Date Published: 09/15/09
Between Nyako, Aminu and their Stooges By Maliki Salaudeen
The die is cast. No thanks to the topsy-turvy of governance in Adamawa. Who really is in control in the state? This seems to be the million naira question on the lips of citizens there. This question is relevant most especially under the current dispensation, where all office holders who claim to be enjoying the people’s mandate, attempt to undo themselves in exercising their individual authorities. One thing that characterizes the leadership of this crop of politicians is the noticeable absence of a standing leader. Adamawa people are confused as to who is in control among those in power in the state. Is it Senator Aminu? It is Aliyu Idi Hong, the junior Minister in the Federal Ministry of Health? Or is it Governor Boni Haruna’s former deputy, who is Nyako’s Chief of staff? Even yours sincerely is at a loss on this issue. Governor Nyako is already on Octogenarian, just like his former bosom friend Jibril Aminu who I understand reportedly is now the former’s blackmailer. Let’s leave out that issue for another day.
In spite of Governor Nyako’s large heartedness to accommodate Jibril Aminu’s surrogates into his government such as the incumbent Secretary to the State Government Mr. Kobis and a host of other aides, the Senator want to make people believe that, the governor and his loyalists are the worst things that had ever happened to the state. He (Aminu) is hell bent to convince especially stakeholders, prominent among who is the PDP faction leader in the state, Medan Teneke, that Nyako government and the party Exco do not possess the constitutional powers to operate as such. Infact it is even rumoured in public places that, the Senator has placed same commentators on public issues (yours sincerely not inclusive) to embark on damaging the governor’s reputation in the media for a fee. According to informants, his game plan is to blackmail the governor with a view to frustrate his ambition to run for Second Term in 2012.
But this is an unfortunate situation for Senator Aminu. For he is the same man who imposed himself as a senator using the same platform, only now to turn around and chastise the same process for his selfish gains. Wonders they say shall never end. To worsen things, even the junior Minister’s appointment into the Federal Cabinet, got its blessing from Governor Nyako, but today the Minster is equally fighting the governor, just because Aminu is deceiving him with an automatic ticket to Dougirei Government House in 2012. We live to see.
The people’s consolation in all of these however, is the rejection of Governor Nyako’s approval for a multi million naira loan sought by Jibril Aminu and Aliyu Idi’s stooge in Hong Local government.
Reports have it that, the imposed Chairman Ibrahim Gayus recently applied for a loan of N400 million from a Commercial Bank for the construction of a Modern Market, Motor Park and Cattle Markets in the area. Apart from the Chairman’s hidden agenda to divert the proposed loan to feather his political nest and that of his godfathers, he was unable to convince owners of the proposed site, numbering about 48 of them, as to how much compensation will be paid to each of them. Hence the first rejection of the planned construction of the new edifice
Intelligence reports on this and other sundry alleged criminal offences, such as diversion of 6 months accumulated salaries of staff to personal use, coupled with the no love lost relationship between his godfathers and the state government, earned him disapproval for the loan. Alhaji Bello Tukur, the governor’s chief of staff hinted his boss on the game plan of Senator Aminu and his boys, about the rationale behind the N400 million naira loans. Naturally, the idea for the government to stand in as guarantor for the loan was disapproved.
That move and the alleged refusal of Ibrahim Gayus to remit certain amount of money from the Council’s monthly salary bill of the local government to the minister last August, put the duo on a collision course. The Minister according to reliable sources, no longer pick the calls of his surrogate, the Council Chairman. This became an open secret last week, when the Chairman flew into Abuja from Yola and spent two days with the sole aim to see the Minister to broker peace with him. Aliyu Idi Hong who imposed Ibrahim Gayus with the help of Jibril Aminu felt shortchanged with the recent behaviour of the Chairman. Apart from refusing to see the man one on one, he rebuffed all entreaties to reconcile. This has created a wide gulf between the duo which may linger on for some time to come.
This latest development has confirmed that, the Minister’s wild interest to impose Mr. Gayus on the people of Hong LG was for his personal gains and not a patriotic one. And as for the impostor, apart from his alleged criminal mindedness in handling official issues, he is so notoriously but consistently inconsistent, hugely incapable and intellectually deficient to govern an enlightened Council such as Hong. This is largely due to the fact that, while he served as an intern in one of the Federal Parastatals in Lagos over a decade ago, he was reported to have developed an itchy finger. That singular act was responsible for his premature sack from that organization.
No wonder, the guy and his fellow co-travelers who planted him for a purpose, have just proved their critics right, that he was sponsored for the office to loot the treasury for sharing among them. It is against this background that since the man took over as the helmsman on the area last May, he is barely tolerated as an impostor for a purpose and an irritant. He will continue to remain as a square peg in a round hole that is the former Hong LG chairman.
Maliki Salaudeen is of the Network for Good Governance based in Yola
