Date Published: 08/29/09
Re: EFCC, how far
By Saka Raji Audu
I read a piece written by my very good friend, Kabiru Inuwa Tsakuwa, which was published in the Daily trust of 26 th August 2009. I refer to the writer as my very good friend, not because we are actually friends in the real sense of the word. But because we had in the past exchanged some ideas and issues on the pages of print media, and we have some times reached accommodation after every storm.
Coming down to the recent piece of Tsakuwa about the subject under reference, in which he wanted the EFCC to have checked the various ongoing projects of the Kano State Government to determine whether the project contracts are inflated or not. Tsakuwa also wanted the EFCC to verify whether the Kano State Government had taken external loans to executive such ongoing gigantic projects in Kano State or not. He however advised the Kano State House of Assembly to forget about the EFCC and go ahead to commence the witch-hunting investigation of the Kano State projects for the past six years; as if the State House of Assembly is not part of the state government.
I should say without any iota of doubt that Kabiru Inuwa Tsakuwa has been one of the notorious, misguided and arm-chair critics that have always deliberately chosen to speculate the dark side of the Kano State administration without any recourse to moral decorum and fairness. I hope one has not forgotten Tsakuwa's " Kano: Development in reverse gear" published in the Daily trust of 16 th June 2008 and his " Kano and loads of unfulfilled promises" in the same paper of 6 th July 2008. In these two articles, Tsakuwa stated that there was nothing like development in Kano (sic) in spite of what he myopically described as huge monetary allocation the state government had received.
Today, every one, including Tsakuwa, can now see that developments in Kano have been on top gear with loads of fulfilled promises, looking at the high level of developments going on in the state. Instead of Tsakuwa to accept this basic truth as healing of his blocked vision, he now acts like a chameleon, casting venomous stones and alluding that the developmental projects in Kano State wouldn’t have been possible without an external loan. It is pertinent here to ask my good friend if any foreign bank has asked him to recover her loan from the Kano State Government. Still, was he able to see the Kano State Government name among the published list of bank debtors? If he has no answers to these questions, I will further ask if his personal investigation had convicted the Kano State Government of any indebtedness in form of loans. However, if Kabiru Tsakuwa cannot substantiate evidences against these questions, he should save himself the agony of imagination and casting of aspersion as a result of his recent deep seated hatred and jealousy against the Kano State administration.
On Tsakuwa's suspicion on whether the projects are inflated or not, he should be advised to approach the Kano State Directorate of Project Monitoring and Evaluation for clarification rather than sitting stiff and imagining impossibility. As a journalist, Tsakuwa's article is expected to be objectively written after due investigations as demand of the journalism profession. This has been his problems in whatever he writes. He simply sits at a place, imagines issues and concocts them into writing merely to deceive the unsuspecting readers.
From Tsakuwa's insinuating write up, it is evident that he does not know the distinctive responsibilities of the State House of Assembly and EFCC. He has requested the EFCC to investigate if the State Government collected foreign loans to execute her laudable projects; and also the inflation of such project cost. The same Tsakuwa has at the same time called on the State House of Assembly to investigate the issue, which he had originally apportioned to EFCC. What an irony! Perhaps, one of these days, he might want to ask the Senate or Military to investigate the cost of feeding in a Government House. He should therefore leave EFCC alone because they know their job better than Tsakuwa thinks. Likewise the State House of Assembly knows her jurisdiction. Tsakuwa cannot therefore, cajole them into making error.
Tsakuwa has forgotten so soon how he had written to regret some of his misgivings and equally praised the Kano State leadership in one of his fictions published in the Daily trust of 27 th November 2008 with this heart warming statement: "….We held no grudges against the person of our teacher and mentor who has over the years helped to mould our thinking on moral rectitude, honesty, dedication and hard work." The hypocrite, crashing into sycophantic adulatory shamelessly went further to submit in totality that "Shekarau's success is his and likewise his failure." "We were together with him through thick and thin when he was relatively unknown in Kano's murky political terrain and will certainly remain together …in due course." Now, how will Tsakuwa reconcile this statement with his present stand? Is it not a contradiction of thought and ideas? It is obvious that his thought and imagination are in conflict with each other.
We can now see the kind of stuff Tsakuwa is made of. He can simply add any thing together to give out what he wants, depending on his aims and objectives. Contrary to Tsakuwa's misconception, Farida Waziri led EFCC is not an agent of witch-hunting or settlement of scores. The EFCC handles clear-cut established cases of corruption and economic sabotage. One therefore, wishes to advise Tsakuwa not to allow his sentiment and narrow minded interest to infest the good work of the EFCC. For the simple fact that Tsakuwa prefers the former EFCC boss, Nuhu Ribadu to the present Farida led EFCC due mainly to the witch-hunting characteristics of the former, the latter cannot shy away from doing the correct thing. Tsakuwa should learn to be objective rather than acting as a hypocrite in disguise.
As I said, if however Kabiru Tsakuwa is still desperate in his hatred for the administration of his mentor and benefactor, he should first carry out investigation by visiting the Kano State Project Monitoring and Evaluation to ascertain how the present administration executes its high profile developmental projects that have now become the sources of jealousy to him and his fellow travelers. If he summons courage to do this, he would be more surprised to know that it takes judicious expenditure, transparency and accountability to execute high level projects like the various developmental projects going on in Kano State. This is why in spite of the huge resources Nigeria is endowed with, the country is still walloping in abject poverty due to high level of squander mania and insensitivity to prudence management of resources and judicious expenditure, which the Kano State administration is known of since it cam to power six years ago.
It really baffles how some people think that the only way to be heard is to destroy or castigate. One therefore wonders what is responsible for Kabiru Tsakuwa's contradictions in all his write ups. It is also advisable that Tsakuwa should stop misrepresenting issues thereby misinforming the innocent public with his infested and imaginary ideas. I would also like to advise him against double standards and cutting corner for his own good and the interest of Nigerian populace. I should stop here for now.
Saka Raji Audu writes from Kano and can be reached on his email: sakaraj@yahoo.com
