Just yesterday, I read a treatise by one Dr Gambo Alkali with the caption “Why President Buhari should be neutral in Adamawa Guber-Race”. In both content and context, I found the article lacking in depth and substance, with serious pitfalls and widening gaps in logic and fundamentals. It is for this glaring flaw arising from inadequacies of political knowledge, has become expedient to critically examine the issues raised, not necessarily to join issues, if any, but to correct the erroneous impressions and obvious misrepresentation of facts that were the lot of that compromised article.
Comments like this coming from a man of “letters” with a prefix of (Dr.) to his name is to me a product of intellectual laziness that if allowed to flow, may likely cross the rubicon of decency in a normal democratic setting. There is no clear demonstration of vision and mission as that piece could only find space in a college magazine, hence the need to correct the narrative and its likely collateral damage that may influence some less endowed collective psyches.
In the said article, Alkali went on a voyage of infamy by staging a one man protest as to why President Muhammadu Buhari should pose for photograph with his brother-in-law Dr Mahmoud and one of the leading contenders to the office of Governor of Adamawa in 2019.
He said “In the picture, President Buhari was in a ceremonious mood with his brother-in-law and Adamawa Guber-aspirant, Mahmoud Halilu (Modi) after the later picked his expression of interest and nomination forms to contest for the Adamawa Governorship in 2019”.
Assuming, without conceding to the fact that the President posed for a photograph and in ceremonious mood with his brother-in-law, has there been any law in the Nigerian Constitution that prevents the President from taking photographs with family members and other ordinary Nigerians?
How does a harmless picture translate to endorsement or votes at the primaries when Governor Bindo has succeeded in handpicking delegates and pocketing same under the proposed indirect primaries?
For the purpose of records, it will be interesting to note that President Buhari is a natural leader, a mentor, a grassroots mobilizer, a bridge builder and a compassionate democrat whose love for humanity found its deepest and most profound expression in his commitment to social justice, transparency and optimum accountability in the process of good governance. The President does not compromise standards and may not likely be in sync with people with low level political culture, shallow intellectual capital and less credibility to govern a state as endowed as Adamawa.
With all the above attributes of a highly respected statesman in Sub-Saharan Africa, do we expect the President to pose for a photograph with Atiku’s in-law who purchased a PDP form to contest for the seat of Governor of Adamawa State?
Dr. Mahmoud Halilu (Modi) is not only an in-law to the PMB but is a son to the President. Since childhood up to the present, Dr. Halilu popularly referred as “Modi Buhari” has steadily and of course progressively learnt the ropes of politics, patience, good conduct, clinical human relations, loyalty, steadfastness and incorruptibility in public conduct.
Imbibing the virtues of Mr. President, Dr. Halilu grew up with the culture of fairness and high respect for the elderly. As a man of high intellect, the Guber-aspirant is distinct and respected for his unbendable principles, moral rectitude, psychological stability and above all transparency and credibility in the process of good governance.
In his article, Dr. Alkali, has failed to tell the people of Adamawa that Governor Bindo has woefully failed the state in the last three years of his administration. Here was a Governor that came with promising potentials to develop the state but due to short term vision and long term intellectual inadequacies the man bestrode the state like a colossus with deceptive impunity and utter pretenses. With a nauseating appellation of “Digital” another name for crude lies and stone-age deceit, why should a state, abundantly blessed by enviable flora and fauna with limitless potentials in human capital be governed by an intellectual “Lilliputian”?
As a Governor that relishes the presence of court jesters, coupon clippers and nay-sayers around him, who says that Adamawa should not have a viable and vibrant alternative that could change the narrative? With little or no solid personal achievements beyond the legacies of business acumen and interpersonal relations of his forebears, Governor Bindo has performed abysmally low and the state is slowly but gradually drifting to the bottomless pit of infamy. If I were to assess the Governor’s performance profile in the last three years, I think he does not have the gusto, acceptable moral template and the competent administrative acumen to successfully govern a very organized Local Government Council.
With the level of governance deteriorating from the sublime to the ridiculous due mainly to the preponderance of mediocrity and iniquity, Adamawa is seriously suffering from high unemployment rate, acute administrative neglect, crumbling social infrastructure, collapse of the education sector, social deprivation, endemic social malaise, abject poverty, filth and squalor. This typifies the frivolous, insensitive and inept leadership of a government on auto-pilot.
In this era where brilliance is uppermost in dazzling mediocrity, where scholarship obliterates darkness and public good takes over public relations, the coming into the race of Dr Modi to govern Adamawa under All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019 should be seen as a welcome development by all men and women of good conscience.
There is no sentiment in politics and the desperate effort made by Dr. Alkali to weep up sentiments by bringing in the President and his wife into the arena must be condemned by Democrats of Conscience.
Dr. Halilu (Modi), with two Master Degrees in International Affairs and Diplomacy as well as in Business Administration from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University Zaria is coming into the race with credible potentials and rich Resume.
With over 20 years post graduate experience in public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy, Dr Modi in 2007 ventured into the murky waters of the Nigerian politics where he contested the general elections for House of Representatives to represent Yola North, Yola South and Girei Federal Constituencies.
In his letter to the state chairman of the APC in Adamawa, on his expression of interest to join the 2019 Guber-race, Dr. Modi comes in with well-conceived concepts, vibrant ideas and promising potentials to reposition the state to meet the challenges of the new democratic order.
He state that “Adamawa state has been confronted with many challenges which could ordinarily be turned to opportunities for the general well-being of our people and my decision to contest for the office of Governor is borne out of patriotic and nationalistic desire to positively respond to our generational challenges”.
Dr. Halilu stated that he has made far reaching deliberations and wide consultations with critical stakeholders of the party in the state and has reached a conclusion based on the yearnings and aspirations of the people to offer himself to contest for the office of Governor in 2019.
Dr. Modi has a larger vision in the governance of Adamawa as he plans to provide modern social infrastructure, enhance human capital development, and improve the welfare and wellbeing of the civil servants through prompt payment of salaries and entitlements. Pension will be a matter of right, not privileges.
He said he will take appropriate action to provide functional education, modern healthcare delivery and sufficiency in food production. That, his idea of governance is not only to limit his scope of providing substandard roads that were allegedly doled out in outrageous sums and repainting of few schools but total overhaul of the system to provide the much sought after dividends of democracy and total eradication of poverty.
He promises to operate, if voted into office an open door policy and an administrative template that would operate on the fear of God, where honest, transparent and selfless approach to governance will be its focal point. He will tame insecurity, turn round the state’s economy for good governance and fiscal prudence and fight high profile corruption and monumental looting of the public till.
Hamman is an Abuja based Journalist.
