Sheriff: Demystification of a tin-god

He sees himself in the image of a political master strategist and a godfather. He had, while his politics of notoriety lasted, dictated where the pendulum should swing to, decided who gets what and erroneously believed that he has reached the zenith of his political voyage both in his native Borno state and the country at large. In fairness to him, he has posted some incredible political stunts early in his political career. At the onset, he looked ordinary and incapable of making impact, owing to his poor grasp of issues. He was an unknown quantity when he first showed his face.

He appeared on the political scene in Borno state at a time the state was on the lookout for a new political order and soon, through subterfuge blended into the quest. The rest, as they say, is now history. He was a two-term Senator, two-term governor and along the line an influential juggernaut who had remained relevant and playing various dubious roles in his turbulent involvement in politics. The above summation is the narrative that has been bandied about by those who profited from aligning with the so called “hyena’’ of Borno politics. To these bootlickers and hanger-on, Sheriff was the undisputed political leader of all time of Borno state. To those who knew the antecedents of the man however, the true history and perspectives are entirely in contrast. The recent judgment of the Supreme Court which invalidated Ali Sheriff’s Chairmanship of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has finally exposed the man for what he is, a political Judas whose cup of tomfoolery has finally filled up. I have been a resident of Maiduguri since 1979 and can therefore lay claim to knowing something authoritative about its politics, having worked as a resident journalist for two major media outlets within a span of 20 years of professional career. I was there when Sheriff bamboozled his way into the mix, took full advantage of its underlying contradictions, worked against all the written and unwritten norms in pursuit of a self serving agenda that had, temporarily done some good to his ambition of becoming relevant in the scheme of things in Nigeria.

What were his antecedents? He has always operated like a chameleon, changing colors to achieve his dream of controlling men and resources. He soon reached the nadir of his own inanity when his close associates began to go their own way such that by the time the Supreme Court passed its judgment Ali Sheriff was almost a loner. Everyone who had been with him from the start had gone his separate way on account of the man’s difficult disposition. To his credit, Ali Sheriff had amassed a retinue of political associates at the onset of his political career, a strategy he found handy when pursuing goals. He used them as his ladder to the top only for his over-ambition and inability to sustain friendship to quicken his eventual fall from grace to grass.

The way he was able to mismanage and estrange his relationship with Governor Kashim Shettima pointed aptly to the apparent contradictions in his life. Kashim Shettima was about Ali Sheriff’s most ardent and loyal associate. The support which Kashim had enjoyed to become governor was because he has acquitted himself as a dependable, reliable and trustworthy companion to both Ali Sheriff and the other critical stakeholders in state. Their relationship has no doubt plummeted at Ali Sheriff’s behest and since then every misfortune that befell him, he traces it to ‘’Kashim Shettima’s machinations’’. To informed observers however Ali Sheriff has always been the architect of his misfortunes and downfall. He has an oversized and megalomaniac estimation of himself and has, in the process alienated the very associates who were responsible for his progression in life.

His greatest undoing …and this has decimated his goodwill deeply, was to underrate Kashim Shettima. Of course, his kind of bulldozer, bullish and thuggish politicking is contrast to Kashim Shettima’s sublime, urbane, sophisticated and participatory engagement, but because Ali Sheriff’s impulsive and unpredictable antecedents have helped him achieve some measure of what appeared to him as success, he began to see the refinement and sophistication of Kashim as anathema to the kind of returns and capital he was used to. The fact that he had drawn blank in all his altercations and battles with Kashim never sent a warning signal to him to retract. Again, while Ali Sheriff was incurably boastful of his seeming political conquests in his self-imaginative contests, Kashim on the order hand was very magnanimous, always throwing banters, elegizing the selflessness of the men and women around him, eschewing all forms of chest-beating and recognizing the ultimate powers of Allah in the affairs of men. Now that he has kissed the canvas, Ali Sheriff is back to shifting the blame of his misfortunes to Kashim Shettima. To him, it was Kashim Shettima who dissuaded the presidency from bringing pressure to bear on the judiciary to enter judgment in favor of his faction of the PDP. He has however conveniently sidetracked the support and prodding he was receiving from the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawan.

It should be understood that Ali Sheriff’s desire to appropriate power as Chairman of the PDP was, by and large, to possess the instrument to control the levers of power in Borno and Yobe states. His eye was fixed on using his position as PDP Chairman (if he had won) to undermine the party in 2019 in return for him to orchestrate an electoral malfeasance by anointing governors and other elective offices in the two states. Ali Sheriff has always been obsessed with a trenchant spirit to recover and corner political power in Borno and Yobe states at all costs in order to feed his incurable fixation to settle scores, dispense favors and corner resources. Is it not time for him to eat the humble pie, retrace his steps, return home, atone for his many misdeeds and team up with his friend Kashim Shettima in order to exploit ways and means to return Borno to the path of reconciliation, forgiveness and growth? Ahmed BK wrote this piece from Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi state.