Shekarau For 2011: Open Letter To Nigerians - The Kano
State Governor As The President
Writers Articles And Opinions
25 May 2010
By Saka Raji Audu
Dear
Compatriots,
As you are
all aware, the 2011 general election is gradually
approaching the corner. Already, we have begun to
witness some crop of politicians; both retired
military and civilian personnel are getting ready to
compete for the number one seat of this great Nigeria.
It is also our collective knowledge of the various
trials and tribulations this country has undergone in
the last 50 years of our nationhood. It is however
appalling to all of us that at 50; we are yet to
discover ourselves and our mission.
We are
supposed to be the giant of Africa in every aspect of
human endeavour, be it education, power and energy,
agriculture, health, security, transport, employment
generation, etc. In spite of the different measures
adopted by various leaders in actualizing all of the
above areas, the story has been the same as nothing
has been achieved. I have been to hamlets, villages
and towns in both northern and southern parts of the
country; the story of suffering has been the same.
Today,
Nigeria has no national carrier of her own airline.
What happened to Nigerian Airways? The oil God dashed
us for our benefit has been cornered by few
individuals and their cronies. It is just recently we
are told that our foreign reserves stand at a peanut
of $5.5 billion and that only three states would be in
position to survive the deficit since the federal
allocation to the three tiers of government in Nigeria
would no longer be forthcoming. All these are as a
result of deep seated corruption, nepotism, animosity
and greediness that have been pervading the system.
Dear
Compatriots, corruption is so high in my country that
it appears that the agencies charged to fight the
menace are getting defeated. The poverty rate is
getting high on daily basis. What about the religious
bigotry and ethnic chauvinism that have some times
disrupted our peace and still remains a cankerworm to
our nation building? Most of our industries that offer
employment opportunity to our teaming youths are now
ghost of their former selves because it seems the
government has no plan for industrial development.
Thus, our agile and employable youths have now been
thrown into the life of hopelessness. This has made
them vulnerable to social convulsion in the society.
Many of these
frustrated youths have no choice but to serve as
political thugs just to keep body and soul together.
Some of these youths are further lured into armed
robbery and other social miscreants. As a result of
the government flip-flop policies, the people that are
still very lucky to be working in the few remaining
private industries are not finding it easy as they
have become slaves in their motherland.
My dear
Compatriots, for how long shall we continue with all
these as a result of bad but wicked leadership and its
maladministration? Some people might think that they
are not affected because they gain from the spoil of
office, but what about the majority of the people that
live in squalor and from hand to mouth? What about
those who cannot afford two square meals? Are they not
also fit to survive?
By May 2011,
the national ruling party, PDP will be twelve years in
governance. What do we have to show case or justify
this long stay? Apart from the religious and ethnic
manipulations that have caused the nation more harm
than good, what has the ruling party achieved for the
common man, I mean the down trodden and the have-nots?
Is it the GSM, the tariff of which is at cutthroat and
can only be afforded by bourgeois class and its fellow
travelers?
Look at our
federal roads, highly dilapidated and causing
accidents and deaths. What about the educational
system that is in state of hopelessness? Look at the
performances of our children in schools and their
final exams. If the teachers and students cannot
afford two square meals, how can they teach and learn?
Yet, billions of the country's resources have gone to
private pockets who are mostly government
functionaries. Why are some people desperate to be in
government today? It is because they are not going
there to serve but they feel that to be in government
is the only sure way to siphon public funds. This is
why we have reported cases of corruption in the
government circle.
The
performances of PHCN are nothing to write about. Every
home, office and business centre is powered by Chinese
generators. Still, the noises and heavy smokes these
generators exhume have been endangering lives. At
present, both the government and the captains of
industries do short cut to survive. They have both
engaged in operation No Mercy. Unfortunately, the
masses that are trampled upon pretend that all is well
as a mark of survival strategy. What do we do and what
is the alternative to all these ills that are
seriously affecting our advancement, bearing in mind
that countries like China, India and Korea have
changed for good? Nigeria can also make such change.
It is easy if we have determination and are ready to
sacrifice.
My dear
Compatriots, change cannot effect itself until we
effect the change. The time has come to make the
change unless we want to continue pretending and
suffering. We have honourable men and women that can
serve as alternative remedy for the country. If we
really want to move out of the quagmire and woes the
present national leadership has visited Nigerians in
the last eleven years of our democracy, we should rely
on the man of hard work and integrity whose seven
years of purposeful leadership in the political
volatile state of Kano has brought succour, peace and
tranquility to the good people of the state.
I am
referring to Atun nuse of Ede land in Oshogbo, the
“Onwa Na-Etiri Oha I” of Eha in Enugu and the
Sardaunan Kano, Malam (Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau. He is one
good person both in character and integrity that can
change the ugly statusquo. I noted with nostalgia the
reduction in the crime rate and social convulsions. I
am impressed how he put checks on the bastardisation
of the society values that are fast being eroded by
alien culture. I am happy that he knows what it means
to be educated. So, he invested heavily and paid high
premium on education by providing enabling environment
for learning.
Health, as
we know, is wealth. To enable the people have access
to basic health care, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of
Kano State abolished hospital cards and employed
qualified medical personnel. He ensures that drugs are
provided for both in and out patients. There has been
a relative stability in power supplies as some
villages in Kano State are provided with electricity
and connected to the national grid. He provided
electricity transformers and distributed them among
the villages and towns. Teachers in the state came to
realize that their reward is not only in heaven but
also on earth because they are well treated under
Shekarau administration. Road rehabilitations and
construction of link roads to decongest the ever
increasing traffic are other areas of his
achievements. He ensured high level of accountability
and transparency through the establishment of
anti-corruption agency. His administration, on monthly
basis publishes all incomes and expenditures of the
government to give room for public checks and
balances. As a detribalized man of impeccable
substance, he accommodates people of divergent
ethno-religious affiliations in his administration.
His unprecedented achievements have attracted and
greeted with public acceptance through awards and
conferment of prestigious titles across the country.
In the areas
of stability and peaceful co-habitation, there has
been relative peace in the state and this in
particular gave impetus to the various progress and
developments that have been taking place in Kano State
for the past seven years. As a democrat, Shekarau
knows the dynamics of power and what democracy stands
to achieve. It is in this retrospect that his people
and the progressive people of Nigeria want this man to
be entrusted with the leadership of the country,
having tested and trusted his capabilities. They want
Governor Ibrahim Shekarau to contest for the 2011
Presidential election because they know that he will
be in position to move the country from her present
baggage of hopelessness to development, progress and
sanity.
Dear
Compatriots, some political pundits have agreed that
Shekarau’s performance credential qualifies him to
contest for the 2011 presidential election, they are
however skeptical about the opposition party (ANPP)
that may present him, which they argued might not be
strong enough to make him win the election unless he
cross-carpets to the so called big party of PDP. In
the valid belief of Governor Shekarau, it amounts to
betrayal of trust for a politician to be given mandate
in one political party and later jump to another party
with other party’s mandate. This type of action, he
says, has a serious moral burden on the politician,
and therefore, he, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau would not be
part of such bandwagon device. This explains why he
has remained the only man standing in his north-west
geo-political zone.
Most of our
Politicians and office seekers are being stimulated in
their political participation by their desire to
project and some times, promote their selfish goals
and values and not by a sense of civic duty to serve
the interest of the community. Their desire is to gain
reward through political participation. They are never
interested in the service to the people but how to
amass wealth to the detriment of the people they
pledge to serve.
The essence
of any leadership position is to use one’s experience
to create enabling environment for the survival and
development of a just and balance society, a society
devoid of rancour and unwholesome practices. In order
to create this type of good atmosphere, every leader
uses guiding principle as a basis of carrying out
political, economic, social and cultural
responsibilities. The guiding principle emanates from
lofty ideas and ideals that are translated into
manifesto for the purpose of governance. The manifesto
is made up of blueprints that are religiously followed
by any serious minded leader in his art of governance.
It is also based on the ideas and principles that
political parties are formed and aligned.
In this type
of system, one becomes a member of a party on the
basis of principle, ideas and ideal the party seeks to
achieve for the betterment of the community. Party
participation is not based on allocation of fund or
how much one hopes to be given as a means of
settlement. Party supremacy and loyalty of members
take precedence over and above any parochial interest.
This type of arrangement does not tolerate political
prostitution or cross carpeting of any kind. If the
party sinks, every member of the party follows
accordingly.
The voting
pattern is also based on well-articulated party
manifesto and not on an individual sugar coated mouth.
If any elected leader fails to deliver his party
manifesto at the end of his tenure, his party would
not be allowed to win for the second term. These are
the basic foundation upon which the people are allowed
to participate in the art of governance. But today,
the situation is completely different. Our present day
politicians are no longer operating on principle.
Party formation and loyalty are equally no longer
based on ideological inclinations but on mutual
conspiracy to loot the government treasury dry.
Past
experiences have shown that those who dumped one
political party for another on the ground of failure
to realize their personal interest rather than the
interest of the party have always have cause to regret
their action. The lesson I think this has for the
politicians that move from one political party to
another is that no matter powerful a politician
appears to be, principle and party loyalty matter in
politics. One does not just abandon one’s party simply
because one wants to undermine another man somewhere
else or simply because the person has not realize his
selfish political ambition in his party.
Just imagine
a politician that had had enough political fortune in
his party for three good years turns round to join
another party and begins to castigate the party that
shot him to limelight of recognition. Unfortunately,
the activities of this type of people are very
dangerous to our nascent democracy. They are capable
of causing artificial political violence in the
society. More tragically too is the fact that whenever
a politician decamps from one political party to
another, his followers hail him like a King whereas;
he is supposed to be abandoned and treated like a
political traitor that has nothing to offer to the
generality of the people. But for the fact that people
want money not minding how it comes, they have
relegated political morality to the background and
even thrown it to the dog.
The masses
believe that whenever they hear that a political
figure is decamping from one party to another, they
are always happy because they know that such person
has made enough money to cause confusion. The masses
would naturally like to have some share in the looted
fund. This is why every political rally organized for
decamped politicians, the same individual or group of
individuals are always in attendance for no other
reason but money.
At a time
when politics has become a ‘do or die’ affair, where
desperation to win election at all costs becomes the
dominant paradigm, only an extremely few politicians
would assume the posture of not joining the bandwagon
device. This is one reason why some politicians leave
their party in search of greener pasture in another
party. It therefore beholds that if the Nigerian
electorates really believe in what Governor Ibrahim
Shekarau can offer to them in terms of socio-economic
advancement of the country, it does not really matter
what platform of the political parties he seeks the
people’s mandate. It happened in the north-central of
the former Kwara State in 1983 when a certain Pious
Lasisi won the House of Assembly Seat on the banner of
GNPP, a place where NPN and UPN were the bandwagon and
domineering parties before the military junta rudely
intervened in December 1983.
In any case,
there is no state of the federation where ANPP the
party that brought Shekarau to the lime light has not
got base, no matter how weak or powerful. If for
instance, Shekarau gets the nod of his party to fly
her flag for 2011 presidential election, the 774
chapters in each local government including ANPP
members and well wishers in the Diaspora should be
able to effectively coordinate and mobile the local
people in support of Shekarau’s candidature for 2011
contest. One is also convinced that from the good
record of Governor Shekarau, there are many lovers of
Shekarau across the breadth and wide of the country
that are in other political parties and who are ever
ready to cast their precious votes for Shekarau as
President of Nigeria by 2011.
Having done
with the above, the next issue the political pundits
would raise is the issue of whether or not Shekarau
has the money to win the 2011 presidential election in
view of the fact that “Nigerian politics” has been
seriously monetized, in which only the highest bidder
carries the day. Although, money politics has really
eaten down the fibre of our national political psyche,
this factor alone contributed immensely to the endemic
corrupt practices that have invaded our society and
has in turn caused serious havoc and disaster to the
country’s progress and development. We must however
and in all sincerity of purpose try to stop this ugly
political trend that has caused us more harm than
good. It is in realization of this fact that no one
should expect money from Shekarau or his agents to
exercise his civic responsibility. This is because any
thing built on corruption would certainly crumble and
does not last. This is particularly why our ten years
of democracy has been in a state of rancor,
hopelessness and disaster.
We should
therefore be able to make change by casting our
powerful votes for Governor Shekarau because of his
ability, strength of character, goodwill and
integrity. It is by exercising this civic
responsibility that our leaders can be responsible
enough to give the country the desired dividends of
democracy, progress and advancement. It is also by
doing so that the electorate can honestly assess and
evaluate their leaders and in the event of none
performance, they would have the moral rectitude to
condemn and use the same powerful votes to remove such
none performing leader.
But if we
continue to think in line with how much one gets to be
able to exercise one’s voting right, then we should
not expect our leaders to live up to our expectations
because we could not simply had our cake and would
still want to eat it. One is however not unmindful of
the fact that as a result of the chronic poverty
pervading the nation, there is the implication of
people being susceptible to money- politics. It was in
realization of the high level of poverty among the
people due to diversion of public fund meant for
development that made the embattled national Chairman
of PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor to feel that his
party would rule for 60 years or take over Kano and
Lagos in 2011 at all costs, knowing full well how much
of public fund his party has diverted to purchase the
electorates preparatory to 2011 election. Now that
Ogbulafor and his cohorts in pdp are facing corruption
charges for enriching themselves with public money, is
it the kind of leadership they want to bequeath to our
future generation?
Essentially,
what PDP leadership requires from the masses is just
votes and not their welfare. This is why we must not
allow this type of anti-masses show of shame to happen
again as the 2011 beckons. As a matter of fact, Malam
Ibrahim Shekarau is a good example of how absence of
money-politics can spur a leader to perform creditably
for the interest of the masses. In 2003, PDP deployed
and distributed huge sums of money so that Shekarau
could be defeated. This was in addition to deployment
of the federal might against the humble man, but all
these went in vain as the Kano people massively voted
and defended such votes in favour of Shekarau. In
2007, similar thing happened. There was internal
conspiracy by some powerful party men who were jealous
and envious of Shekarau’s marvelous mass oriented
achievements. They jacked up the cost of the
governorship form, believing that Shekarau being a
transparent and God-fearing leader who deprive them of
the desire to loot the public fund, would not get
money to purchase his second term governorship form.
As a result
of the many good things Shekarau did for the Kano
masses, the Kano Pensioners in particular contributed
money to purchase the second term governorship form
for Shekarau to contest. In spite of all sorts of
blackmails by some of his party caucus and the PDP to
cripple the second term ambition of Shekarau, he went,
saw and conquered at the poll. This was how he broke
the Kano political jinx.
No one can
therefore pull down any person God has exalted.
Whether or not Shekarau can win the presidency of this
country is a matter of divine decision. If ANPP
decides to choose Shekarau as her flag bearer for
2011and heaven backs it up, no mortal can do
otherwise. As a Nigerian and a humble servant to his
people, Shekarau has the track record that qualifies
him for any political position in this country. No
individual or group of people, no mater how highly
placed and powerful they are, should think that they
can take decision(s) against the wish and desire of
the entire populace. In view of this, Shekarau stands
a good chance of winning the election of 2011 as the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria if his
party nominates him since he is healthy, energetic,
project and human oriented, and prudent in financial
management as well as enviably transparent in all his
dealings. Nigerians need nothing less than these
qualities.
My Dear
Compatriots, this is your chance to dethrone the bad
guys who had been making life extremely difficult and
miserable in Nigeria. We must abhor our defeatist
tendencies where we always think that bad leaders with
connection can always carry the day. This is not true
because by thinking such, we tend to compromise our
existence and that of the future generation. The
journey is not going to be easy if truth must win. We
are bound to be called all sorts of names for even
making attempt to support a just and sincere person.
Don’t mind them, it is part of their strategy to make
one feels guilty of sins one has not committed so that
one would leave the good cause.
Since
Governor Shekarau came to power through the ballot box
in 2003, we have been able to debunk all fictitious
allegations against him by the desperate oppositions.
We are still ready to do the same any time they come
back again with their subterfuge. Dear compatriots,
this struggle to ensure Governor Shekarau's success
for 2011 presidency is neither for Shekarau nor his
political party. It is for the emancipation of the
people and their future generation. So, we should not
care about what the opposition would say about us. As
Shekarau clocks seven years of purposeful and dynamic
leadership as Governor of Kano state, we salute his
courage, determination and doggedness in his
governance. We are hoping to see that these attributes
of good leadership is transformed to national
integration and governance. My dear compatriots,
please, communicate these messages to every one that
is interested in progress, stability and development
of the country, knowing full well that with all these
in place under Governor Shekarau as the president of
Nigeria come 2011, Nigeria will be a safe heaven for
both present and future generations. With God, nothing
is impossible and we strongly believe that the
Almighty God is on our side.
Saka Raji
Audu writes from Kano and can be reached on his email:
sakaraj@yahoo.com
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