Shekarau’s mandate, Jaafar’s phobia
By Ali M Ali
(aliyumaliyu@yahoo.com)
JAAFAR'S latest swipe ‘‘Shekarau’s Flag, Our Money’’, posted in his usual medium of calumny, Amanaonline.com at the symbolic flag given to Governor Ibrahim Shekarau recently in Gusau to fly in the impending polls by the ANPP national apparatchiks, once again confirms the age-long saying that ‘the Leopard can never change its spots’.
Jaafar is so well nourished from the pudding of sham that the idea of him being straight is inconceivable. I am pained to conclude that like the Leopard and its spots, a ‘truthful’ Jaafar will probably be unrecognizable. A leopard without its cursed spots is like Jaafar without Governor Shekarau to slander! A spotless Leopard and a Shekarauless Jaafar would probably just wander aimlessly on the face of the earth without a purpose.
In the last couple of months, Jaafar’s mission in life appears to be to defame the cast iron reputation of the venerated Malam built from childhood. Under the guise of criticism, an inalienable right in a democracy, which I wholesomely subscribe, I have watched with a mixture of morbid fascination and utter disbelief how this writer has dwelt, in a programmed manner, from the patently false (as in ‘‘Shekarau’s foreign account’’) to the pitifully insincere (‘‘Is Shekarau’s Human Development the Panacea?’’) and to the perfectly laughable and the latest (‘Shekarau’s Flag, Our Money’’).
A common theme permeates the first and last articles namely–--a failed but repeated effort to taint the snow white character of Shekarau by suggesting that the Governor had abused his office under oath which he swore before God and man.
I thought that Jaafar had turned a new leaf in both tact and language after his rhetorical piece ‘‘Is Shekarau’s Human Development the Panacea?’’
He was civil, broadminded and even frank in that persuasive sophistry. He was gracious by admitting that his capacity to understand the cornerstone policy of Shekarau’s government was limited. Listen to Jaafar’s rhetorics ‘‘for about four years of being carefully tutored to understand Shekarau’s “human development” project, this writer still feels none the wiser. Actually Shekarau administration has a way of defining its vague and hazy policies in copious guises. This ‘project,’ I am afraid, is all Greek to me’’.
I labored to tutor Jaafar what Shekarau’s Human Development was all about. I must have labored in vain. I thought that Jaafar was now better educated and informed about the focus and vision of the Shekarau government, I celebrated too early. He has learned nothing. He is not an imbecile. He is just stubbornly obdurate.
The charitable say you don’t celebrate the leper’s kid until he is 40 with all fingers intact. The unkind go a little further. They say a leper’s kid is celebrated only when he dies with all fingers integral!
Jaafar belongs to this category. His propaganda credentials are impressive. He is good. In the bare face lying department, this writer is in a class of his own. The man can lie through his teeth and thinks nothing of it. He believes in the Goebellian dictum that ‘‘a lie repeatedly told becomes the truth.’’
Ordinarily I would not have responded to his current mountain of lies against the person of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau given his track record except that I made a vow to respond to anyone who misrepresents Shekarau.
Jaafar has just done that. For the umpteenth time, this writer stood fact on its head. For the umpteenth time, I expose him for what he truly is/a phony who hides in the hazy sanctuary of the Internet to defame innocent leaders.
Of all the fabricated details of the heart warming events in Gusau, the one that really that stood out was the obvious sham disguised as the gospel truth.
Which suggested that Shekarau wasted public fund in his custody to receive ‘‘a piece of rag’’, the ANPP flag. Listen to Jaafar ‘‘I hear, straight from the horse’s mouth, that this piece of rag given to Shekarau by his party leadership cost Kano people about N400 million. A lump sum of 120 million was wasted on the purchase of mansion in Asokoro for the chairman of ANPP, Chief Godwin Ume-Ezeoke. A lot of top party officials got 20 million, 30 million, etc; depending on their respective ranks (it is no surprise when the national secretary of the party, Dr Kumo, was recently arrested by the EFCC.
“When I listened to my source telling me how our money that ought to have reflected on our welfare was criminally diverted to political horse-trading – or rightly for the purchase of ‘flag’ – my heart bled. If Shekarau has respect for public funds and is a good resource manager, he doesn’t need to go to Gusau and squander N400 million on the purchase of that piece of dummy fabric, with the party’s symbol embossed, that Audu Master Arts can “forge” for him at a cost less than N1000. N400, 000,000, I am told, can buy a substantial part of Kantin Kwari Market! But to my governor, public funds mean anything but takardar tsire (suya wrapping)!’’
Nothing can be further from the truth. It is easy to make wild unsubstantiated allegations against Shekarau. This writer is not the first. He certainly will not be the last. More acerbic critics with more poisonous pens and caustic tongues had treaded this infamous track of attempting to pull Shekarau down. They have all failed. This one too, will fail. In fact he has failed.
The idea of Operation-Stop-Shekarau (OSS) executed in phases was to maximally inflict political injury as to render him a political liability. All discernible stakeholders of the affairs of Kano know that the media campaign of calumny is only a part of a more elaborate well orchestrated plot unleashed on Shekarau by a very vindictive political cabal. Writers like Jaafar, are only an insignificant part of the bigger plot beyond Kano to unseat Malam before the impending polls. They know that in a direct election Shekarau will defeat all the jostling contenders and pretenders taking a shot at the gubernatorial election next month.
Only last Sunday March 11th,2007,Shekarau literally grinded Kano to a halt when he flagged off his campaign in metropolitan Kano.It took nearly six hours before he could drive through the city of Kano on account of the unprecedented crowds that gathered to wish him well and success. At a point close to the emir’s palace, a group of youth were so touched by Malam’s perseverance against a very powerful enemy, that after offering prayers they gave him money as their own widow’s mite. But this is a nobility that writer cannot comprehend because his paymasters have taught him to believe that there is no free lunch. That there is always catching somewhere!
Jaafar and the interests he represents are probably those after the public Till intent on playing father X-mas once they get the nod. Their fantasy that Malam has short changed the people of Kano is precisely what it is -- daydream.
They wish, in fact prayed and hoped, that Shekarau had cornered state resources for self aggrandisement so that they will have reasons to crucify him in the court of public opinion.
I challenge Jaafar to prove his allegations beyond the gossips of Teburin Mai Shayi and I vow to make a public apology.
In reality the smear campaign to stop Shekarau has failed. First against Malam was the charge of operating fantastic foreign account. EFCC probed and probed and probed. It found nothing to its chagrin. The enemy persisted.
They, again, whimsically alleged that the venerated Malam has illicitly bought choice property in Europe and Asia. Again, EFCC investigated and searched all the nooks and crannies of the world. Again, and not unexpectedly, found nothing. Fire spitting Ribadu, chair of the agency, himself admitted that Shekarau is innocent of all the allegations.
Jaafar and his people are paranoid of Shekarau’s mandate. Their phobia is that they have been demystified. They fancy themselves as tin footed political gods before whose omnipotent presence every politician must bow in deference of their capacity for evil. The wind has however, blown exposing the backside of the fowl. It is not pretty.
March 8th has come and gone. The date never fails. Shekarau is still the flag bearer. April is just a breath away. Unbelievers in the man’s mandate had better believe. By the special grace of Allah, Malam will renew his mandate and be sworn in for the second time on May 29th,2007. And what will Jaafar and co. say then? Let me hazard a guess.They will probably say that Malam had committed 300 billion naira to buy the nearly five million registered voters in Kano to secure victory. The date never fails.I can hardly wait.
Ali M. Ali, No. 248, Gyadi-Gyadi off Hospital Rd, Kano.