DOGARA, ABUBAKAR AND THE BAUCHI PEOPLE
Ibrahim Mohammed urges Governor Mohammed Abubakar to provide leadership
Irecently read comments credited to the Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara is leading other federal lawmakers to wage a political battle against him because he was not in support of his emergence as Speaker of the House of Representatives. It is instructive to note that the speaker himself has never been on record to have said anything negative about the governor. I have searched in vain for a shred of evidence.
The governor reportedly told State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on August 31, 2016, that, “My problem with Rt. Hon. Dogara Yakubu started during the election for the leadership of the National Assembly, I stood on the side of the party. I directed every Bauchi lawmaker to toe the line of the party by voting Femi Gbajabiamila as speaker. At that time, nine out of the 11 Lawmakers did that, and later the candidate of Bauchi (Dogara) won.”
The governor also said that the speaker, who hails from the same Bauchi south zone with him, is the brain behind the troubles he is witnessing in the state and federal level.
This came as a surprise, considering the well known fact that it was the speaker who gave Governor Abubakar a consolidated bloc vote of delegates from Bogoro/Dass/ Tafawa Balewa during the primaries where he ran against his fellow lawmaker and friend, Hon. Yusuf Tuggar and former federal minister, Dr Yakubu Lame and won by 36 votes only.
There is no informed Bauchi indigene including the governor that will deny the known contributions of speaker Dogara to his emergence as Governor of Bauchi State. On the contrary, this gesture was not returned by the governor, as he himself confessed that he refused to support Dogara during his race for the seat of the speaker of the House of Representatives. Instead, he mobilised Bauchi members to vote against him. But the speaker is not one to bear grudges.
Interestingly, the governor presently does not have the support of 11 out of these same 12 Reps members. As a testimony to what the speaker stands for, even Hon. M S Abdu, his own brother from Bauchi State, who nominated his opponent during the speakership election is now a committed ally; ditto so many honorable members who voted against him.
He is also not known to hold any resentment against his main challenger, the Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila who later became the house leader. The question agitating my mind is why should the case of Gov. Abubakar be different when the speaker has reconciled with those who worked against him?
Instructively, all the three senators from Bauchi State have parted ways with the governor because they are not happy with the hardship his style of governance is bringing to the good citizens of the state who fought hard to bring him to office.
The question Governor Abubakar should be asking himself is: Why is it that nearly all NASS members from the state are not with him? Why are nearly all Bauchi elite not with him? Why is he being stoned all over the state? Why are preachers and traditional rulers against him? Are all these happening to him simply because he refused to support the emergence of Dogara as speaker? Certainly not.
Indeed, not even a fool would fail, in the present circumstances, to see that the governor’s problems are much more deeper. The sooner the govenor realises this, the better for him. It seems it’s the entire people of Bauchi State or an overwhelming majority of them that have had enough of the govenor and his antics and have decided to face him on their own.
Why is the governor scared to mention other reputable stakeholders like Mallam Adamu Adamu, Senator Ali Wakili, Senator Nazif Gamawa, Hon. Yusuf Tuggar, Dr .Yakubu Lame and others who are all strongly united in rejecting his retrogressive brand of politics? Is it cowardice or share brinkmanship? Is he saying they are not important enough to warrant his attention? Is he telling us that all these principled and distinguished stakeholders from Bauchi have abandoned him and joined forces with Dogara to fight him for no reason other than what he alleged? Where are the marines that would buy the governor’s story? He talked about lies being spread about him without telling us what the lies were. Has Dogara become so central to the politics of Bauchi so much so that he can orchestrate a counter revolution at will or spread lies so well that the mass of Bauchi will start stoning the governor in all the local government areas he visited? Come on, your Excellency, why would you elect to insult Bauchi people and some of us who are keen watchers of political developments in the state? You really believe you are being stoned for not supporting Dogara to emerge as speaker or for lies speaker Dogara is peddling about you? Is that how stupid Bauchi people have become, stoning their Governor for an election that was settled more than a year ago?
IT IS TIME TO FOCUS ON BUILDING THE STATE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS TO SERVE THE PEOPLE OF BAUCHI. THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED IF THERE IS A SYNERGY BETWEEN THE GOVERNOR, SPEAKER, ADAMU ADAMU, SENATORS, LEGISLATORS AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS