Between Dictatorship And Democratic Governance In Kaduna State
The Oasis Reporters
December 15, 2018
A dictatorship is a system of government in which all powers are vested in just an individual or a tiny group of individuals. Democracy on the other hand is, by way of a pedestrian definition, said to be a government which distills from the will of the people as expressed in credible, free and fair periodically organized elections in which more than one political party participates.
Prior to their departing our shores, the colonialist ensured that they put the newly independent nation called Nigeria on a democratic path. Sixty years on, this nation is still grappling with getting our democracy right. The problem is not that of the voting public, but of the manipulative interests of the elite who when they get to power or other positions of authority, proceed to devise schemes that will perpetually keep them in power.
Agreed that the number of times the military punctuated the democratic process in this country may perhaps be to blame for what is rightly called our stunted democracy. This nation inherited a parliamentary system of government which was short-lived when the first military coup took place. In due course the military leadership forced down our throats an alien presidential system of government, plagiarized from the United States of America. This system is fast becoming an albatross in the light of its high and almost outrageous operating cost. Adjustments can or could have been made to reduce the cost and to make other necessary adjustments as is necessary through constitutional amendment processes. Having tasted political power, none of those currently holding power will ever let some of those powers be whittled down. This coupled with the fact that those in executive positions enjoy immunity from prosecution while their tenure lasts. It is the immunity that may have made some of the characters to transform themselves to dictators as is the case with Kaduna State under the brutish regime of Mallam Nasiru El Rufai.
In Kaduna State, 2015 will remain an indelible year in our minds for it is the year the voting population in the State made the greatest mistake of their lives voting for a disguised dictator in the robes of a democrat. To be fair to our people, much of the blame should be borne by the Buhari storm that swept many off their feet. At that time, it did not really matter the quality and or character of a candidate so long as such was on the same ticket with Buhari, victory was as good as assured especially in the North of the country, Nigeria.
Buhari it must be recalled technically subverted the will of the people of Kaduna State when he clearly showed his preferences for the candidature of Mallam Nasiru El Rufai for governorship of our State rather too early in the day. If the truth must be told, our people voted for the name ” Buhari” during the governorship election, not for the person of the disguised dictator in El Rufai but largely on account of the message and expectation of CHANGE which Buhari represented at that time .
It did not take long for El Rufai’s dictatorship to bare its fangs. If there was any truth in his campaign manifesto tagged ” Let’s Make Kaduna Great Again ” did it make sense embarking on the heartless exercises of demolishing people’s properties including business premises?
If the dictator had any positive ideas at all which were targeted to benefit the people, Kaduna State is not short of land therefore, a new Kaduna city could have been started instead of demolishing what mainly the poor had struggled over the years to build. Be it noted that after almost 4 years as governor, there is nothing of worth that the dictatorship of Mallam Nasiru El Rufai has built in Kaduna city or elsewhere in the State.
Whilst developmental projects have been completed and commissioned under focused leadership in other States of this country, in Kaduna State the population has for lack of a more subtle word been under siege. The very first insulting message he had for us was to decree that there are no indigenes in Kaduna. This was the foundation he needed to lay in justifying the hordes of aliens from other States he injected into the government of the State, this he did while retiring those staff who occupied those positions prior. Sadly one of those he brought along has been a serial failure in the banking and possibly other businesses. Assuming that the workforce in Kaduna is not good enough, is it not El Rufai’s responsibility to grow it up to the level he can work with? Four years down the line and with the so-called experts imported into the State, is there anything to show for it ?
This man, El Rufai is yet to come to terms with the fact that it is the votes from the electorate of Kaduna State that made him governor, not just his much hyped excellence. You can distil this arrogance from his manner of speech and the way he flaunts himself around. He came to Kaduna on a vengeance mission to avenge and to compensate his supposed Fulani kinsmen who in his warped way of thinking were wronged back in the 2011 post election violence which in any case was not limited to Southern Kaduna. The man quickly despatched emissaries to some West African States to track down those kinsmen of his for monetary compensation. How he sourced the money for this project must be subject of an enquiry after he vacates Sir Kashim Ibrahim House and for sure this will come to pass in 2019, Insha Allah.
Viewed from another prism, Malam Nasiru El Rufai is behaving as a 21st Century jihadist for when earlier in his administration, either by design or accident Fulani or other foreign terrorists subjected the Southern part of the State to a sustained genocide, Mallam’s response as Chief Security Officer of the State left much to be desired. He called the victim population, “troublemakers” and proceeded to impose a crushing curfew and the closure of all tertiary institutions for months. All this was coming from a man who came to power promising to Make Kaduna Great Again.
His language style is so full of hate that he does not spare the departed. At a function in Yar’Adua auditorium here in Kaduna, he boasted about how 2 former presidents dared him and he prevailed over all of them consigning one to his grave and despatching the other to his village Otuoke.
He did not spare our political forebears either for he accused them of not doing anything worth the while to grow this nation after winning freedom for the nation rather they simply recoiled into their ethnic cocoons. He now has had the opportunity to make the difference but all we are being treated to is very reckless and incendiary speeches.
For a fact, the Mallam reminds many who listen to him speak of the comedian Nigerians call Basketmouth and as he puts out his venom, he foams in the mouth.
This 21st Century dictator has literally turned virtually every tenet or norm of democratic behaviour on its head through a combination of his actions or inactions. It is said that some of the expired laws of the defunct Northern Region providing for the names of 3 candidates to be forwarded to government for its pick in the event a vacancy is created in the traditional leadership of any areas. Funny as it is the 3 names so forwarded distilled from a seeming democratic process in which the kingmakers voted. The government has had a culture of picking whoever it believes will serve its purpose better even if such a pick got the least number of votes. This amounts to a deliberate overthrow of the will of the community concerned.
Without request from some of the Chiefdoms in mostly Southern Kaduna, the dictator has taken it upon himself to set up a dubious Committee tasked with redesignating the nomenclature of these Chiefdoms. As is to be expected, the Committee simply became a rubber stamp, thus returning the expected verdict the dictator had directed it to return. This runs quite contrary to the will of the communities concerned.
The case of the Adara Chiefdom whose monarch was violently taken hostage within his domain and subsequently murdered by suspected terrorists jihadists is still unresolved. The dictatorship has gone ahead to divide Adara Chiefdom into 2, with the titles of Chief of Kachia and Chief of Kajuru. Everyone including idiots amongst must know what the dictator is pursuant to. He will not succeed because he is a mortal and a passing phenomenon as the affected communities will resist him.
As put out by late Moshood Abiola, you cannot give anyone a haircut without the individual making available his head. Malam Nasiru El Rufai does not know this and he will obviously not avail himself of the opportunity to learn. He has further gone ahead to unilaterally carve out his highly favoured Fulani settlement of Laduga out of Zangon Kataf local government area annexing or grafting it to Kachia LGA. Does El Rufai have the powers to act in such an arbitrary manner or is he not acting on orders from some higher quarters?
If the dictator in the lead up to the 2019 general elections can come out boasting that his re-election as governor in 2019 is a done deal, it should prompt all patriotic Kaduna State indigenes to be suspect of what he may be up to. Some of us are already aware of the strategy he intends to deploy in his re-election bid. This strategy is anchored on the main opposition PDP making the blunder of fielding an ineligible governorship candidate for whatever reason/s which even though he wins through the ballot, the dictator will then proceed to court challenging the outcome. With the right evidence produced before the court, the outcome will then change. The El Rufai dictatorship has already shot itself on the foot by embarking on the all Muslim ticket which is an affront to the sensibilities of many Muslims in the State including some prominent clerics.
There is no way the El Rufai dictatorship can retain power come 2019 except through a systematic manipulation of religious cleavages. Even here, he will almost certainly fail because he has failed to comport himself as a true Muslim. The government of El Rufai in Kaduna State has only benefited his family members, friends and cronies. Recall the auction of Kaduna State government landed properties to a select group of family members, friends and cronies. The dictatorship summarily sacked almost 22,000 primary school teachers without the humanity of paying their terminal benefits while leaving the pupils mostly in dilapidated classrooms without teachers yet he told us all he wanted to Make Kaduna Great Again. What a deceit!
What about our traditional rulers many of whom he ridiculed and then sacked. Without respecting the traditional rulers, who is there that this Mallam respects? The Malam must know just in case he does not already know that WE the people of Kaduna State are primed up to overthrowing his dictatorship with our votes come 2019.
Written by Col. Dauda Gora (rtd)
