ZAMFARA STATE: MELTING THE METAL GREED OF LEGAL ROGUES by SHABA MAFU.

Zamfara State has always been known for its peculiarity. When democracy was restored in Nigeria in 1999, it was Zamfara State that introduced Sharia law as a full-blown legal system in the State defying the secularity of the Nigerian constitution. This was when Alhaji Shetima Yerima was the Governor. The legal system ‘died’ a natural death as rightly predicted by the then President of Nigeria, Chief Olushegun Matthew Aremu Obasanjo. The State has also been ruled most times by the opposition parties of the ANPP and the APC, until the present Governor who came to power of what could be seen as divine intervention. He is of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, the PDP.

In the run-up to the gubernatorial elections in the State held on March 9, 2019, the then ruling party in the State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) could not conduct acceptable primaries that met the conditions and acceptability of the Electoral Umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC). The candidates produced by the primaries were all rejected by Professor Mahmoud Yakubu-led INEC. Intrigues, court judgments, and counter-judgments reeled out from Nigerian Courts just to ensure that the APC participated in the elections. The party actually participated in the elections by virtue of the Appeal Court ruling. Unfortunately for them, at the end of the exercise, the Supreme Court in its lead judgment by Justice Paul  Adamu Galinji on the 24^th May, 2019, held that all the votes cast for the APC during the elections were ‘wasted votes”.  He further declared that all the political parties with the highest second votes in the elections and the required spread are elected into the various elective positions. This was the circumstance that brought the incumbent Governor Bello Matawalle into the exalted position as the Governor of Zamfara State.

When the Governor assumed office, it appeared that the bandits too in Zamfara were all waiting to be equally sworn in to their own offices with him. Zamfara State in no time was besieged with bandits and kidnappers and it appeared there was war in the entire State. The Governor in his dexterity thought of what to do to curb this unacceptable and unprecedented tide of violence and insecurity. In his wits, he proposed and declared amnesty for repentant bandits. The decision was criticized by many. But as a man in the conviction of his own vision, he remained undeterred by the criticisms. Like an esoteric magical wand, no sooner than later after the declared amnesty, the spate of insecurity in the State subsided drastically and dramatically, as bandits voluntarily surrendered and 'submitted' their weapons of destruction to the Amnesty Committee. This was a feat on the side of this Governor.

Some days ago, the immediate past Governor of the State Alhaji Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari wrote a letter to the Governor that his monthly upkeep of N10 Million (Ten Million Naira) and his pensions have not been paid for some time now. The former House of Assembly, when Abdulaziz was the Governor of the State under the APC rule, had passed a bill signed into law that all former Governors and their Deputies, the Speakers, and their Deputies were entitled to some whooping monthly upkeep running into millions of Naira. This was what the former Governor banked upon to write a reminder to the incumbent Governor Matawalle. Yari complaining that since he has left office, he was only paid his monthly N10Million, just twice, that was in the moths of June and July 2019.

In a deft move by the action Governor, he coordinated an assault against this repressive law passed by the previous government. Without any iota of conscience, how could a past Governor be demanding the sum of N10 Million every month for his upkeep, besides his monthly pensions? The present crop of divinely elected or appointed leaders in Zamfara State has abolished this so-called law that was on the side of the legal rogues.  This is the action of a man who has a vision for the common man.  The demand of former Governor Yari is not only selfish and roguish but a dearth of common sense of feeling for a feeble economy such as Zamfara's.

In the first instance, how does Yari want Zamfara State to sustain the dolling out of such an amount of money to someone who ought to be thinking of what further contributions he could make to such a State? How can a State that is struggling to pay its pensioners and workers their entitlements, be equally struggling to service roguish entitlements of past leaders? There are civil servants that have served the government for the statutory thirty-five years whose cumulative pensions are not up to what Yari would earn in a month. If the former Governor is paid N10 Million every month, then in a year he earns N120 Million for grossly doing nothing for the State apart from gallivanting everywhere across the globe brandishing his former status as a former Governor of a poor State. We must commend Governor Matawalle for stopping this metal thievery. What he did is beyond the rudimental and sick politicking in Nigeria. Any right-thinking mind will commend this action irrespective of party affiliation.

We urge other States executing this inordinate illegality to emulate the decision of the incumbent Governor of Zamfara State and stop this executive stealing. More so, the Governors Forum should use that platform to learn from one another. It is not formed to take a common front on how to cheat the governed, for instance, arriving at a consensus on not paying the new minimum wage to workers or their grand plan of becoming Senators after their tenure is ended. Wise and sagacious Governors like Matawalle of Zamfara State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State are good points of reference for prompt emulation by other Governors. These are men of great coordination and wisdom to rule. The Governors Forum should be a forum to borrow and share sophisticated and helpful ideas for good governance.

Compliments to Governor Matawalle and the current Zamfara State House of Assembly for expeditiously enacting a law abolishing the deliberate waste of State resources. If APC had won Zamfara State this time, such waste could not have been curtailed because of partisan party affiliation and primordial solidarity. More so, the idol of godfatherism would have played a vital part, particularly if Yari was instrumental to the emergence of his successor. The coming of Governor Matawalle and his team was divine from all reckoning so far.

BAYELSA ELECTION: IS DR GOODLUCK JONATHAN A CIVILIAN COUP PLOTTER? By Mafu SHABA.

If prophets descended raw from Heaven and told Nigerians, and particularly the Bayelsans that Bayelsa State would be overrun by the opposition political party in the State, the All Progressives Congress, in the November 16, 2019, gubernatorial elections, no one would readily believe. What happened in 2015 when the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was summarily dislodged by the All Peoples Congress in the presidential elections was replicated in Bayelsa state after twenty years of PDP’s holding forth in that State. Coincidentally or is it by fate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan former Nigerian President was involved in both events either actively or passively.

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is from Bayelsa State; a strong PDP State since 1999 when democracy was restored to Nigeria. He has been in that party for the past twenty years. It was on this political party that he became the President of Nigeria in 2011. But since 2015, the APC has been ruling at the national level following the defeat of then-President Goodluck Jonathan in the general elections held that year. In 2019, Bayelsa State, the home State of Jonathan has fallen into the hands of the APC as well. So he is primarily breathing in the APC political air wherever he goes in Nigeria, even right in his own state.

On Saturday, November 16, 2019, there was an election in Kogi and Bayelsa States of Nigeria for gubernatorial seats. Both States were won by the APC. More mesmerizing was the defeat of the PDP in Bayelsa State.  Kogi State was hotly contested with all intrigues and alleged violence involved. Summarily, the APC won in Kogi State. The defeat of the PDP in Bayelsa State was more surprising. 

The incumbent Governor, Mr. Seriake Henry Dickson’s name will go down memory lane on how in his time PDP in Bayelsa State fell into the hands of the opposition party just as Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s name has already been engraved to history as the first civilian President to be defeated by an opposition party in Nigeria’s political history. It was learnt that Bayelsa PDP fell primarily because of the internal wrangling occasioned by the alleged acidic selfishness of the incumbent Governor who like his political counterparts around the country was eyeing the Senatorial seat after he has left office. And that he wanted to single-handedly pick his successor, Duoye Diri, to occupy the Government seat. This selfishness did not obviously go down well with most party leaders.

The stance of the Governor prompted the visit of two former Presidents of the country. They were Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan; both former Presidents were produced by the PDP. They visited Seriake Dickson possibly to convince him to drop or adjust his suicidal plans. The Governor allegedly rebuffed the visit of these wise men.  The consequence was the summary defeat of the Governor and his party and the consequent victory of the opposition 

Before the elections, the mother of Dr. Jonathan prayed for the APC candidate, David Lyon. Dr. Jonathan was said to have also told Bayelsans to vote for the candidate of their choice since both candidates of the APC and the PDP were all his ‘children’. This was a subtle way of not endorsing the candidate of the PDP, Duoye Diri. Before the Election Day, it was seen that the APC candidate, Lyon, who is now the Governor-elect was seen in the house of Dr. Jonathan, portending to the fact that the former President has thrown his political weight behind him. In all these, the incumbent Dickson remained irredeemably adamant to all known realities of the possible outcome of the Bayelsa elections. He stuck to his guns like the characteristic Nigerian politicians whose lives are consumed by deadly selfishness. Dickson did not care what the consequences of his actions would cost him and the entire party.  Rather than concede personal egotism, he placed his party on the slaughter slab for deliberate butchering. And butchering they did actually!

Now that the ruling party has lost its ground to the opposition in Bayelsa State, some have begun to point to Dr. Jonathan that he was the one that planned the civilian coup that ousted the PDP in Bayelsa State. I personally disagree with this submission. Jonathan visited Dickson; he humbled himself and respected the office of the Governor by the visit. I am not personally surprised because Jonathan has been known for his humility. The two former presidents tried to remove the log of wood from Seriake’s eyes. But the Governor ordered for more superglue to fasten the bolts of his glaucoma as precipitated by his suicidal selfishness. If Jonathan’s mother prayed for Lyon, she has a right to do so as an elder, a mother, a mother of a national figure.  Dickson downplayed the power of Elders. Many may have been seriously aggrieved for his rebuffing the visits of the former Presidents and hiss grand design to outwit the entire state. This, therefore, led to a protest vote by the Bayelsans.  If PDP had won, it could have been compared with the elongation of the hitherto political dynasty of the Sarakis in Kwara State; but the Bayelsans are not Kwarans The best way to treat pride and obstinacy is to puncture the tube of their survival.

Dr. Jonathan should be left alone; for he is not a civilian coup plotter. All blame should be heaped firmly on the head of Seriake Dickson and all the sycophants who urged him on in his selfishness, as he wanted to turn Bayelsa into his personal estate. I would also want the Nigerian electorates to learn from the people of Bayelsa State that they are well informed and no-nonsense people. It is a big lesson to the greedy; and also to the electorates that in sane climes, sovereignty belongs to the electorates (the People) in a democracy. True leaders are actually followers and not the other way round. Through the instrumentality of the ballot, we should sack any disgraceful and aberrant, self-conceited leaders. Partyism should settle as second fiddles in dealing with political deviants. We should settle for those ready to dispense the dividends of democracy as we elect leaders into political offices.

Finally, if anyone has any grievance against Jonathan concerning the alleged Malabu Oil deal, he should petition the EFCC. As for Bayelsa State, the APC will rule there for a long time.