Chinua Achebe, one of the best literacy brains to have emerged from the ancestral savannah of sub-Saharan Africa once said “the problem of Nigeria is that of poor leadership to tap and harness its abundant potentials for national development”. Things have fallen apart and the centre no longer holds. In Bauchi, there is a yawning gap between development and under-development with its attendant despair and despondency in the midst of plenty.
Chinua Achebe, one of the best literacy brains to have emerged from the ancestral savannah of sub-Saharan Africa once said “the problem of Nigeria is that of poor leadership to tap and harness its abundant potentials for national development”. Things have fallen apart and the centre no longer holds. In Bauchi, there is a yawning gap between development and under-development with its attendant despair and despondency in the midst of plenty.
In few hours to come, Bauchi the hot bed of politics in the North-east geo-political zone would be the centre of attraction for very obvious reasons. The 2011 Gubernatorial elections will hold and I foresee the defeat of the incumbent Governor Isa Yuguda. The Governor has brought poverty, under-development and maladministration to the door steps of the people and I think it is pay back time.
With a stifled democratic network that brings the art of governance to its knees, Bauchi under the self acclaimed mallam witnessed an era of calamity where the love, passion and geometrical indices of progressive development was least in the thinking of government in power. Bauchi witnessed huge political and socio-economic challenges that largely translated to its stunted economic growth as the Governor who came into office through the popular mandate of the people wasted four productive years on vengeance with a view to hunting real or imaginary political enemies to the detriment of positive development. The man directed too much energy and resources towards fighting the immediate past Governor Ahmed Adamu Muazu, but alas!
Instead of building on the footprints of the former Governor, Yuguda turned into a bull in a China Shop. He destroyed and dismantled the new social order as a fall back to stone-age. Noted for short term vision with long term losses, the administration paraded rainbow coalition of strange political bedfellows whose interest was only to capture power without the requisite capacity to improve the state’s human and material capital.
Yuguda was lethal in politics and his approach to governance with hard tackles leaves much to be desired. At any point, the Governor seems to be an opportunist that capitalizes on primordial sentiments for political harvests.
When he was rejected by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as its flag-bearer prior to the 2007 elections, the Governor was all over General Muhammadu Buhari with cap in hand for electoral victory. This includes, possibly seeking the hand of the General’s daughter in marriage. After the victory, courtesy of Buhari, the Governor betrayed the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP under whose barner he came in, disappointed Buhari, his political mentor and disgraced the good people of Bauchi who stood day and night under the philosophy of “ku kada, ku tsare, ku raka” whose literary meaning is “cast your vote, guard and guide it to the last point”.
Just like Nneka the bird in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Mallam Yuguda jumped over to the ruling party, the PDP and immediately sought for the hand of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s daughter in marriage. Many believe that this was a political masterstroke that was meant to bring him closer to the political dynasty of the Yar’Adua. But with the coming of Goodluck Jonathan, who has no marriageable daughter, the governor mobilized and positioned himself at the centre stage of the president’s campaign team. With perfect scheming based on native intelligence, he successfully high jacked the president’s attention from senator Mohammed Kaura, the FCT minister. Kaura’s major undoing was his failure to produce results in infrastructural development in the federal capital which the Governor capitalized on in convincing the President that he lacks the capacity even in his ward to deliver to Jonathan.
Today, Mallam Yuguda is coming back to the Bauchi people to canvass for votes for second term in office. The governor stood firmly against the interest of the North and its people as it was believed that he and some dubious INEC officials manipulated last Saturday’s elections whose repercussion was sadness, sorrows and blood across the land.
It is important to note that in the whole of the North, apart from kano, there is no state that has maximum political awareness like Bauchi. Rendering my thoughts on the intelligence network in the State, Mallam Isa Yuguda might be spending the last moments of his administration at the government house. Although investigations revealed that the governor actually sought for INEC’s assistance in removing the state from the list of states for elections on Tuesday with a view to mobilizing cash and security agents to rig the elections, Bauchi people would surely resist it, as what happened in the last presidential elections could not be ruled out if people’s votes are looted with impunity.
The Bauchi electorate that is passionate with patriotism and micro-nationalism in state matters will file out in thousands to cast their votes and defend it till the last point. Of my interest in the politics of the state, I know that the ordinary Bauchi peasant would on principles not condescend to collecting dirty money to sacrifice his conscience. And I also want to believe that no amount of massive security build up could threaten them to abandon their mandate even at the point of death. So, it would be suicidal for the current governor to use his agents, representatives, INEC or all the security forces to declare any result that does not add up to the peoples mandate.
With rich democratic structures and solid personal achievements, Yuguda’s political opponents in the forth coming elections would make the people who are yearning for change, realize their optimal ambitions. With top contenders like the ACN’s Senator Baba Tella, ANPP’s Senator Nazif Gamawa and hurricane Yusuf Tuggar of the CPC, who will say that Yuguda’s reign as an emerging despot with authoritarian mindset is not over? By now I am sure that Yuguda must be frightened by the scepter of people’s power and popular will and since he has deliberately declared war against his people, he should allow the votes count. One man one vote “Shi Kenan”
Ibrahim Modibbo
Is an Abuja based
Journalist
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