Garba Sani Dankani
29 February 2008
opinion
Abuja — It is really not my desire to open this can of worms filled with agonies courtesy of the present leadership in the country. It's also not my intention to spoil the reader's day with the unfortunate happenings in the country.
Rather, this is an appeal requesting the one-time governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Lawal Kaita to ignore the recent political outburst on his personality by the former governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, which was actually intended to distract his attention and reduce his political status from a millennium planner to an ordinary follower. I also urge Kaita not to worry about the level of decadence in the Peoples Democratic Party, which he is one of the founding fathers.
I wish to refresh our memory with some of the unfortunate quality of Abubakar Rimi for the benefit of the younger generations, because no individual or society can strive successfully if it is morally bankrupt. On several occasions, Rimi had had cause to bastardise with joy and happiness our traditional institutions, which are today seen as the custodian of our faith, norms and values because of their direct lineage with the Fodio Islamic Dynasty.
Also, Nigerians will recall Rimi's routine conflict with the fingers that fed him as he demonstrated to the late Mallam Aminu Kano, who was not only a teacher, mentor, role model, but a father to him. Despite all that the late Aminu Kano did for him, Rimi did not spare the elder statesman of his monumental assault. His approach to elders is a clear case of someone with an inbuilt disobedience. The former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, will readily attest to this fact.
It is true that a lot of factors influence human behaviours, and there is no two way about this when Rimi's case is brought to focus.
It is on record that Abubakar Rimi is an accomplished failure all his life. The governorship election of 1979, which brought him to present limelight, is still attributed to the popularity and the role played by the late Aminu Kano; and when he rudely parted ways with the elder statesman to a different political party, he woefully failed at the polls and subsequently his political profile crumbled till date.
We also know how former President Olusegun Obasanjo frustrated him out of the PDP that he claimed to be a founding member. His dirty skills were exposed and extinguished, which made him to withdraw unceremoniously and decamp to the AC on the assumption that he would benefit from Atiku's wealth. And when the going got tough, Rimi could not get going, because the pressure was much and his muscles were poor, weak, hungry and needed a soft ride to wealth, hence his decision to backpedal and accept Obasanjo as his leader and chairman of PDP Board of Trustees (BOT).
Today's PDP is not the dream of Alhaji Kaita whose aspiration and desire is to see a party that will improve the living conditions of Nigerians, standardise our infrastructures and take the lead in supporting African democracy and economy, but not to fail Nigerians and Africa as stated by former President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana at the recent Trust Dialogue in Abuja. The climax of Nigeria's doom was when the so-called G84 commandeered the National Working Committee (NWC) meeting of the PDP recently and agreed on issues bordering on the conduct of congresses that were selfishly predetermined and dictated to members. The communiqué we got at the end of the jamboree was what Kaita envisaged a long time ago; that under these hijackers, Nigerians will continue to live in perpetual agony.
I therefore implore Lawal Kaita not to bother himself with such nonsense, because today, he is a successful technocrat who has reached the peak of his career as a civil servant with honesty, humility and meticulous dedication to duty. Civil servants in the old Kano and Kaduna states where he served as the presidential liaison officer and executive governor respectively are still mourning his absence. Politically, Kaita today is the most articulate planner north of the Niger with the mastery of the late Aliyu Makaman Bida's intrigues and courage, foresight and sophistication of the Sardauna of Sokoto and the late Sir Ahmadu Bello.
Kaita's political style, generosity and electoral successes have impacted tremendously and positively on the lives of many people. More importantly, his steadfastness against corruption in all its ramifications, maintenance of the rule of law and strict adherence to civilised ethics in politics and civil service are unbeatable legacies which no democrat to date is treading towards that path.
Dankani, of Centre for Advanced Political Reformation, wrote from No. 1, Thaka Iseka Street, Wuse II, Abuja.
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