The writer of this piece, one Balarabe Musa from Bakin Kasuwan Pella in Hong LGA of Adamawa State attempted in his piece to cast aspersions on the personal integrity of the Hon. Minister of State for Health, Dr.Aliyu Idi Hong. By doing so he has muddled unrelated issues and obvious lies to achieve his aim. Whatever “emerging facts” he has relied on are clearly systemized delusions which he has coined as “emerging facts”.
The Accurate and Reliable Dictionary defines a “fact” as “in reality and actuality”, for instance-Jonathan Goodluck is the Vice President of Nigeria is a fact. In essence a fact cannot be “emerging” .To say a fact is emerging will suggest that you are either lying or you are not sure of your facts but in any case you will want people to believe you. This matter would not have attracted the attention of Dr.Hong’s associates if not for the fact that it was carried by a widely read news website-Saharareporters.com .Yes, and that is a fact not an emerging fact. I will attempt to reply Mr.Balarabe’s write up point by point.
He states that Dr.Hong visited his “adopted home” on December 24th, 2009 to celebrate the public holiday and the news that spoilt the yuletide for him was the arrest of his father Alh.Idi Washman (please note the emphasis of Washman and not Hong as his surname). Also, note that from his write up Dr.Aliyu Hong only became aware of his father’s arrest and subsequent bail when he went to his village to spend the Christmas break. It took 5 days for the Minister of State for Health to be aware that his father had been arrested for stealing second hand clothes and subsequently directed that the local government chairman release 50,000 naira monthly to his father for upkeep. This is a hilarious conjuring of events which could only be seen in the now rested television drama by Jagua of the famous” my belle o, my head o” theme.
For goodness sake in the year 2010 people are still talking about “adopted homes”, ” non indigene/indigene” when countries like America are doing away with prejudice and electing black people into power including as their President and Commander in Chief. This tells more of the mentality of the writer than anything else.Dr.Hong has never hidden his humble background. The fact that against all odds he went on to become a doctor from one of Nigeria’s best university should be praised. The writer of this piece cannot imagine that Dr.Aliyu Hong, the same Aliyu Hong, son of Idi Washman Hong could first become a medical doctor and subsequently by providence become a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It reminds us of a comment Bill Clinton made to Senator Kennedy about Barack Obama before he was elected President-“this guy should have been serving us coffee and not running for President”. Mr.Balarabre and the aristocratic interests he represents view Dr.Aliyu Hong in such light.
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Is it possible for a local government to release 10 million naira a month to a serving Minister and still survive? And we are not talking of Lagos Island Local Government or Eti Osa Local Government here. We are talking of Hong LGA. How much does Hong LGA get in a month?
Mr.Balarabre talks about a 300 million naira house Dr.Hong bought from funds donated by a foreign organisation to fight polio in Northern Nigeria. For his information UNICEF helps fight polio in Nigeria. They have a regional office in Nigeria and will never remit such amount of money to a government official to manage on their behalf. We are talking of 2 million dollars here. And yet UNICEF has not complained of missing funds but Mr.Balarabre as part of his “emerging facts” stated that Dr.Hong misappropriated 300 million naira to buy himself a house.Mr.Balarabre thinks all Nigerians are like him and have no ability to reason things out for themselves.
I will educate Mr.Balabre about Dr.Hong.When he was first appointed Minister in 2007 like every other Minister without accommodation in Abuja, he was first housed in a hotel. After a short period there, he moved in with a friend before renting his place to live in. This tells about the humility of Dr.Hong.Being a young man from humble backgrounds he saw living in a hotel at tax payer expense a waste deciding instead to “squat” with a friend before renting his place. It took more than 2 years of living in a rented place before Dr.Hong could save enough of his yearly monetisation allowance to lay as deposit for part payment in fulfilment of mortgage requirements for a property in Abuja. The bank still has the certificate of occupancy of the house, while Dr.Hong fulfils his obligation of paying off the mortgage over a period of 10 years. I am surprised that Mr.Balarabe arrived at an arbitrary sum of 300 million naira for a house in Utako, Abuja without cross checking his facts. Mr.Balarabre is calling 300 million naira like it is money used for buying “guguru”.Dr.Hong did not buy a house anywhere near 300 million naira in Abuja.
The kernel of the matter hits a crescendo in the last paragraph of Mr.Balarabre’s write up where it becomes obvious what his intentions are.Mr.Balarabe and his friends believe Dr.Hong is interested in becoming the next Executive Governor of Adamawa State. In the faulty thought process of Mr.Balarabe he has wrongly assumed that once someone is made a Minister then he must be interested in the Governorship of his state afterwards. Both in private and public discussions Dr.Hong has never stated that he wants to contest as Governor of Adamawa State. He never sought to be Minister and was shocked and surprised, albeit pleasantly, when he first heard he had been nominated a Minister by President Umoru Yaradua.Dr.Hong is far from being over ambitious. An event in 1995 in Enugu when he was duly nominated as a Vice Presidential candidate of the Nigerian Medical Student Association but agreed to step down for a more senior medical student to contest despite having more support from schools shows the kind of person he is. He eventually went on to become the President of the Nigerian Medical Students Association in 1998. A post I took over in 1999.And as it is customary for associations that receive funding from foreign organisations, he was found to have run the association transparently after a detailed financial audit was carried out .Dr. Hong does not have a history of stealing neither does stealing run in his family.
By attacking Dr.Hong’s father, Mr.Balarabre has done more damage than good to his cause. He has exposed the desperation of his backers to stop at nothing to ensure that Dr.Hong returns to his rightful place, which in their minds is “serving them coffee”.
Mr.Balarabe should stop being obnoxious and rigid about maintaining societal social status. People do break through social ranks. President Obama and Dr.Hong have shown us that despite your background you can be anything you want to be, only if you work hard and sincerely and not by casting aspersions on people’s integrity using “emerging facts”
Dr.Abounu Abounu is a practising medical doctor in London, U.K and an associate of Dr.Aliyu Idi Hong.
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