Re: If I were Sule Lamido

One Musa Muhammad Hadejia wrote in page 44 of the Daily Trust of Wednesday, December 5 that the former Governor of Jigawa State Sule Lamido should retire from politics because he lost the recent PDP presidential primary, and that his top lieutenants Barrister Yakubu Ruba and Danladi Auyo had left the PDP.

Thank God Musa has acknowledged that Lamido has done more than enough to transform Jigawa State while he was serving as the governor. If losing a primary can be a criterion to force one to retire from politics, then many successful politicians would have retired from politics before reaching their objectives.

Former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, before winning in his ninth attempt. He could have quit many times - but he didn’t and because he didn’t quit politics, he became one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States. If you want to learn about somebody who didn’t quit, look no further.

Harold Stassen is perhaps the most famous and distinguished perennial presidential candidate in U.S. history. He ran for the Republican nomination for President twelve times and lost. So, these people did not quit, why will Lamido quit because he only tried and lost once?

Also decamping is normal in politics most especially in the Nigerian context. If the alleged 37,000 PDP members who decamped to APC in 2015 including the Lamido’s former deputy governor, Minister, Ambassador, Senators, Reps, SSG, Commissioners and businessmen did not stop Lamido from waxing stronger, is it now that Barrister Ruba and Danladi Auyo deserting the PDP will jolt or affect Lamido’s political standing and force him to quit politics?

Lamido has mixed and mingled with the high and mighty all over the world. There is nothing he has not seen. He will keep on working for Nigeria to become efficient and great. These are some of the ethos he learnt from his political father, Malam Aminu Kano and he is not going to depart from it.

Lamido is the most experience politician in the region if not in the country without mincing words, this is by virtue of the roles he played in various political parties in his life as a career politician. And don’t forget that his political association with political heavy weights across the globe is his political asset that cannot be matched at least by any person in Jigawa state and the north, now and possibly in the nearest future, In-Sha-Allah.

Adamu M. Usman, Kafin-Hausa, Jigawa State.