For those who may not know, Mallam Isa Yuguda is the current Governor of Bauchi State. He was elected under the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party but later decamped to the PDP under a dodgy arrangement. To his credit, one of the daughters of the late President Ya’ardua is one of his wives. He is equally a practicing Muslim who believes in Destiny. I must confess that I do not know much about this man, especially his mental state.
For those who may not know, Mallam Isa Yuguda is the current Governor of Bauchi State. He was elected under the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party but later decamped to the PDP under a dodgy arrangement. To his credit, one of the daughters of the late President Ya’ardua is one of his wives. He is equally a practicing Muslim who believes in Destiny. I must confess that I do not know much about this man, especially his mental state.
Lately, his state has been in the news for all the negative reasons. Violence of a horrible nature erupted in Bauchi State after the presidential election which saw President Goodluck Jonathan returned as the winner. As was reported widely by both local and foreign media, scores of human beings were hacked to death by protesters, houses were torched, and many vehicles were equally set ablaze to the glee of the rampaging protesters. Most notably, about nine Youth Corpers were murdered by the Bauchi criminals, and many more were maimed. Hence cometh our Man of the Day, Mallam Isa Yuguda, The Executive Governor of Bauchi State.
According to a newspaper report [The Punch, Friday 29th April, 2011], the governor “ was reacting to a question that bothered on the brutal murder of non-indigenes, including at least nine corps members in his domain when rioters overran the state after President Goodluck Jonathan was declared winner of the presidential election. Over 50 people were reportedly killed during the violence while 90 churches were also burnt”. This governor, in his wisdom saw it fit to open his mouth, the mouth he uses in eating tuwo and kilishi to make the most bizarre comment any leader could ever make. Hear him, “they corp members were destined to experience what they experienced. Nobody can run away from destiny…..” I really do not know what to make of this, I am completely amazed. This is thus the crux of this write up.
On a good day, I will most likely write off Mallam Isa Yuguda as a roving lunatic. The way and manner he scampered from the political party under whose platform he was elected to find “refuge” under a tattered UMBLERA smacked me as the action of a man whose moral spine is at most defective. His argument in the interview under discourse says quite a lot about this governor, a man who tries to justify the brutal murder of innocent young men and women who were forced to serve their country in his state by gleefully telling us that he was also “attacked in Ibadan in 1979” . I dare say that this is the height of verbal recklessness, a deluded attempt at insensitivity. And to wave off the death of fellow citizens and the attendant destruction of properties portrays the governor as a mediocre primate.
From the Governor’s utterances, one could only deduce that he felt that the murder of the innocent youth corpers was justified-after all, he was attacked in Ibadan. Hence, if he was attacked for whatever reason in Ibadan, it was no big deal that those hapless Corpers were attacked and killed-their murder was just destiny at work. The logic of a governor of a state! I find it too unsettling sitting down here to write a piece on this rant from an apparently myopic governor. This gaffe is enough to impeach him as a governor in a sane society.
Unfortunately, we are not living in a sane society. I have argued in the past that most of the atrocities committed in Nigeria find comfort under the too-cozy umbrella of religion. It is a known fact that all the lunatics who commit heinous crimes in this world do so under a silly religious conviction-my God enjoins me to kill in His name. For those of you that would make haste to hurl rocks at me, tell me what else would make the likes of Mallam Isa Yuguda to cite destiny as an explanation to the wicked hacking to death of young Nigerians in their prime? Is destiny not that too simplistic definition of the fatalistic nature of the human fate which most foreign religions use in hiding the numerous wickedness of the humankind? I cannot help conjuring a picture of Mallam Isa Yuguda beating his chest while telling the clowns that attend to his court that those that died in the horrific 9/11 evil were destined to die so. America and the rest of the world should have smiled meekly and moved on without asking further questions as to what went wrong.
Destiny is really a pathetic part of most faith based groups. Isa Yuguda in his Islamic wisdom saw it fit to sweep the mind-bending crimes committed in his state under the carpet of destiny. Sometimes, I can’t help but be ashamed at the crap that drools out of the mouth of our leaders in Nigeria. It is simply too stupid. This is the same destiny logic that is used to hide the putrefying nature of election rigging in Nigeria; it is the Will of God, all power come from God, God allowed it to happen so that his name will be glorified, etc. Shame. Charlatans like this Isa Yuguda character should be vilified and condemned by every right thinking Nigerian. I wonder the kind of message he was trying to pass on to the parents and loved ones of the Corpers that were murdered in his domain? That it was destiny that made them to train their wards up to university level only to be slaughtered in Bauchi State? As it stands, the almighty Isa Yuguda has spoken and the parents and loved ones of the slain folks should dry their tears and thank God for little mercies. I am speechless.
Since the NYSC scheme was set up by the government of Nigeria, is there any way we can ask for its provisions to be tinkered with? I ask this bearing in mind that God did not create any NYSC on the fourth or fifth day, so there is no destiny tag here. Thousands of young Nigerians have lost their lives in the course of serving the nation under this compulsory scheme, and I see the loss of human existence as being above any other reason for the NYSC scheme. If we must retain this drain-pipe scheme, I make bold to suggest that each Corper be posted to his /her state of origin. The talk of “national integration” does not hold water when the Corpers that should be treated with civility by their host communities [in the North] are usually the first to be attacked and killed at the slightest shout of “Allah Akbar”! This however should not be construed as an attack on the many pious adherents of Islam.
Unfortunately, it is the mind frame of morons like Mallam Isa Yuguda that has turned the Northern part of Nigeria into a massive breeding ground for urchins notoriously left with the tag of Almajiris. A situation whereby the State allows children to become destitutes, ruffians and societal-misfits in the name of fulfilling some God prescribed destiny! What else could be more scandalous? What else could be as heartless as this? A situation whereby it is enshrined in a religious ethics that children be abandoned to fend for themselves is pure evil. This is destiny at work as is defined by Islam-I sincerely hope that I am wrong here. But then, it is the Isa Yugudas’ of Northern Nigeria that destroy the youth population of their region. Ahaa!, the same Mallam Isa Yuguda promised the hapless and mostly illiterate young men of Bauchi State wives if they cast their votes for him! With all feeling of humility and pride, I endorse this Mallam –to be honored with the World Best Charlatan Cup! This man is just a clown of the worst order and should be treated as such.
I enjoin all the serving men and women of the NYSC to rise up in defense of their comrades that fell to the evil destiny engineered by the thwarted minds of morons like Mallam Isa Yuguda. To attempt to justify the murder of innocent citizens minding their business by alleging that he was attacked in 1979 in Ibadan sounds to me like a mockery of the fallen Corpers. An act of destiny that hacks innocent Youth Corpers to death in Bauchi State is a great injustice that beggars believe. The blood of all the men and women that died in Bauchi State is crying for justice and I urge every Nigerian to join me in condemning His ‘Excellency” Mallam Isa Yuguda. We are watching.
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