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08 Jan 2012 By Umar Bashir
I read the above article
written by one Sani Yusuf, which appeared on page 3 of
the Daily Triumph Newspaper edition of 21st
December 2011. Having gone through the content of the
piece, it has become highly necessary to respond to
the write up and clarify some deliberate
misconceptions created by the writer, perhaps with the
complacency of his benefactor to raise false alarm
about what the state newspaper has become of today.
The purpose of this
response is simply aimed at putting the record
straight as against the blatant falsehood and
sycophantic adulation displayed by the writer to curry
undue advantage from certain targeted authorities
capable of frustrating the efforts and good intention
of the state governor, Engr. (Dr.) Rabiu Musa
Kwankwaso to truly revitalise the state newspaper
towards meeting the challenges of the time.
Contrary to the claim by
the writer that Triumph newspaper is the only
surviving state paper in the north, perhaps Sani Yusuf
may not know that we have state newspapers as the
Herald from Kwara State, the Standard from
Plateau State, the Graphic from Kogi State, etc that
are still serving the interests of their states. Are
these states not from the north? Again, we are aware
that in the good olden days of the Triumph
Newspaper, it used to be highly qualitative, widely
circulated and read in most part of the north, Abuja
and Lagos. Can Triumph Newspaper boast of such
today, if we may ask?
In spite of the huge amount
of funds pumped towards the revitalization of the
Triumph Newspaper by both past and present
governments, the quality and contents of the paper
have no considerable improvement at all. Increasing
the pages of the newspaper and carrying out political
changes to get rid of highly qualified manpower
resources cannot simply make the paper to grow and
compete favourably with its counterparts in the
country.
Sincerely speaking, since
the drafting of Kabiru Muhammad Gwangwazo some few
months ago to the Triumph as its Managing
Director cum Editor-in-Chief, there have been no
meaningful changes that have taken place except the
cosmetic political alterations in the paper and its
personnel to satisfy the imagine political feelings of
the present government. The Managing Director's
appointments of his cronies including the writer of
the above piece, Sani Yusuf to man the various
sensitive departments without due respect to
competence are completely in aberration to the radical
transformation and good intention of the present
government under the leadership of Engr. (Dr) Rabiu
Musa Kwankwaso wants to carry out.
Incidentally, both Sani
Yusuf and his benefactor have put reasonable years
with the state paper and they have served in various
positions to make the required contribution and
improvement on the paper, which they never did.
Therefore, for Sani Yusuf and his fellow travelers in
the Triumph to pretend against this fact and
resort to condemning and blackmailing the past
administration for the woes of the paper and welfare
of staff amounts to dishonesty and distortion of fact
targeted at blindfolding the present government and
his benefactor to get away with whatever he wants.
Ironically, it is very well
placed on record that the same Sani Yusuf who dubbed
his present benefactor as "Messiah and God-sent" in
his deliberate praise-singing article had equally
maintained Wednesday Sports Eye back page
column throughout the eight years of the past
administration, which he also religiously devoted to
praising sports policy of the same past government he
is crucifying today and there is no doubting the fact
that he will do the same thing to the present
government when it is out of office, after all, it is
usually said that, "soldier go, soldier come, barrack
remain". Perhaps, this was why Sani Yusuf fondly
generated his nick-name, "senior cuwa-cuwa" or "any
better" among his work colleagues. Can this type of
macabre dance and self-serving interest really improve
the quality of the Triumph Newspaper? Is this
not the type of manpower that creates bottleneck to
any sincere leader that wants to make meaningful
progress as in the avowed determination of the present
governor to make Triumph what it should be?
Indeed, if Sani Yusuf wants
to appreciate the favour being done to him by his boss
for rightly or wrongly putting him above his other
more qualified colleague, there are other ways of
doing so than resorting to distortion of fact for a
pat in the back. Honestly, there is more to what Sani
Yusuf article was meant to achieve than miss the eyes.
This is why his write up is skeptical of the present
government plan to privatise the state paper for
efficiency in manpower and quality in service when it
openly stated that "the workers only concern is the
government's plan for the company to be on its own.
They see (sic) the present time as not the best for
such plan. They are appealing to Engr. (Dr.) Rabiu
Musa Kwankwaso, a true people's governor, a messiah of
the Triumph Publishing Company to for the sake of God,
to shelve that plan for now."
The writer's apprehension
against making Triumph to be on its own for
efficiency is out rightly borne out of selfishness and
the fear of loosing his manipulative instinct to his
great advantage, knowing fully well that he gets
things through the back door, based on favour, which
he enjoys at the detriment of merit.
If Governor Kwankwaso
really wants to revitalise Triumph Newspaper
for good and to serve its purpose, he should not
listen to the above selfish but desperate plea against
Triumph being on its own because it should not
always be business as usual. It is therefore very
clear that the present crop of Management of the state
paper is apolitical, self centered and pretentious
that it cannot realize the genuine intention of
positioning the publishing house and revitalising its
paper by the present government.
Let the Triumph
stand on its own for progress and to avoid any one
using the paper as drain pipe to milk the government
dry through subvention that should be channeled
towards another meaningful development. This is the
home truth and nothing but the truth and any thing
short of this will amount to postponing the evil day
for business as usual.
Bashir Umar
Naibawa Quarters,
Zaria Road, Kano
E-mail:
umarb39@yahoo.com |
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