Labaran Maku was a mistaken comrade in his student days who as an activist, pretended to champion the cause of students as a spring board for relevance. In 1999, he was erroneously selected to deputize for Governor Abdullahi Adamu in Nasarawa State. He was erroneously selected because it was at close interaction that The Obateru of the Source discovered Maku to be an unreliable politician worth a trust with the art of governance. In 2007, Maku still living in the fool’s paradise, made desperate attempts to fly the flag of the then ruling party in Nasarawa State (PDP) as its gubernatorial candidate but was floored by a better candidate, Aliyu Akwe Doma.
Till this moment, Maku has refused to come to terms with the reality on the ground that his political chemistry and toddler nature have since been known by all and sundry in Nasarawa State and now to other Nigerians.
As an information minister, Maku thought it was pleasant to follow the footsteps of other failed information ministers the likes of Walter Ofonogoro, Uche Chukwumereji and Jerry Gana who during their hey days, deceived Nigerians to believing falsehood which consigned them to the dustbin of history as impotents. Before his exit from the ministerial position, Maku is already wearing the tag of a failed deceiver now on a mission to launder the battered image of a drowning administration that has lost relevance to the governed.
In his usual style of deceit, Maku and his co-travelers convinced the President to approving the sponsorship of a jamboree tagged as Good Governance Tour.
According to Maku, part of the essence of the Good Governance Tour is to showcase the achievements of both the Federal and State Governments in the present dispensation as well as to encourage productivity while trying to achieve that, Maku cleverly and corruptly pushes a proposal to the respective State Governments for direct extortion to launder their images and shower praises on the screen of the national television under his supervision.
The Good Governance tour of Federal Government’s completed, failed, not executed, uncompleted or poorly completed projects is blatantly diversionary from poor performance meant to deceive Nigerians and justify the on-going extortion of public funds.
From the point of view of the majority, even an illiterate Koma native who lives on Adamawa mountain, knows that projects meant for developing the people do not need to be told the importance of such a project because that is why there is a government in place unless if Maku is telling the world that Nigerians are ingrates. It is the responsibility of the government to address the needs of the governed with available funds from the commonwealth. But Maku and his 120 ‘wisemen’ are claiming to be in the best position to tell beneficiaries of those projects of their existence for a reason not clear.
If one may ask, since the start of the jamboree, what has it achieved other than extortion and gathering of frustrated persons whose wealth is squandered with impunity? Let us pretend that the tour is people oriented and face the scandal buried in it- based on the alarm sounded by the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
From record, the Federal Government had set aside enough funds to sponsor the tour; yet a multi-million naira proposal was expected to be bank rolled by the respective State Governments as support to the tour. The question on the lips of Nigerians is what happened to the funds released by the Federal Government for the tour or was Maku trying to make a fast one to save for his 2015 political ambition?
Maku should be bold to tell Nigerians and the world with all honesty at the end of the tour, how much it cost the Federal and State Governments to undertake the tour of federal government project sites across the country and the benefits accrued to the economy.
Maku should be reminded of the fact that Nigerians are not blind to see and touch good projects meant to improve their welfare where ever such projects are located. We have severally heard, seen and appreciated performing presidents and governors without an input from any good governance tour over the years. The legacies bequeathed to Nigeria by Generals Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Badamasi Babangida, Sani Abacha and Umaru Musa Yar Adu’a, are still enjoyed. Governors Joseph Dechi Gomwalk, Abba Kyari, Musa Usman, Mobolaji Johnson, Samuel Ogbemudia, Lateef Jakande, Buba Marwa, Chris Abutu Garuba, Dan Suleiman, Muhammed Abdullahi Wase, Abubakar Rimi, Tatari Ali, Bello Khaliel, Balarabe Musa, Rufus Ada George, Sam Mbakwe, Solomon Lar, Jim Nwobodo, Danjuma Goje, Ahmed Makarfi, Aliyu Umar Kama, Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu etc were not made public through any Good Governance tour but appreciated by the beneficiaries.
At the present dispensation, why is Labaran Maku attempting to force Nigerians to remember that the Jonathan led- Federal Government has performed far below the imagination of any sane government in the world including the poorest countries in the world and expects us to believing falsehood through Good Governance tour on the sponsorship of our respective governments as if we are insane and purposeless?
Let Maku be sincere in his submission on whether or not they have visited all federal roads in the States so far visited or not. It is glaringly clear that Nigerians lack the basic necessities of life; all indices across the country point at the absence of essential services and the abnegation of governance. Yet, Maku and his co-travelers embarked on a Good Governance jamboree – gamboling across this massively deprived country while making deceitful speeches and praise singing for sycophancy and boot licking on the screen of a national television funded from public purse.
Methinks the defeated 2007 Nasarawa State gubernatorial aspirant has been using the opportunity to rebrand his political career; campaigning against 2015 in an obliviously wrong way. Let Maku be bold to point out one single federal highway Jonathan initiated and completed in the last four years since including any significant project beneficial to the people since 2009.
Let Maku explain the importance of his led jamboree to over 50million jobless Nigerians. How has the jamboree shown any tangible Good Governance to the people by the Jonathan administration? The falsehood and deceit in Maku’s tour shows in his praise singing of all the governors so far visited who must have settled the ‘mandatory’ N150million proposal. The orchestrated tour full of deceit does not deserve the support of responsible Nigerians. Maku is all out to achieve a hidden agenda of currying favor to cross the hurdle of reorganization any moment from or he should be bold to tell Nigerians on why an Israeli, Yaniv Dabah working with a construction company (RCC) in Edo State was deported from Nigeria for making a clarification on the status of the reconstruction, flood and a beautification project in Benin city. Dabah debunked Maku’s claim that the project was one of those by the Federal Government in the State while in actual sense it was a State Government project. Simply put, it had to be so because Governor Adams refused to fall prey for easy catch. That is the Maku-led Good Governance Tour for Nigerians.
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Muhammad is a Media Consultant
