April 13, 2010
What manner of a Godson is Governor Shema of Katsina state? This is the question on the lips of millions of people in Katsina. Eversince his enthronment by his Godfather, the comatose and yet-to-be-seen President Yar'adua, Shema has through series of actions demonstrated an incredible ability to surpass even his Godfather in both double-speak, intellectual deficiency and remarkable disdain for democracy and anything democratic. And for a barrrister at law, this is a first class tragedy.
Towards the twilight of his tenure as Governor of Katsina state, Umar Yar'adua was derisively known in Katsina intellectual cycles as The Terminator. In case you don't know, The Terminator was the role played by Arnold Swerzeneger, the present Governor of California, in a Hollywood sci-fi movie with the same name. Yar'adua was called The Terminator because of the serial retrogression in focus and vision which crept in to his administration and was to subsequently became the hallmark of his presidency. Opposition figures were either bribed and compromised or intimidated and harrassed into submission. Dissent, no matter how well intentioned was stifled and terminated. Big names were ridiculed and humiliated. While small names were harassed and treated with disdain. Several courageous politicians and decent people, and they were not many, had their careers terminated by The Terminator. And their crimes? Being naive enough not to notice the metamorphosis which Yar'adua was then undergoing from a progressive politician to a renagade and a retrogressive one. In a sentance: a pervasive blanket of evil dictatorship covered the length and breadth of Katsina state. The political class and the people were cowed into submission not by the number of developmental projects executed by Yar'adua but by the sheer brutality of his political thugs known as Yan'Iska.
The climax of this metamorphosis of Yar'adua was the imposition of Shema, his Godson, as the Governor of Katsina state. This parting gift would, for decades to come, be seen and considered as the greatest negation of any democratic credentials and traits of human kindness Yar'adua might have possessed. In order to answer the first question properly, there is the need to ask a second one: who was Shema before 2007? Again in a simple sentence: He was a nobody, a non-entity, not even a political lightweight in Katsina politics before 29 May 2007. A day that would remained etched in our memory as the equivalent of America's Day of Infamy after Pearl Harbour. Plucked from political obscurity, Shema was, in order to pay him for his ignoble role in the Third Term episode and to punish Aminu Masari for his principled stand during that infamous saga, was made governor of Katsina against all popular opposition. In an exercise that could have made Mugabe recoiled with shock, Shema was single handedly appointed the ticket bearer of PDP in Katsina state and with the active connivance of the Obasanjo led federal government, the chance of the poor people of Katsina to elect their own governor was effectively doomed. Today, Katsina state is saddled with a vivid demonstration of most pronounced leadership failure since September 1987 when the state was created.
Agreed that most of the political office holders in this dispensation are direct beneficiaries of a flawed process, but there is no gainsaying that some of them have acquitted themselves pretty well in the discharge of their responsibilities. Governors like Fashola of Lagos and Lamido of Jigawa stand in this class. By any choice of acceptable developmental indices, Shema would not be counted among them. Running the state without any visible programme or plan of action, not even a Road Map for the development of the state, the administration wanders aimlessly in the deserts of confusion with huge Chinese Walls erected around the Governor to insulate him from the people he supposedly serves. At least Yar'adua had 7-PA even if it was as crippled and inaudible as its originator. Shema has none except a warped and confused notion of completing the projects started by Mallam.
Democracy, fiscal and political accountability, as well as consultation on major policy issues which even under the best of conditions are not the stuff out of which Nigerian governors are made have completely, more than ever before, bacame detached from the process of governance in Katsina. It is on record that since his enthronment as governor, Shema never for once held any Executive Council meeting with his cabinet. His style remained purely arrogant and dictatorial: Decisions and policy issues are reached by executive fiat. Consultations with stakeholders on major issues affecting the state have never been contemplated by Shema in his three year reign.
In fact, one could say that his reign practicalised in the most graphic form the "you are either with us or with them" doctrine, first espoused by President Bush following 9/11 terror attacks. To Shema, the political space in Katsina is crystal clear: you are either a dumb PDP acolyte stupidly dancing to his tune or you stand for progress, democracy and development for which you would be treated as a cockroach, Rwanda style. Katsina state has now became a sort of political Afghanistan with the PDP structure being treated more or less as a Tora Bora of sorts: Elements of internal opposition are increasingly being immasculated.
In its 8th April edition, the 234next.com, an online news source carried a story captioned: PDP sets up caretaker committee. A story that officially confirmed what many people believed to be untrue: the sacking of all PDP executives from Ward to state levels and their replacement with a carefully handpicked Caretaker Committee of Shema's thugs. An action conceived in the evil recess of the Governor's mind designed and devilishly executed to ensure his continued dominance in Katsina politics. In itself, dissolving a party exco is nothing new or big enough to cause palpitation. Since 1999, party excos at different levels in this country have been dissolved. What is however worrisome is the way and manner such actions are acomplished. Is due process and principles of internal democracy and constitutionalism adhered to in such dissolutions? You might ask why this question? Well, Internal democracy in the Nigerian political parties is the first necessary step towards ensuring free, fair and progressive administrations. The subversion of internal democracy in political parties is the first step in the satanical plot of entrenching fraudulent elections in Nigeria. In fact, hijacking party machinery has always been the favoured tactics of those with the desire to sabotage democracy and foist themselves on the people.
In cases and circumstances where morons and moral bankrupts like Shema are allowed to take absolute control of party machinery, the people might as well forget about free and fair elections, enduring democracy, and sustainable development. These are the type of people whose political morality, committment to democratic ethos and principles as well as passion for justice and equitable distribution of societal wealth always run on the deficit. This unfortunate act may affect PDP, but its consequences would no doubt affect the whole society. There is therefore a clear and urgent need for a coalition that would not only stop this little Mobutu in our midst but guarantee that future Mobutus do not spring us a suprise.
Aliyu Mukhtar Katsina
[email protected]
For: Vanguard for the Restoration of Democracy.
Towards the twilight of his tenure as Governor of Katsina state, Umar Yar'adua was derisively known in Katsina intellectual cycles as The Terminator. In case you don't know, The Terminator was the role played by Arnold Swerzeneger, the present Governor of California, in a Hollywood sci-fi movie with the same name. Yar'adua was called The Terminator because of the serial retrogression in focus and vision which crept in to his administration and was to subsequently became the hallmark of his presidency. Opposition figures were either bribed and compromised or intimidated and harrassed into submission. Dissent, no matter how well intentioned was stifled and terminated. Big names were ridiculed and humiliated. While small names were harassed and treated with disdain. Several courageous politicians and decent people, and they were not many, had their careers terminated by The Terminator. And their crimes? Being naive enough not to notice the metamorphosis which Yar'adua was then undergoing from a progressive politician to a renagade and a retrogressive one. In a sentance: a pervasive blanket of evil dictatorship covered the length and breadth of Katsina state. The political class and the people were cowed into submission not by the number of developmental projects executed by Yar'adua but by the sheer brutality of his political thugs known as Yan'Iska.
The climax of this metamorphosis of Yar'adua was the imposition of Shema, his Godson, as the Governor of Katsina state. This parting gift would, for decades to come, be seen and considered as the greatest negation of any democratic credentials and traits of human kindness Yar'adua might have possessed. In order to answer the first question properly, there is the need to ask a second one: who was Shema before 2007? Again in a simple sentence: He was a nobody, a non-entity, not even a political lightweight in Katsina politics before 29 May 2007. A day that would remained etched in our memory as the equivalent of America's Day of Infamy after Pearl Harbour. Plucked from political obscurity, Shema was, in order to pay him for his ignoble role in the Third Term episode and to punish Aminu Masari for his principled stand during that infamous saga, was made governor of Katsina against all popular opposition. In an exercise that could have made Mugabe recoiled with shock, Shema was single handedly appointed the ticket bearer of PDP in Katsina state and with the active connivance of the Obasanjo led federal government, the chance of the poor people of Katsina to elect their own governor was effectively doomed. Today, Katsina state is saddled with a vivid demonstration of most pronounced leadership failure since September 1987 when the state was created.
Agreed that most of the political office holders in this dispensation are direct beneficiaries of a flawed process, but there is no gainsaying that some of them have acquitted themselves pretty well in the discharge of their responsibilities. Governors like Fashola of Lagos and Lamido of Jigawa stand in this class. By any choice of acceptable developmental indices, Shema would not be counted among them. Running the state without any visible programme or plan of action, not even a Road Map for the development of the state, the administration wanders aimlessly in the deserts of confusion with huge Chinese Walls erected around the Governor to insulate him from the people he supposedly serves. At least Yar'adua had 7-PA even if it was as crippled and inaudible as its originator. Shema has none except a warped and confused notion of completing the projects started by Mallam.
Democracy, fiscal and political accountability, as well as consultation on major policy issues which even under the best of conditions are not the stuff out of which Nigerian governors are made have completely, more than ever before, bacame detached from the process of governance in Katsina. It is on record that since his enthronment as governor, Shema never for once held any Executive Council meeting with his cabinet. His style remained purely arrogant and dictatorial: Decisions and policy issues are reached by executive fiat. Consultations with stakeholders on major issues affecting the state have never been contemplated by Shema in his three year reign.
In fact, one could say that his reign practicalised in the most graphic form the "you are either with us or with them" doctrine, first espoused by President Bush following 9/11 terror attacks. To Shema, the political space in Katsina is crystal clear: you are either a dumb PDP acolyte stupidly dancing to his tune or you stand for progress, democracy and development for which you would be treated as a cockroach, Rwanda style. Katsina state has now became a sort of political Afghanistan with the PDP structure being treated more or less as a Tora Bora of sorts: Elements of internal opposition are increasingly being immasculated.
In its 8th April edition, the 234next.com, an online news source carried a story captioned: PDP sets up caretaker committee. A story that officially confirmed what many people believed to be untrue: the sacking of all PDP executives from Ward to state levels and their replacement with a carefully handpicked Caretaker Committee of Shema's thugs. An action conceived in the evil recess of the Governor's mind designed and devilishly executed to ensure his continued dominance in Katsina politics. In itself, dissolving a party exco is nothing new or big enough to cause palpitation. Since 1999, party excos at different levels in this country have been dissolved. What is however worrisome is the way and manner such actions are acomplished. Is due process and principles of internal democracy and constitutionalism adhered to in such dissolutions? You might ask why this question? Well, Internal democracy in the Nigerian political parties is the first necessary step towards ensuring free, fair and progressive administrations. The subversion of internal democracy in political parties is the first step in the satanical plot of entrenching fraudulent elections in Nigeria. In fact, hijacking party machinery has always been the favoured tactics of those with the desire to sabotage democracy and foist themselves on the people.
In cases and circumstances where morons and moral bankrupts like Shema are allowed to take absolute control of party machinery, the people might as well forget about free and fair elections, enduring democracy, and sustainable development. These are the type of people whose political morality, committment to democratic ethos and principles as well as passion for justice and equitable distribution of societal wealth always run on the deficit. This unfortunate act may affect PDP, but its consequences would no doubt affect the whole society. There is therefore a clear and urgent need for a coalition that would not only stop this little Mobutu in our midst but guarantee that future Mobutus do not spring us a suprise.
Aliyu Mukhtar Katsina
[email protected]
For: Vanguard for the Restoration of Democracy.
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