Politics in Nigeria has become a tournament of race horses where the game is on the side of brute speed and not administrative wit. Politicians come with quick fix templates to buy into the psyche of some simple-minded electorates often razzle-dazzle by pecuniary sentiments to satisfy cleavage agenda or tokenistic incentives, albeit temporal. Mercantile politicians have weighed in on the perspective of many Nigerians to sell dummies for the price of the real deal. Caught in the mix of the new trend, victorious political platforms have used power at their disposal to make their predecessors mere statistics.
It is therefor on the auspicious occasion of the former governor of Niger state, Dr. Mua’azu Babangida Aliyu’s 62nd birthday that I reflect on how time slide so fast leaving only memories behind and bringing ambitions closer. How accidental political situation makes politicians like Aliyu political statistics, remembered only when the meal of blackmail is to be served. The statistical value of the likes of Dr. Aliyu at federal and state levels helps the ruling APC to showcase their skewed fight against corruption, which at the end exposes their hypocrisy. Sadly, it gives them air of satisfaction to drag political opponents on excuse of fighting corruption, which pretty much shields them from their own acts of corruption, mal-administration and poverty of emotional intelligence.
It is on record that Dr. Aliyu was chairman Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) for eight years at the most trying time of the region security challenge. It was the forum that articulated linkage with United States, which culminated in loans to combat terror, education deficit and humanitarian problems in the region. It was Aliyu led NSGF that partnered with United States Peace Institute to contain Boko Haram insurgency. Under his leadership the forum fought to unravel sponsors of the terror organization, he was also the first to insist that the armed forces had no political will to fight Boko Haram. Yet such a man is being forced to be a mere statistic when it would benefit the country more to groom him for higher national call?
It may be recalled that Dr. Aliyu advocated for one Nigeria when he insisted indigineship be open for all Nigerian citizens regardless of state of origin. He made sure spread of appointments was with merit across the state and extended political appointments beyond to carry along non-indigenes to buttress his ethno-religious harmony and resourcefulness. He fought against spread of Boko Haram from the Mokwa axis of the state despite condemnation from some ethnic jingoist. He stemmed the tide of Fulani Herders. He acted like a man who has seen the future. Now all he stood for agitates the continued existence of Nigeria from the center under the present administration.
The 2015 defeat of the PDP may have happened partly on corruption, impunity of the party but the ruthlessness, impunity that greeted the victorious against the vanquished diminished respect…
