Opinion
Samuel Ortom: Notable milestones despite the odds

By Tunde Olusunle
His profile as some kind of activist chief executive, naturally compels some inquisition into the extent of his discharge of his basic, primary official endeavours. He was elected principally to provide leadership; foster sociopolitical harmony in a multilingual, multicultural polity; ensure security and contribute to the infrastructural development of his state. But then his voice is loud in the nation’s ears, regularly alluding to government’s abdication of its responsibilities to his people, if not its covert complicity with their tormentors. He is never tired of voicing out specifically, the post-2015 traumas and travails of his innocent and hapless people, particularly in the hands of rampaging and ruthless Fulani insurgents. The nomads have made existence drab, dreary, depressing and despairing for his constituents.
The new year in 2018 in Benue State, was for instance, ushered in with the macabre massacre of 72 indigenes of the state by nomadic herdsmen. A mass burial of the victims on Thursday January 11, 2018, commanded global revulsion, as it was telecast realtime on terrestrial television. Such killings, albeit on smaller scales, have recurred in the state again and again, becoming an obvious distraction on the path of good governance. Our subject remains unbreakable and vociferous, reminding us of lines from some evergreen compositions of the iconic Afrobeat musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. In response to the regime of malfeasance and injustice, foisted by successive Nigerian governments, Fela bellows: I go talk o, I go talk plenty o/I go shout o, I go shout plenty o.
Samuel Ortom was inaugurated governor of Benue State, the trademark “food basket of the nation,” May 29, 2015. He succeeded Gabriel Suswan, who is now the Senator representing Benue North East. Ortom was initially elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC). He was decisive, however, when he crossed over to the opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), July 2018. He opined at the time, that “the APC was no longer a platform that had the interest of the people of Benue State at heart.” He expressed the conviction that “the amelioration of plight of his people would be better realised in the PDP.”
Ortom tells you he is not given to self-gratification. “I’m happy you were at the church service in my hometown, Gbajimba, in Guma local government area, a few days ago,” he begins. You probably heard when John Dyegh, the member representing Gboko/Tarka federal constituency in the House of Representatives, spoke during proceedings. He made the point that much as we are working within the limits of resources available to us and peculiar constraints, we have not been talking. I agree with him. My style has always been for our efforts to speak for themselves. Maybe I’m publicity-shy. But I’m happy that you and I are talking now, so we can run through a few things we’ve done.”
Continuing, Ortom says: “When I see on social media that Ortom has been governor for seven years and he has not built a toilet, I laugh. My predecessors did their bit, and I’m also contributing my quota. Coming to specifics, we are active in all the three senatorial zones of the state. Besides the civil service, agriculture is the mainstay of the economy of the state. Remember that is the motto, the legend of our geopolity. Primarily therefore, our focus is on rural roads which will facilitate the evacuation of farm produce from the hinterlands to the markets. The percentage completion of our various road projects are varied in instances, largely due to the resources at our disposal. In some instances, we have built the bridges and rolled out laterite, making the roads motorable. In some other instances, we have done surface dressing, while elsewhere, we have fully applied asphalt overlays on the roads.”
Ortom’s administration has also pursued urban renewal in the three main towns in the state, namely: Makurdi, Gboko and Otukpo. In Makurdi the state capital, notable roads undertaken by his government include the: Bambam-Federal Low-cost Housing Estate Road, Off Naka Road and the John Kwaghgba Road. There are also the NKST- International Market-Yina Street, Off George Akume Way, the Gabriel Suswam Road, and the Terwase Agbadu-Yakyo Junction, Apir Road, among others. The urban renewal programme in Gboko, traditional headquarters of the Tiv nation, has gifted the town a new state-of-the-art palace for the Tor Tiv, the paramount Tiv royal. Roads like Isaac Shaahu, Martin Dent and Captain Dawn’s Way have also been built in Gboko.
Veering towards healthcare development, Ortom tells you his administration has built 42 primary health centres across all 23 local government areas, (LGAs) of Benue State. The teaching hospital and all secondary health centres, notably General Hospitals, are undergoing massive upgrading. Ortom attributes the effort to a facility provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN). In the educational sector, thousands of hitherto dilapidated primary school buildings have been refurbished and are wearing new looks, while chairs and tables have been procured to end the practice of students sitting on bare classroom floors.
Ortom is equally excited about the gains of his government in agricultural development: “We have introduced new methods of farming,” he affirms. “We’ve bought tractors and supplied fertilisers. We are also introducing new products to our farmers, like watermelon which, hitherto, was not grown in Benue, despite our rich and adaptable soil. Research is also in progress on other crops compatible with our environment.” It is a measure of the high premium placed on agriculture that Ortom’s government periodically declares “work-free days” to enable civil servants tend to their farms.
His administration has also tried to encourage “value addition” to agricultural produce, to create a value chain down the line, from the farm to the dining table. “As Minister for Trade and Investment,” he notes, “we encouraged producers across the field, including in mining, to enhance the quality of what they produce. From processing, to packaging, to marketing and distribution, it’s a long value chain. We can create wealth, employment and opportunities. If the products can be exported, that guarantees us foreign exchange. We tried to get the Bank of Industry, (BOI), to put in a N2 Billion facility, to boost micro, small and medium scale enterprises here. It is doable in our state with 96% arable land, with two of Nigeria’s biggest rivers, Katsina-Ala and Benue, which can ensure all-year-round farming. Government at the centre, however, has to do a lot more for the people, in the area of infrastructure for instance. Who can run a production line with the cost of diesel today, or the condition of national road network, which is largely decrepit?”
Salaries and pensions have become intractable issues in most states of the federation. Ortom informs us he inherited a mammoth bureaucracy with its attendant high costs, from preceding governments. “Benue State has the largest wage bill of all the 19 states in the North. Placed besides all the states in the country, we come a close third behind much more richer states like Lagos and Rivers,” he informs you. “I inherited a liability in excess of N70 Billion in salaries, pensions and gratuities, when we came in in 2015, and I’ve been able to reduce that by almost 50%, to N34 Billion.” He is glad that his government has domesticated the National Pension Commission, (PENCOM) law, which will be critical to the resolution of the intractable problem of workers’ entitlements. His dispensation has saved about N5 Billion with PENCOM, and hopes to build this up to N10 Billion, so as to leverage requisite facilities in PENCOM.
To complement the conventional security agencies in the containment of Fulani herdsmen’s incursions into the state and curtail their brazen attempts to appropriate land belonging to Benue people, the Ortom government has remained proactive. A “Community Volunteer Guard,” (CVG), was recently established. This is in addition to the preexisting “anti-open grazing law” enacted by the state government in 2017, which prescribes specific roles for livestock guards, “agro rangers” in safeguarding the patrimony of the people of Benue State. Ortom is upbeat about the performance of these multilevel initiatives in protecting the state from those he describes as “enemies of the state, modern day neocolonialists.” “We’ve arrested over 20,000 herds of cattle,” he announces. “They are brought to our quarantine unit and defaulters pay specified fines. Your cattle will only be released to you if you hire trucks to move them. We’ve apprehended over 600 herdsmen who trespassed on other people’s farmlands and the law requires them to pay additional fines. More than 200 of them have been convicted. They either pay the required fines or go to jail.”
Making a detour into political discourse, Ortom admits his party is experiencing some challenges. He is reassured, however, that dialogue has been initiated at various levels. His words: “I can’t say that things are well with our party. But discussions are ongoing and that is what I’ve always encouraged. Everybody cannot be winning all the time. There are certain internal mechanisms that should be deployed in conflict resolution. I’m interested in ensuring that we discuss amicably, so that we have a win-win situation.” According to Ortom, “Nigerians must have an alternative political vehicle, different from the abysmally inept performance of the APC. They have succeeded in achieving their promise to take our country from top to bottom. They are indeed trying to take us beneath the bottom. It’s a big shame. Together, we in the PDP have to join heads to find meeting grounds on contentious issues so that we can move on.”
And just if the 2023 polls were just tomorrow, how does he think his party will fare? “I can’t see the APC winning the elections. They are being shredded at various levels. Two weeks ago, two of the five APC members of the State House of Assembly, decamped to PDP. There are 30 members of the House, so only three are left. APC doesn’t feature in day-to-day conversations in Benue State and the situation is the same in several states. There are glaring lacunae, total disconnect between APC and the people of Nigeria. Speaking from my experience in over 40 years of my experience as a politician, I can’t see APC competing with the PDP inspite of our problems.”
Asked if those he once accused of stalling a one-on-one encounter between him and President Muhammadu Buhari had pulled back, Ortom says they haven’t. This he says, has compelled him to come out in public to express his displeasure on issues. “They haven’t backed down. It’s the second year running and I can’t see the President. People can be so unduly wicked even unto themselves and their constituents. We applied for a bailout of N42 Billion from the government to clear the backlog of our commitments to our workers. At the point of the release of the fund, some people who call themselves leaders of Benue State, leverage their relationships with the federal government, not to release the funds. They didn’t want us or our party to take the credit for balancing the books. Can you imagine?”
Ortom is delighted when you admire his signature, multi-coloured cap, which has been widely popularised under his leadership. He brands it the “Benue Unity Cap.” The idea behind the concept, he says, was to make the point very early in the life of our administration, that we intended to run an all-inclusive government, which accommodates all and every ethnic group in the state. The three widely known ethnicities here are the Tiv, Idoma and Igede. There are others, but these three constitute the principal tripod. You will also see the Nigerian “green and white” colours there, which reaffirms our place under the national umbrella.”
-Tunde Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author, is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE).
Opinion
The Labour strike and FG’S Inertia – The way forward

By Prof. Mike A. A. Ozekhom, SAN, CON , OFR, FCIArb, LL.M, Ph.D, LL.D, D.Litt, D.SC, DA, DHL
Labour has literally grounded Nigeria – from airports, hospitals, tertiary institutions, to electricity which has plunged the biggest black nation on earth into total darkness. I am in full, complete and total support of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress’ (TUC)’s current national strike for upward review of the FG’s proposed minimum wage of N60,000 per month. NLC and TUC had also demanded that the government reverses the increase in electricity tariff to N65/KWH. When talks broke down with none of the parties shifting grounds, Labour commenced a strike action on the midnight of Sunday 2nd June, 2024. FG’s proposed meagre salary is certainly not a living wage in today’s Nigeria. At the current parallel market exchange rate of N1,470 to one dollar, the wage being conceded by the Federal Government to labour is a mere $40.82 per month (N60,000), while the NLC and TUC are asking for a whooping N615,500 per month.
By way of comparative analysis with some other countries globally, the monthly minimum wage in the United States is US$1,160 ( N1,705,200); UK £1,376 (N2,528,950); Canada 2,464 CAD (N2,710,400); France £1,539.42 (N2,847,927); Ghana GHC 2,904 (N292,548.96) Rwanda RWF 56,668 (N64,602); South Africa R4,067.2 – R4,412.8 (N322,406.944 – N349,802.656); Botswana P1,168 (N122,056); Germany £1,985.6 (N3,673,360) Australia AUD3531.2 (N 3,490,414.64); Kenya is KES15,201 (N172,683.36). In UAE, there is no general minimum wage as it differs from profession to profession. However, for skilled Labourers AED 5,000 (N2,019,435); people with University degrees AED12,000 (N4,846,644); qualified technicians AED 7,000 (N2,827,209); South Korea is 2,010,580 Won (N2,161,574.558). China differs from city to city. However, Shanghai is RMB 2,690 per month (N551,181) and Heilongjiang RMB 1,450 (N 297,105). Singapore does not prescribe a general minimum wage for all its workers. However, the minimum Singaporean wage is averaged at 6,792SGD/Month = N7,464,408).
Even though Rwanda and Botswana’s minimum wage per month which is RWF 56,668 (N64,602) and P1,168 (N122,056), respectively, appears meagre, the two countries have since put in place social services that cushion the masses’ suffering and put them on a developmental path. Imdeed, they are two of the fastest growing economies not only in Africa, but also in the world. We do not have such in Nigeria. Nigeria is perhaps the only country in the world that brazenly defies Isaac Newton’s Law of Motion to the effect that “what goes up must come down”. In Nigeria, once prices of good go up, they never come down.
Are these countries and us not living on the same Planet earth? We are, of course.
With the present spirally inflation, N60,000 cannot even buy one bag of rice which today sells for between N80,000 and N120,000 depending on the grade and quality.
What is the way forward from this FG-Labour face-off and stalemate? Part of the solution lies in steering a middle course between labour’s N615,500 per month demand and the FG’s proposal of N60,000 per month. This is more so having regard to the impossibility of the private sector, especially small scale businesses and private professions, having the capacity and economic wherewithal to pay such exorbitant wage. Another solution lies in public office holders making deliberate sacrifices in the midst of public angst and disenchantment by cutting down their ostentatiously vulgar lifestyle of ugly display of opulence and their sheer exhibitionism of wealth in mindless convoys of vehicles in the midst of grinding poverty and wretchedness of the masses. The Nigerian people are not happy at all. Anyone who advises the government to the contrary is nothing but a fawner, bootlicker, ego masseur, toady flatterer and clapper.
Opinion
Rivers political crisis: Fubara raves as Wike likely retreats (5)

By Ehichioya Ezomon
Has the political heat in Rivers State simmered in the past week to suggest perhaps – just perhaps – that conventional wisdom has taken hold of the dramatis personae in the crisis to pull back from the precipice they’ve pushed the state in the last eight months?
There’s nothing on the ground to suggest otherwise, even as Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike, played their brand of politics at separate locations, trying to undo each other in showcasing achievements in their official jurisdictions, to mark one-year in the saddles in Rivers and Abuja, respectively.
Amid “all the distractions from those that want to draw Rivers State backward,” Fubara invited prominent persons from within and outside Rivers – including Abia State Governor Alex Otti of the rival Labour Party (LP), and former Rivers Governor Peter Odili – to launch projects he “executed in record time, and with full payments to the contractors” – an obvious dig at Wike for allegedly failing to pay contractors for their services.
As is the routine in Rivers governance, especially since the Wike’s helm, Fubara, using his “State of the State” address to render account of his one-year stewardship, revealed the “huge debts to contractors” that Wike left behind for his government.
At the Dr. Obi Wali International Conference Centre in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, May 29, Fubara said his administration “inherited 34 uncompleted projects, valued at over N225.279bn in 13 local government areas of the state,” adding that the contractors, who executed the 34 projects, have come to him for payments.
Fubara stated that though he inherited a state, “whose economy was on a declining trajectory despite its growth potential,” his government has changed the narrative for the better by “increasing astronomically internally-generated revenue from N12 billion to between N17 billion in off-peak periods and N28 billion during the peak months.”
“Our liberalized business-friendly economic policies and programmes are boosting confidence and attracting local and international investors and investments into the State, judging by the expression of interest offers we receive every month.” Fubara said.
“We have kept our taxes low, frozen the imposing of taxes on small businesses across the State, and increased the ease of doing business by eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks. No request for the signing of a certificate of occupancy (CoO) remains in my office beyond two days, except if I am otherwise engaged beyond two days or out of town.
“We have established a N4 billion matching fund with the Bank of Industry (BOI), to support existing and new micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) to grow their businesses to drive economic growth and create jobs and wealth for citizens. Over 3,000 citizens and residents have applied to access this loan to fund their businesses at a single-digit interest rate, and a repayment period of up to five years.”
Commissioning the completed projects – mostly inherited from the Wike administration (2015-2023) – the invited guests heaped praises on Fubara, not only for achieving commendable strides within a short time, but also for “liberating Rivers State” from Wike’s stranglehold – the same Wike that some of the invitees had praised to the heavens barely a year ago.
For instance, Dr Odili, an erstwhile ally of Wike, noted that Fubara “has taken full control of governance in the State,” stressing that the governor is “focusing on the people” in line with his chosen mantra: ‘People First’. It’s on Saturday, May 25, at the inauguration of the dualised Omoku-Egbema road in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government area (ONELGA) of the state.
An elated Odili even predicted a seamless second-term election for Fubara in 2027, and urged him to remain focused on the people, giving succour to the less-privileged and hope to those who do not have anyone to help them go through life’s challenges.
“I can tell our people that the next election is very far, but what the Governor has done so far, is enough to secure the support of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area going forward,” Odili said. “Thank you, Your Excellency, because the greatest assets of the State remain the people, not oil and gas.
“The people of Rivers are behind you, rallying support for you because they trust you, believing in what you say and convinced that you mean whatever you say,” Odili said, adding, “I want to agree with you that the sky would become the takeoff point of your administration.”
Relatedly in Abuja, it’s Wike’s days in the sky. Though he didn’t have the luxury of throwing brickbats at Fubara – and there’s no surrogates to do same for him – Wike had the rare privilege of enlisting President Bola Tinubu to launch some of the projects that were “abandoned for decades,” and received applause from Tinubu for returning and restoring Abuja’s Master Plan, and transforming the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
On Tuesday, May 28, at the commissioning of the Southern Parkway, which Wike proclaimed as “Bola Ahmed Tinubu Way” – a crucial infrastructure project that’s dormant for 13 years before Wike’s intervention – the President described the minister’s vision as “inspiring many and yielding remarkable results in the FCT.”
Tinubu said: “Barr Nyesom Wike, ‘Mr. Project,’ thank you for giving us this home and for your sincere commitment to shared values. Your revolutionary vision is inspiring many and yielding remarkable results in the FCT.”
Highlighting the significance of the road, the President said, “The Southern Parkway not only connects vital areas within the FCT, but also symbolises our collective aspirations for connectivity, ease of livelihood, and progress. This road will enhance mobility, ease traffic congestion, and spur economic development for residents and visitors alike.
“Infrastructure is an enabler of jobs, economic growth, and prosperity. We are committed to building a world-class capital city, and the completion of this road is a testament to that commitment. Making our citizens the central focus of our development is crucial for Nigeria’s success,” Tinubu stated.
Earlier, Wike noted: “This landmark project is the first amongst nine visionary projects scheduled for commissioning by Mr. President in the coming days. It represents a significant milestone in our collective efforts to enhance the infrastructure and livability of our great capital and her inhabitants.
“As we mark the first year of your transformative leadership, Mr. President, this event underscores our shared commitment to progress, innovation, and the enduring prosperity of Nigeria.”
Yet, the make-for-the-cameras pomp and ceremony, razzmatazz, accolades, hand-pumping and backslapping by politicians in Port Harcourt and Abuja are but a temporary relief or diversion to mask the “real politic” in Rivers, where Governor Fubara’s fighting the battle of his life to cage Chief Wike, and save his governorship and political career heading into the 2027 General Election.
The fourth installment of this article on Monday, May 27, 2024, examined two strategies that Fubara could adopt to handle Wike and his sacked loyal members of the Rivers Assembly, and local council chairmen, whose tenure ends in June 2024, but have vowed to remain in office until “elected officials” were installed in the Rivers local councils. Below’s a recap:
First, Fubara could evict the lawmakers from the Rivers State House of Assembly Residential Quarters in Port Harcourt – where they and their families domicile, and use as a legislative chamber – to deny them the venue and avenue to make laws and/or plot his impeachment.
Second, Fubara could copy his counterparts, and withhold the lawmakers’ emoluments, and allocations to the legislature – as he’s allegedly done to the April 2024 allocations to the councils – to checkmate the legislators, whose seats have lately been redeclared “vacant” by a Rivers High Court.
Let’s now proceed to interrogate the remaining measures, beginning with the Third, as follows: When push comes to shove, Fubara could muscle the pro-Wike lawmakers by physical attacks on them, their homes and businesses, the aim being to overraw, and hound them, to sabotage their plans to make his government ungovernable, and pave the way for his impeachment – the aim of the lawmakers from onset of the Rivers crisis.
Recall Fubara’s declaration about the lawmakers early in 2024: “I think it has gotten to a time when I need to make a statement on this thing, so that they (lawmakers) understand that they are not existing. Their existence and whatever they have been doing is because I allowed them to do so. If I don’t recognise them, they are nowhere. That is the truth.
“I can say here, with all amount of boldness, I have never called any police man anywhere to go and harass anybody. I have never gone anywhere to ask anybody to do anything against anybody.
“Even when I have all the instruments of State powers, I have shown restraint, I have acted as a big brother in the course of this crisis. I have not acted like a young man that may want the house to be destroyed but, I have behaved like a mature young man that I am.
“This is because I know that no meaningful development will be achieved in an atmosphere of crisis. And because our intention for Rivers State is to build on the foundation that had been laid by our past leaders, it will be wrong for me to take the path of promoting crisis.”
Interpreted, the pro-Wike lawmakers – already in the lurch over series of court rulings sacking and re-sacking them, and voiding all legislative actions they took in the course of the Rivers crisis – shouldn’t underrate Fubara’s powers and resolve – if pushed against the wall – to roar like the lion, attack like the hyena and bite like the crocodile!
Barring any “political earthquake” this week in the Rivers crisis, the remaining measures Fubara could deploy to arrest Wike’s alleged hegemonic hold on Rivers State will be interrogated in the next installment of this running header!
- Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria
Sent from my iPad. Ehichioya
Ezomon.
Opinion
Nemesis as a short distance runner

By Tunde Olusunle
When he flung Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (SLS) out of the window of the Emir’s palace in Kano four years ago, Abdullahi Ganduje would have least imagined what is playing out today. Ganduje was the “Lord of the Manor” in Kano State, the all-powerful chief executive. Recall video clips of Ganduje allegedly stuffing wads and packs of crisp, mint-fresh dollar bills into the bottomless pocket of his babanriga ahead of the 2019 general elections. They were reportedly gifted to him by some contractor ally of the erstwhile Kano governor who was repaying a good turn. Graphic and unassailable as that short motion picture was, former President Muhammadu Buhari who rode into office on the camelback of now suspect integrity in 2015, volunteered a baffling defence for Ganduje. He swore Ganduje was most probably participating in a Kannywood movie, the way the film industry up North is described. Buhari who has never been known to operate a tablet, nay a notepad, suggested that advanced technology could actually simulate what we all saw in that short clip!
Ganduje was the prototype alagbara ma m’ero as we say in Yoruba. This interpretes as the “maximally muscular, minimally reasonable.” He fought a few other prominent Kano leaders during his heydays in Government House. Recall he carried his unabated squabbles with one of his predecessors, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to the State House, Aso Villa, during the early weeks of the Bola Tinubu government. Told on one occasion that Kwankwaso was in a particular section of Aso Rock same time as he was in the complex, a vexed Ganduje said Kwankwaso should consider himself fortunate. He said he, Ganduje would have slapped Kwankwaso if he sighted him in the Villa! That would have caused a scene in Nigeria’s seat of power. I’m now just imagining how Tinubu would be trying to restrain Ganduje, in the forecourt of the office of the President, while Vice President Kashim Shettima will be pulling at Kwankwaso’s agbada in a bid to manage the situation.
Ganduje reportedly considered Sanusi too independent-minded and outspoken for a natural ruler. Sanusi was governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), before being appointed Emir in 2014. He had always had a radical streak about him which culminated in his suspension as CBN head in 2014 for blowing the whistle on the theft of $20 Billion in accruals from crude oil sales. As Emir he considered aspects of the religious and cultural practices of his emirate repugnant. He opposed the “ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam” in some parts of northern Nigeria, which discouraged girl-child education, family planning, even inoculation against potential healthcare afflictions. He had reservations about the style of Ganduje as governor and didn’t put a veil over his dislike for the return of Ganduje to Government House in 2019.
He believed Ganduje shouldn’t have made it back if the poll was fairly and transparently conducted. March 9, 2020, Ganduje upended Sanusi. He was accused of negatively impacting the sanctity, culture, tradition, religion and prestige of the Kano emirate, and disrespecting the governor’s office. He was also alleged to have disposed of property belonging to the state and the misappropriated of the proceeds. It was a case of digging several manholes for a prey in a bid to ensure he falls into one of the several traps. He was summarily banished to Nasarawa State for effect. Sanusi sought reprieve in the courts which ruled it was an overkill to fling him to a remote community faraway from his family and more accustomed home in Lagos. Within a few days, Nasir El Rufai, Sanusi’s longstanding friend who was governor of Kaduna State, personally enforced the evacuation of Sanusi from Awe local government area in Nasarawa State.
For whatever his contributions were to the emergence of Tinubu as president after the 2023 polls, Ganduje believed he would be compensated with a ministerial slot in the former’s regime. Like Nyesom Wike, David Umahi, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, Atiku Bagudu, Simon Lalong, former governors of Rivers, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Kebbi and Plateau states, Ganduje dusted his curriculum vitae to pitch for a slot on Tinubu’s federal executive council. His five colleagues in the “2015 – 2019- 2023 class of governors” made the cut, not Ganduje. Tinubu spontaneously made him chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC], the vehicle which delivered him as president. Abdullahi Adamu his predecessor and former governor of Nasarawa State was, as has become standard practice in Nigeria’s notorious political rule book, schemed out and compelled to resign from office.
If Ganduje ever thought his chairmanship of the APC was going to be a walk in the park, he was thoroughly mistaken. Indeed, he’s grossed sufficient experience in his present office to know that there are sharp differences between wholesale insulation in Government House, and the inevitable overexposure of party leadership. Last April, a faction of the APC in Ganduje’s primary “Ganduje ward” in Dawakin Tofa local government area of his home state, Kano, suspended him from the party. Haladu Gwanjo, legal adviser of Ganduje’s ward led some party leaders to pronounce the suspension. They advocated the return of the national chairmanship of the APC to the north central zone, where Ganduje’s predecessor, Adamu, hails from. The young Turks canvassed due process in party administration, consistent with the “renewed hope” mantra of the APC. Ganduje made a hurried recourse to the law courts for momentary reprieve.
Thursday May 23, 2024, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was reinstated as Emir of Kano by Ganduje’s successor in Kano State, Abba Yusuf. His cousin and successor, Aminu Ado-Bayero, was unceremoniously removed from office. The splinter emirates created by Ganduje in his bid to whittle down Sanusi’s authority as prime monarch in Kano, were similarly dissolved. The edifice which Ganduje built four years ago was apparently built of straw and spittle. Governor Abba Yusuf is a product of the Kwankwasiya political tendency in Kano politics, a creation of Rabiu Kwankwaso. Those who know a little about Nigerian politics will recall that Kwankwaso’s emergence in our politics, predates the fourth republic. He was an ardent student of the talakawa political orientation, pioneered by the venerable Kano-born leader, Aminu Kano. Kwankwaso was Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives of the Ibrahim Babangida political experimentation of 1992 to 1993.
Whereas the Kwankwasiya movement had long been entrenched, it was not until the run-up to the 2023 elections that Kwankwaso adopted a new platform, the Nigeria National People’s Party, (NNPP), on which he is espousing the populist philosophy of the Kwankwasiya brigade. Abba Yusuf rode to office on the back of this invention. It was the same way Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu the famous Biafran war lord, established the All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA) in Anambra State. The party has remained a force in the politics of the state and indeed the south east. It has produced three Anambra governors in succession, notably Peter Obi, Willie Obiano and the incumbent Chukwuma Soludo.
Abba Yusuf has made no pretences about his disdain for Ganduje and everything he represents. Much as some of Yusuf’s early actions in office were generally perceived as wasteful, he nonetheless brought down as many edifices in Kano as bore the imprimatur of Ganduje. The “Kano golden jubilee roundabout” built to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the creation of Kano State and structures built inside the filin sukuwa, (Kano race course), were hewn on Yusuf’s orders. The hajj camp which was reportedly bastardised by Ganduje who allegedly parcelled parts of it to his friends and associates was equally felled. There were suggestions that the value of the demolitions carried out by Yusuf could be in excess of N200Billion. Such is the anti-Ganduje sentiment in contemporary Kano State.
The way and manner the legacies of Abdullahi Ganduje are unravelling in Kano State should serve as a lesson to the shortsighted, incapable of seeing beyond the bridges of their nose. History is replete with the deconstruction of many leaders after their rulership and indeed keeps repeating itself in our sociopolitical experience. Those who are not circumspect, however, are too distracted by the allure and bliss of their immediate office, to think. They continue to drift, blunder and flounder, unmindful that time is their ultimate nemesis. Ganduje is just one year out of office, yet many of the decisions he made while in power for eight years are being unmade and thrown at his face like rotten tomatoes.
Until I joined him on the table he was seated at a wedding reception we both attended in Lagos a few weeks back, Rotimi Amaechi, governor of the oil-affluent Rivers State for eight years and Transportation Minister for another eight years was a lonely man. It turned out we flew back to Abuja on the same flight same evening after the event and sat not too far from each other. He opened the overhead locker atop his seat to bring out his luggage himself. Is anyone following the Yahaya Bello saga? He mindlessly trampled upon the hapless heads of his constituents in Kogi State for eight unbroken years? He left office last January and life has not been the same again. He has been declared wanted by at least one anti-graft agency. He will be arraigned in the rectangular, wood-panelled cubicle of the courtroom in a fortnight. A lesson for all.
Tunde Olusunle, PhD, is a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA)
-
Crime1 year ago
Police nabs Killer of Varsity Lecturer in Niger
-
News1 year ago
FCT-IRS tells socialite Aisha Achimugu not to forget to file her annual returns
-
Appointment1 year ago
Tinubu names El-Rufai, Tope Fasua, others in New appointments
-
News From Kogi1 year ago
INEC cancells election in 67 polling units in Ogori-Magongo in Kogi
-
News From Kogi2 years ago
Echocho Challenges Tribunal Judgment ordering rerun in 94 polling units
-
News1 year ago
IPOB: Simon Ekpa gives reason for seperatists clamour for Biafra
-
Metro12 months ago
‘Listing Simon Ekpa among wanted persons by Nigeria military is rascality, intimidation’
-
News1 year ago
Kingmakers of Igu/ Koton-Karfe dare Bello, urge him to reverse deposition of Ohimege-Igu