YAKAWADA : RUNNING AGAINST THE BURDEN OF PRINCIPLES
The Oasis Reporters
August 19, 2017
Malam Samaila Yakawada, a former Local Government Chairman of Giwa Local Government Area, governorship aspirant of Kaduna State during the 2007 general elections, who was later appointed the Secretary to State Government (SSG) during the tenure of late Governor Patrick Yakowa, and presently a serving as the Chairman, Governing Board of Kaduna State Development and Property Company (KSDPC), has been appointed as the Senior Adviser and Counselor, Political, to Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai of Kaduna State.
Considering his political footprints, Yakawada has been a grassroots politician from his tender age. The most important ingredient of any good politician is hinged on high sense of sensitivity to the yearnings and aspirations of the diverse people they aspire to lead or are leading. Without this high sense of sensitivity to people’s interest, the aspiring politician or leader risks been ineffective.
The people of Southern Kaduna over time have been playing the second fiddle in the politics of the state. Through the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in May 2010, it led to the elevation of former Governor Mohammed Namadi Sambo to the position of Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This action paved the way for the elevation of Late Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa to become the Governor of Kaduna State. Yakowa was later to indicate interest in occupying the coveted seat of Kaduna State Governor in 2011.
Yakawada, a detribalized leader, played a significant role in the campaigns that led to the emergence of Yakowa as governor. As a matter of fact, he delivered Giwa; a Muslim dominated Local Government Area to Yakowa. The visible and audible message to both the blind and the deaf was that anybody in Kaduna State can aspire to become anything without limitations, if only they play the game according to her rules. This show of love and support for Yakowa endeared Yakawada to the Southern Kaduna people, and he remains a respected political figure who is being held in high esteem.
Recently, keen observers of Kaduna State body polity would agree that the Southern Kaduna people have not had it so bad than now. Appointments are done in such a manner that is alien to the spirit and letter of our Constitution that preaches equity and all-inclusiveness.
For the first time in the history of our dear state, you have the Head of Service, Secretary to the State Government, Accountant General, Federal Minister, the Governor by virtue of Birth and Family History, Ambassador, Executive Secretaries of State agencies from Kwarbai Ward in Zaria Local Government Area, to be precise. This complete alienation accounts for the major demand and agitations for the change of the el-Rufai-led administration.
From Makarfi to Sanga, from Birnin Gwari to Kagarko, all and sundry are feeling used, dumped and betrayed.
The appointment of Yakawada as Senior Adviser and Counselor to el-Rufai on Political Affairs is done with the sole mandate of cleansing the Augean stable that was created by some political appointees of the governor.
‘I too know’ mentality of the state governor has become so herculean a task that it really needs to be tackled before things get awry. The deliberate surrendering of the state to some imported Yoruba and Igbo aides is akin to political blasphemy that won’t be forgiven by core politicians who worked assiduously for the success of the governor.
In order to foster true reconciliation and clear the path for 2019, it is expected that the governor has concluded plans to sacrifice his childhood friends occupying the positions of Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Political Adviser, Chief of Staff and his foster sister, Mrs Zainab Shamsunna, who is the Minister of State Budget and National Planning.
It is unlikely that el-Rufai may upset the apple cart. But if he eventually does that, there is already a situation of mutual distrust, as many would believe that the governor is only playing a game to win re-election and, thereafter, revert back to status quo ante.
As a matter of principle, what we are seeing in Kaduna State today is not what the late Yakowa and Samaila Yakawada stood for. For the former SSG to accept an appointment by the el-Rufai-led government; such an act amounts to a gross betrayal of Yakowa.
If Yakawada was willing to step aside as soon he heard of Yakowa’s demise, of what relevance is the position of Senior Adviser, Counselor to Yakawada? This office is strange as it was created by el-Rufai’s friend, Mr. Jimmy Adebisi Lawal.
We do not want to believe that Yakawada is part of the people advising the governor to take the path he is taking. He once claimed that he is thinking of the next generation, not the next election.
With the governor’s employment of the services of the Giwa-born politician to head his political machinery that is in shambles, we believe that the governor is plotting a re-election bid.
Before Yakawada accepts to serve in the el-Rufai-led administration, he should beware that the governor once betrayed and insulted former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who brought him to national limelight. His recent fallout and open betrayal of Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi and the role played in bringing him to occupy the seat he is occupying now should serve as a lesson to respectable leaders like Yakawada. The role the governor played in ensuring that there was no primary election in Sabon Gari Federal constituency of Kaduna, thereby denying your younger brother, Sadiq Ango Abdullahi fair play is an open secret that has manifested in the way he nominated rather than ensuring election of National delegates for our party that has further divided our party is a clear example.
Another burden before you is the severed relationship between your father, Prof Ango Abdullahi and the state government. Mallam Uba Sani recently insulted your father because he dared to air his inalienable right to freedom of expression, which tacitly entails that the government does not have any respect for you, if it were not so, they wouldn’t have insulted your father publicly and later come back to the same family to pick you to do such a difficult job for them. This same vilified Ango Abdullahi played a significant role in unifying the north thereby consolidating the SAK phenomenon that brought about this government, if it were not so, we wouldn’t have been here today discussing an insensitive leader such as El-Rufai.
This is not the best job for Yakawada for now; he deserves a better one; not this ‘clearing and forwarding’ agent task.
The burden before you is choosing between fattening your account and the principle you are known for . If I were in your shoes, I would thank the government for finding me worthy of such a task, and admonish them to look elsewhere as I do not have the moral standing working for a government that has destroyed all that we built over time.
Written by Squadron Leader Eric B Sule (Rtd)
