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A vote for Sule Lamido
By Muhammad A. Bello, Assistant editor
Humble and politically combative, Sule Lamido, as Olawale Oshun vividly
recounted in his book Clapping With One Hand is an honest person. Long ago,
I knew him when I was a kid roaming the streets of Birnin-Kudu. Every
Friday, or a day before, he would drive his brown Mercedes 200 with
registration number KN 2000 BK all the way from Kano. When he gets to Birnin-Kudu,
he would go into the town and freely associate with all manners of people
without discrimination.
After his asr prayers, still wearing his gentle smile, he would drive off to
his birth place-Bamaina to meet with his family. His father of blessed
memory was the community leader. Till date that position is still held by
his kins. His late brother, Adamu Lamido, also of blessed memory, took over
when their revered father passed on. Adamu, also tall, jovial and confident
was a year a head of me in Government College, Birnin-Kudu.
No doubt, the pedigree of the family is impeccable. However it seems that
Sule, took the shine off all of them. Instead of this to make them envious,
and perhaps set them against him, his mercurial brightness endeared them to
him. This is because he carried them along. He was and is still selfless. As
a matter of fact, when their father departed, instead of Sule to add the old
man’s cap to his own Shagari-style type of yore days, he supported late
Adamu to become the community leader.
Although brutally blunt and focused in his politics, Sule plays the delicate
game with decorum. Like his attitude of selflessness at the family level, he
is also magnanimous when it comes to fierce power contest. This came to play
in 1991, when as a gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP)
in the old Kano state he gave his blessings to Barrister Ali Sa’adu B/Kudu
to contest in the newly created Jigawa state.
God amply rewarded him with the position of the national secretary of the
SDP-where he cut his teeth as an astute national politician who became
transformed into a nationalist and a patriot. Long before then, as a PRP/NPP
representative of Birnin-Kudu in the Second Republic lower house in Lagos,
he had added the crush for boli to his native culinary taste for fura da
nono. No doubt, he has been a worthy, diplomatic ambassador of Jigawa
everywhere he has been.
He shot to lime light as the national secretary of the SDP after the
annulment of the June 12 election believed to have been won by late MKO
Abiola. Together with his chairman then Chief Tony Anenih, Amos Idakula,
Okechukwu Odunze and others, the SDP team negotiated with their NRC
counterparts to soft-land the June 12 dead lock.
His loyalty to Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi and late General Shehu Musa Yar’adua
was the most striking tool with which he weathered the storms of those days.
Perhaps, this is why some politicians fault him today. All his political
life he has been unreservedly loyal to his associates and leaders. So, if he
demands similar gesture from anyone who wants to work with him it should not
be seen as unusual. And, again, if he expresses his displeasure with
treachery, confrontation, subterfuge and gang-up, he should not be labeled
as a non-conformist.
Sule could have long ago fallen out with Rimi, when the latter concurred
with late Yar’adua that the original guidelines on negotiation with the NRC
concerning the formation of a government of national unity be set aside.
Rimi never sought Lamido’s opinion before conceding to a change of plan at
the instigation of General Yar’adua.
Instead of confronting Rimi, Lamido perfected a plan of his own. He called
up Dr Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, the deputy speaker and three others to join the
meeting. Few minutes after the meeting proceeded Sule had a heated argument
with Anenih over the guidelines that SDP had given on the negotiation.
He insisted that the party’s position were to make the result of the June 12
presidential election the nexus of the negotiation. Other positions of the
party he upheld were discussion on what type of government of national unity
would be formed that would not contravene the constitution and the
negotiation of the ministerial positions each side would be able to concede.
He stood his ground that Abiola should head the government to be formed
while kingibe, his running-mate should remain his vice. Rimi upturned his
resistance by telling him that these positions were no longer tenable. Chief
Nwodo, who was representing the NRC told him that he was holding the meeting
to ransom. Again, to his surprise Odunze and Idakula accused Sule of
selfishness.
Although, he was roundly arm-twisted by his loyal friend Rimi, Gen. Yar’adua,
Anenih and others, Sule by his fearless demonstration of loyalty to Abiola,
boldly wrote his name on the rock of Nigerian history. His loyalty to Rimi
and not his love of money or power was what made him to sign the agreement
that brought Chief Ernest Shonekan to power.
Until a couple of months ago, when Rimi openly told the Triumph newspapers
that Lamido was no longer his friend, the latter has silently beared the
pains of what his loyalty to the former has caused him. At the March 1993,
SDP presidential primaries in Jos, Lamido behaved maturedly when Ali Sa’adu
B/Kudu, his protégé and beneficiary of his political goodwill worked against
his choice-MKO Abiola.
His presence, in his more than thirty years of politics, in PRP, NPP, PSP
and SDP not only enhanced Rimi’s credibility but gave formidable focus to
all the parties. Indeed, his (Lamido’s) political sagacity and bold
craftiness gave PRP –santsi and PSP their opening gambit in all the
negotiation that later resulted in their respective mergers with NPP and SDP.
Never a money-bag with megalomaniac craving for number one position, Lamido
does not lack in foresight, which has paid off well for him.
This could be why he has never lost out in any political contest. He did not
floor Turaki in 1999 because he refused to kow-tow to the demand of a cabal
who feel that it is their birthright to decide who rules Jigawa state. He
lost that election because he did not have the kind of money that was put in
the till for Baba na Aujara. He was not voted for by the civil servants
because they feared that he would instill discipline in the rather
too-mobile workforce, which gulps salaries and allowance without doing
anything. His campaign efforts were rubbished by some bigwigs in the state’s
traditional institution. He lost the governorship position, but he was
resilient. And God spoke as President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him as the
minister of foreign affairs.
As he got busy carving a niche for his country, those who worked against his
modest ambition licked their wounds as Governor Neo subdued Jigawa elite,
mesmerized the traditional rulers and bestrode the globe like Christopher
Columbus.
Neo created more jobs, wealth and goodwill in far-away Sao Paolo, than he
did in the little state where he was given mandate. When the final whistle
was about to blow, he ran to Lamido, with whom he has been fighting, and to
PDP, from which he eloped earlier. Being the gentleman he is, Lamido
welcomed him back and worked his connection to save him from Ribadu owls.
In that position, for four years, he had another luminous rendezvous with
history. He became part of the global effort to launder the dirty image of
Nigeria. He re-invigorated, re-assimilated and re-positioned Nigeria’s
foreign policy. He re-located it from Aso-Rock where it was ‘crocodily’
domiciled to the centers of global diplomacy in Washington, London, Paris,
Beijing and Moscow. Under his ministration, President Obasanjo molded the
African Union (AU). The president foiled potential conflicts and rampaging
civil wars in many parts of Africa.
All through his tenure in the ‘foreign pitch’, as his hardworking press
secretary-Adagbo Onoja will call it, Sule Lamido stood tall, like Henry
Kissinger. Perhaps his talks with China encouraged the Reds to contemplate
coming to Africa. Under him Clinton passed a night at Transcorp Hilton with
his daughter. He was severally the guest of No. 10 Downing street and 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue.
To me, he made Jigawa proud. Unlike Neo whose multi-million dollar
investment are in Malaysia, Brazil and other coca-friendly republics, Lamido
have no investment anywhere outside Nigeria. In fact, at a time when Kano
factories are folding up at the rate of 4 monthly, Sule Lamido chose to
float an industry right inside the city. His only house is in Kano. He has
only one house in Bamaina. When he is in Birnin Kudu, Hajiya Bilki and her
brother Nasidi together with Nakudu family are his hosts.
The man is so down to earth. I am convinced that, after those years of
profligacy and rudderlessness, Jigawa state should, and I pray with God’s
blessing must have Sule Lamido as its governor in 2007. your excellency, I
give you my vote, that of my wife and those of AbdulRahman and Khadija, had
it been they are eighteen. I would have promised you the vote of my aged
mother but for her disability and worrisome illness. How I wish it was in
those days when you used to ‘dash’ her N20 and she would dance the entire
evening away being happy. Nonetheless, may the winds of good fortunes sai I
gently behind you in your journey towards Government House, Dutse.
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24 2006