who worked tirelessly to obtain the concurrence of major stakeholders to buy into the Forum’s activities.

When the misunderstanding so created on account of the state creation seemed unabating, formal meetings were called by the late elder statesman Alh. Damcida at his Probyn road, Ikoyi, home to sort things out. The “family” gathering enjoyed the presence of late Dr.Saidu Muhammad, PC Ali Biu, A.G.Abubakar, Muhammad S.Birma, Amb. Saidu Pindar, Alhaji Madu Biu, Shettima Saleh, with apologies from Dr.Bukar Usman.

One of the resolutions that came out of the series of dialogues was an undertaking by Mallam to seek an audience with General Abacha for possible reconsideration of the petition. The outcome was the creation of Hawul and Kwaya Kusar LGAs, while Biu as a whole stayed in Borno State.

As time went on, moves got started to merge the activities of the Forum to those of the senior Biu Development Association, BDA. The BDA is now BEDA (Biu Emirate Development Association). The move never materialised and the activities of both slowed down. It took the efforts of patriots like Engineer Ibrahim Usman, Dan Masani Muhammad Ibrahim, Adamu Abdullahi, Amb. Saidu, Ibrahim M.Kwajaffah, Muhammad Buba, Mai Musti, Bukar Umar and a host of others to revive the Forum and keep it going.

So for all intents and purposes the Biu Forum was not a Biu Local Government outfit. It was initiated to protect and promote the interest of Biu and Shani Emirates. And indeed every Aburwa on the planet. How it became a Forum exclusively for Biu Local Government Area was maybe a later development to give the Forum a sharper focus. And maybe to ensure a seamless coexistence with the senior BEDA.This has been a short story of the now, 33-year old (1991 to –) initiative.

A.G.Abubakar agbarewa@gmail.com

THE BIU FORUM: FEW THINGS TO KNOW

Opinions

Nigeria: Why the youths must say “NO” to protest.

Published

4 months ago

July 16, 2024

News Net Global

Say "NO" to Protest

Nigeria: Why the youths must say “NO” to protest.

By: Dr. James Bwala

History should teach us lessons. And we have so many examples that are part of the history of some countries around us. Protests as being engineered and called for are never in the interest of the young Nigerian; rather, they are a way to further suppress and darken the future of young ones, and therefore, I see this as another evil rising on Nigeria, which I hope the youths will see as reasons not to be tempted to join those who do not mean well for them and for Nigeria. Those who want to cash in on the protest to their advantage are pushing their own evil interests to deny the young Nigerian his or her own hope for the future.

I followed many calls on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and listened to many voices calling on the Nigerian youths to join them on the days to demonstrate and show their displeasure to the government over hunger in the land. They claimed it was about a policy, and I did not really understand the truth about such claims. Some pointed to the issue of insecurity that people cannot go to their farms and blamed the present administration led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima, and on this too, they are not speculating on facts that are leading them to want to express anger through protest.

I could not understand why all the things they are pointing to have been on their doorsteps for over 10 years and they would not protest until now. Does it mean that their eyes are now open to the situation we all found ourselves in? I have lived in northeastern Nigeria, and I have seen situations created by insecurity where children, young men, and adults hold each other’s hands and cry out for help to have a drop of grain and for one cut of a handful of mold grain flour to go through their mouths and down their throats for the day, but they could not have the assurance of such a meal. No one came to the rescue; no one called for a protest, and the people built their resilience until the heavens brought succor.

READ ALSO:https://newsng.ng/the-plight-of-farida/

The situation in which certain individuals are coming to tell young Nigerians to protest or to demonstrate against the administration requires a deeper look into their motives. It may not be about hunger in the land afterwards, for we have endured many hungers and we did not protest, so why now? Politics is still in the play, and a few individuals—I mean, very few individuals—who are not happy with the Tinubu and Shettima administration are orchestrating the wind horses. Some young Nigerians may think otherwise, but believe me, there are many more evils behind the call for protest than what you are hearing on social media, and these are about destroying a whole lot of what you have hoped for.

I will suggest that no Nigerian youth should join or listen to calls from those who have sent their children abroad for you to continue to be their foot soldiers, and in the end, they achieve something and you achieve nothing. Take a look at the protests or demonstrations in the past. Not outside Nigeria, but within. Some of you have participated, and you are still on the street after that protest. Your peace and happiness have been taken. Those you fought for—have they come to salvage your situation? Unless you want to remain perpetually a fool on the street with very little to gain and no knowledge of what you are bargaining, then you may choose to go with the evil callers; otherwise, say ‘NO’ to protest as it is not actually in your interest.

This administration, which you are being instigated to demonstrate against, has won many battles in the last year. The latest in the Hope initiative are the achievements of the court ruling on local government autonomy. This government has achieved free imports for drugs and rice and brought peace through the establishment of the livestock ministry. These are a few achievements from the last six months. We have waited for eight years in hope through the Buhari administration, and no one has seen positive changes, but we waited. Herein, with the Tinubu and Shettima administrations, we are seeing the moves and the results. Can we not hold on to this renewed hope since we are seeing the changes coming?

Nigerian youths, let no one deceive us into doing their bid. They have places to go; we only have Nigeria, which is all we have. When they moved out, we remained here. They cannot come from Europe and America to ask us to set our houses on fire while they go back to their second homes and leave us in the shackles that we used our own hands to perpetuate their desires against us for their selfish and evil interests. No, we must not come to the level they want us to reach. We must rise with renewed hope and join this administration to build a Nigeria where peace and justice reign, just as we pledged to build in our re-engineering calls for a better tomorrow.

Dr. James BWALA, PhD, writes from Abuja.

Nigeria: Why the youths must say “NO” to protest.

Opinions

Why Borno residents should support the Zulum Administration

Published

8 months ago

April 9, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

Why Borno residents should support the Zulum Administration

By: Yusuf Adamu

Unfortunately, the lack of electricity and shortage of water in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, have continued to turn some sections of the state against the government. While many are thinking it is the government job to provide electricity and water, a lot of people are not looking at the efforts the government is putting in during the phase of challenges from saboteurs and terrorists as it affects the issues of electricity in the state, particularly.

Borno State has been in darkness for the last two weeks, and the governor spoke with concern from faraway Saudi Arabia, where he went to worship, and he was informed of the electricity issue back home. Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has done tremendously well in ensuring that Borno State overcomes the issue of electricity, to the extent that he went beyond his jurisdiction to ensure that he solved the problem.

He went further to collaborate with the NNPC, which informed the setting of a gas plant in Maiduguri to support the epileptic power supply as a result of the continuous attacks on the electricity supply lines feeding Maiduguri. However, the activities of saboteurs, who would rather, out of their greed, overload the gas plant, have constantly resulted in the disruption of the gas plant’s capacity to provide adequate supply.

Rather than people condemning the government for some of this man-made distraction, I think the people of Borno State should pray for an end to the activities of terrorists and the saboteurs who continuously take advantage of the situation to speak ill of the government. If the opposition is speaking, we would understand, but when citizens say otherwise, we would like to remind them that the governor of Borno State has been doing everything possible to make Borno State great.

The collaboration with NNPC and the purchase of electric vehicles to ease pain for people are things to see and agree that the governor meant well for his people. This is aside from the numerous projects he was able to achieve in the state. We are also lucky to have the Vice President, who is our own and whose focus is also to see Borno State become great again.

Just yesterday, he was speaking on the issues affecting the state when he arrived in the state for the sallah celebration. He gave hope for a better Borno state and spoke well of the collaboration the federal government is having with Borno state to end the perennial challenges facing the state at the moment. Let us continue to uplift our leaders in prayer and support their dream of making Borno one of the best things that happens to its people in the current administration.

***Yusuf Adamu writes from Maiduguri and is the former political adviser to Kashim Shettima.

Why Borno residents should support the Zulum Administration