I had waited for the storm generated by the purported suspension of Mallam Bashiru Ahmad, the Adamawa State Secretary to the Government (SSG) from an amorphous association called Jimeta PDP Critical Stakeholders.
The purported suspension was contained in a write-up which I cannot place as either a press release, press statement or communique. After the responses and debate that this action engendered, it became quite apparent that the people behind the charade have become reckless enough to show their hands. In their bid to denigrate Bashiru Ahmad, they only succeeded in revealing what they had succeeded in hiding all these years – the fact that his excellency Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri is not their favoured candidate and they can go to any length to make sure the governor didn’t succeed.
While trying hard to downplay the role of the SSG, the “critical stakeholders” only showed their ignorance of public communication otherwise they won’t have exposed their underbellies by claiming that PDP lost Yola North during the gubernatorial election because of the high-handedness of the SSG. Is that not an indictment on the “critical stakeholders”? Talk of cutting your nose to spite your face.
By admitting that they did not vote for his excellency, they have unwittingly attributed the 24 thousand votes that the PDP garnered in that election to the efforts of the SSG. My question here is that with such admission, why are they expecting the governor to reward Yola North local government with any position of authority and trust? They played the same role against the governor in 2019.
My interpretation of the sour grapes of these “PDP critical stakeholders” is the failure to admit that they have overstayed their welcome on the political scene. Being a recurring decimal since 1979 is admission of lack of mentoring and by extension lack of fresh ideas in a stifling environment in dire need of fresh blood in its politics. The “critical stakeholders” are a handful of spent forces, led by a perpetual “friend” of the government since the beginning of time.
He has always enjoyed government patronage and threw crumbs to his fellow travellers who are always content to be his cannon fodder in his endless quest for relevance. While it is not in doubt that these pseudo-leaders of the Jimeta community have been around since the 2nd republic, I don’t think any of them can beat his chest and point to one person that they have assisted to become a part of a productive society or any physical development in Jimeta attributable to their influence.
It is unfortunate that we live in a society that is uncritical and only thrives on mediocrity and quackery. The blood suckers in our society are those who call themselves “critical stakeholders” and we sheepishly allow them to have their way. Pathetic. The SSG is an institution and not Bashiru Ahmad the person. In their misguided effort to politically ‘destroy’ Bashiru Ahmad, they are undermining the institution. I have followed the activities of the stakeholders’ Capo since the inception of the Fintiri administration and he has always been predictable in his actions.
While he worked tirelessly against the success of the governor in the 2019 polls, only to belatedly try to retrace his steps after the presidential elections of 2019, it is the same game plan unfolding in Jimeta right now. His anti-party and anti Fintiri activities in the run-up to the 2023 elections is what is haunting him and he must therefore find a scapegoat and who will be a better scapegoat than the SSG who he has been having a running battle with since the day Bashiru Ahmad was appointed to the exalted office.
It is sad that a man who benefitted maximally from the Fintiri government in forms of contracts is admitting that he worked against the success of the same Fintiri in his second term quest. Scared that Fintiri might decide to strike back and pay him in his own coins, he is now running from pillar to post trying to shift blame to others. It will be better for him to exorcise his demons than keep living in denial. He must resolve the conflicting emotions gnawing his innards in order for him to live in peace with himself.
Two facts should be clear to him – the fact that governor Fintiri has emerged victorious in the recently concluded elections despite his machinations and the unstated pact between him and the opposition candidate, and the fact Bashiru Ahmad is the SSG, Adamawa state despite his avowed hatred and the running campaign of calumny he sustained in the past four years.
It is worthy of note that his peers in the Yola North PDP Stakeholders Forum came out in strong words to disown him and his campaign of hatred and exclusion. Being an old man is not the same as being an elder.
Mahmud B. Usman writes from State Low Cost, Jimeta.
