The attempted rigging of the March 9th gubernatorial election in Bauchi State by an amorphous political group, dubbed “The Other Alternative” of different political parties that had earlier endorsed the gubernatorial candidature of APC candidate including some recruited vandals and sadistic elements of the then ruling party on suspected sponsorship by desperate opponents of Sen. Bala Muhammed, with particular mention of APC hoodlums in Tafawa Balewa local government area of Bauchi state, evoked a mixed feeling of irritation and sympathy for the characters who, ostensibly, wriggled in deep pain, on one hand, for the fatal political error of judgment against Sen. Bala Muhammed, propelled by greed, committed in the not too distant past, and on the other, for the unyielding, characteristic perfidy, the mark and style of these parasitic elements.
Ironically and typical of the antics of political jobbers and turncoats, on the declaration of Sen. Bala’s victory at the poll, the opponents including defeated gubernatorial masquerades of the other parties who slugged it out with the PDP, quickly abandoned their ambitions to sing pretentious praises of Bala’s victory in anticipation of government patronage. This should serve as food for thought for critical study by those who labored for the victory. There are several characters loitering on the political turf that need total disconnect from government patronage if the system deserves sanity for progress and avoidance of hypocrisy for survival at the detriment of effective service delivery.
Some of those in the race for possible political patronage by the New Level administration are responsible for the socio-economic stagnation and backwardness of the state in all facets of development that necessitated the aspiration of Senators Bala Muhammed and Baba Tela as a rescue team. Should same characters be recognized and possibly patronized again by government? Your guess is as good as mine.
To my thinking, Governor Bala Muhammed, considers the antics of these people, with rapidly vanishing relevance, as infantile and distracting.
The exacting expectation of posterity compels this riposte. And one shall proceed to respond to issues raised while permitting the self-appointed leaders; Isa Yuguda, Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu, Dr. Musa Babayo, Babayo Garba Gamawa etc, who has made it a right to always survive on government patronage, to savor the momentary delusion.
The erroneous impression, mischievously and blatantly conveyed, that the slight reversal in electoral fortunes experienced during the general elections by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was attributable to the poor performance of few supposedly party chieftains, betrays a certain predilection for mendacity.
The deliberate amnesia, hypocritically displayed by peripatetic political jobbers, whose names appeared as members of the disgruntled assemblage of opportunists, concerning their consistent and obdurate opposition to virtue, exemplified by the persona of the President-In-Council exposes their mendacious avowal to any principle suspicion.
The lie, shamelessly peddled concerning the stewardship of Senator Bala as senator (2007 – 2009) and as FCT Minister depicts them as irredeemable charlatans. If it is true that the popularity of the governor had dwindled before the elections, it will be due, largely to the incursion of characters whose presence posed a pestilential burden on the health of the polity.
Is it not funny that those who betrayed a trust and connived with other gubernatorial candidates to assuage inordinate ambition and avarice are the same persons pontificating on the best way to run a government sustained by the sweat and resources of the people while they groped in political darkness?
Any visitor to any part of Bauchi State at this moment cannot but acknowledge the poor state of infrastructures but with a renewed hope of abridging the parlous deficit inherited. Developmental strides are not noticeable in all the three Senatorial Districts of the State. Comparatively, Bauchi State is amongst the first 10 States with poorly Internally Generated Revenue Growth Rate in the country. The people of the State are already seeing hope in the Sen. Bala Muhammed style of leadership anchored on transparency and probity. They have started to feel the impact of governance; they are yearning for advancement. That is the type of inclusion which the State needs at this moment and beyond, not the rapacious proclivity to dispossess the people of their commonwealth.
It is an incontrovertible fact that some of those mentioned were silent supporters of President Buhari in past elections but his sworn enemies in 2011 and 2015. Let all modern day converts regal the unwary of their dubious exploits the like of Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, Isa Yuguda, Kaulaha Aliyu, Bashir Bukar and Babayo Garba Gamawa. Until they explain to the gullible the real reason for their sudden affection for a man viciously vilified and lampooned for dismal performance in four years, one shall continue to view whatever histrionics put forward to convince us of their sincerity with derision. We set their devious machinations at nothing; the people of the state know their true leaders. And they are waiting for those whose reason for participating in politics is self aggrandizement.
Sen. Bala Muhammed, as governor of Bauchi State, recognizes the right of all citizens to freedom of assembly and association. His professional calling as a journalist, onetime member of the Federal Executive Council and former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, imposes onerous responsibilities on himself to treat all human beings justly and to defend the weak of the society against all manner of oppressive attitudes. It is, therefore, laughable to listen to some allegations leveled against him by those who lack the capacity to be loyal and truthful to humanity.
It is an irony of circumstance that some of the beneficiaries of Sen. Bala Muhammed’s quintessential virtues are the ones who displayed crude disposition bordering on ingratitude. They complain of exclusion, falling short of telling the truth about their treachery. While one exercises the necessary restraint as expected of anyone with modicum of decency, we will be compelled to engage these elements, frontally, henceforth.
The governor of Bauchi State regards the allegations of dismal performance as Senator and FCT Minister which is inimical to the interest of PDP, as baseless and mischievous. And to those who alleged pomposity have assumed notoriety for the same reason long before now. And since it is their pastime, it is not surprising that the allegation is coming from them. Virtually all those christened as members of the dreaded coalition, including those Sen. Bala Muhammed rescued from near-political oblivion only recently, are notorious as serial traitors.
While the governor denies, categorically, any attempt by him of lopsided appointments presently mischievously being traded against him in dark street corners, he puts those who allege to come out with strictest proof of their malicious charges. Kauran Bauchi is also not going to shy away from reiterating the fact that the experiences during the last elections were fairly predictable. Despite the deep and pervasive animosity occasioned by the insensitive allegations, a good percentage of PDP candidates won their elections. And just as it sounds unintelligent to ascribe the alleged rigging of APC in Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi federal constituencies to the State PDP chieftains and the governor, it is wicked to seek to hang the blame particularly on Hon. Yakubu Dogara and few local party chieftains because, it was them that refused to subscribe to violence and rigging as true democrats that respect human lives.
It is a mark of the usual propensity to always reap other people’s sweat that will make defectors to APC to claim to have caused the purported defeat of PDP in certain areas they claim control.
Those claimants were actually not on the same page with the governor but pretended to be his party members while busy chopping in the other parties until they were discovered and discarded which necessitated their sudden defection to cover shame and subsequent defeat at the gubernatorial election. It is the same attitude which guides their usual ranting. They cannot hope to drag a man resolute on making the people of Bauchi State the central focus of all his actions into their banditry.
Lest I forget, Sen. Bala Muhammed is not averse to bringing people who are genuinely committed to the progress of Bauchi State, to contribute positively to development. He has demonstrated this readiness in several instances. He will, however resist, vehemently, any attempt, either surreptitious or expressed, to short change the people under his watch and no matter the threats accompanied. Politics should not be about gobbling the commonwealth of the people.
Anyone who is ready to serve Bauchi State indeed and in truth has a comfortable space already in the new level administration in the state. The people were subjected to several brands of cutting corners for so long. The time to bring them out of the shackles of poverty occasioned by brazen looting started on May 29, 2019 led by Kauran Bauchi.
Governor Bala Muhammed stands on that solemn mandate till the very last moment of his purposeful administration.
Muhammad is a veteran journalist
