But for the fact that we have a country that is fast relapsing into the days of our past that we would rather forget and, therefore, in need of rescuing, I would have just dismissed the judgments, drama and melodrama recently emerging from the courts – our hitherto hallowed temples of justice in one phrase: ‘good for them’.
In a week that the system bared its fangs once again at former Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki, the budget was passed in record time, the electorates in Kogi and Bayelsa are still coming to terms with an electoral heist, EFCC tightened the noose around former governor Rochas Okorocha, Atiku sued Laurentia Onochie, DSS is playing pranks over Omoyele Sowore, Kano’s Abdullahi Ganduje stuck to his guns over the new emirates, and all the government officials are establishing federal institutions in their villages, one hardly knows where to start from.
In a week when a friend, benefactor and former employer, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, was handed 12 years imprisonment sentence, one can hardly feign disinterest, nor join in celebrating this seeming fall (or is it temporary setback) of the Chief Whip of Nigeria’s Senate.
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Now, I’m neither faulting the High Court nor querying the integrity of the anti-graft campaign of the Buhari administration. I just feel sad, as a friend of Kalu’s that things turned out this way for the former Abia State governor. Even though I share the maxim that whoever does the crime must do the time, it is usually easier said than done – especially, if you’re involved, as I am. It is a reminder of what our elders say about lunatics; that it’s always fun watching a madman’s lunatic displays, but it’s no fun, having the lunatic as your own child or member of your family. Yes, we all want Buhari to catch the thieves and the looters, but none of us wants him to catch our thieving relations and friends and benefactors. Many of us celebrating Kalu’s ‘fall’ today would throw away our gloves, to fight with bare knuckles as soon as the cane gets to our own friends. Then we begin to bandy all manner of theories – ethnic, political, economic, etc.
So, instead of worrying my head over where former Vice President Atiku Abubakar expects Onochie to get N2 billion from, I would rather turn my attention to the historical state of Sokoto, where the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) recently held its annual conference. It is even more interesting, considering the fact that barely 10 hours after the conference rounded off, I had the privilege of a private breakfast with Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
On the eve of the last general elections in Sokoto, opponents of incumbent Gov. Tambuwal went to town with tales of how the former Speaker of the House of Representatives had failed to perform as governor. Curiously, one of the cases against him was that his predecessor in office, Aliyu Wammako, had built a flyover, just like Attahiru Bafarawa before him. After four whole years, Tambuwal was yet to erect a pillar, let alone build his own flyover. That propaganda, coupled with the now-traditional APC/INEC abracadabra, almost cost Tambuwal re-election.
Understandably, therefore, it was only proper that I began with the question of the flyover, as I settled to breakfast with His Excellency this chilly Sunday morning. “So, Mr. Governor, why haven’t you constructed your own flyover?” I asked.
Funnily enough, Tambuwal seemed to have a ready answer. He fired back, almost without thinking: “Have you also asked yourself, how many cars ‘fly over’ these flyovers?”. According to him, much as one or two more flyovers could enhance the beauty of the town, he does not think they are the most pressing needs of the state.
The problem of the Flyover palava, my host says, has to do with our brick and mortar idea of what really amounts to dividends of democracy. “We always tend to overlook the larger picture. For me, no dividend of democracy can surpass investment in human development, especially in education and health.”
It is because of this larger picture that Tambuwal has since declared a state of emergency in education in Sokoto. Here, every Nigerian child resident in Sokoto State, and attending public primary or secondary school, goes to school absolutely free. His Common Entrance, WASC, NECO, JAMB and other such fees are also paid for by the state government. And that is not including the over 21,000 tertiary institution scholarships that the state government is presently shouldering.
But that is not even the project uppermost in Tambuwal’s mind. The governor has a programme to put a model primary school in every community in the state. To get the buy-in of the communities, each school is named after the community/district head. So, if the school fails, the traditional ruler would see himself as having failed. This programme is largely funded from the Zakat regime, which also pays a monthly stipend (N6, 000) to all registered disabled persons. The citizens in this category also enjoy free medical care.
The governor said: “We have money deposited with major hospitals, including the psychiatric hospital. Once these people are picked up and taken there, they are given full and comprehensive treatment, and government pays.” He says this explains why there are not many mad people seen roaming the streets of Sokoto.
But none of these, to me, can take the shine off Balle and the new government secondary school Tambuwal just built. That is the celebrated local government, close to the Nigerien border, which had no secondary school until now.
Well, better late than never: When I, in company with other editors visited Balle a day earlier, what we say did not look like a secondary school. The structures can conveniently accommodate a university – hotels, classroom blocks, admin block, staff quarters and all. You could be tempted to want to go back to secondary school.
“Much as I would love to give Sokoto State, especially the state capital a major face-lift, which we are, in fact, doing, I don’t think a new flyover is the most important thing right now.
“For now, more important than flyovers are the urban and rural water projects – like the underground water project at Giga that complements the three existing major surface water projects, housing, model ranching and agriculture as well as the medical diagnostic centre, which is already 60% complete, and is targeted at reaping from the booming medical tourism industry.”
Rather than deceiving himself, building industries that government does not have the financial resources or temperament to run, Tambuwal’s Sokoto is more interested in providing the conducive environment for private investors to come in. Of course, that is already yielding dividends, for Dangote, BUA Cement and the Moroccans are already on ground in the areas of rice farming and milling, mining, tannery, etc.
While Tambuwal says he is still working out the right formula to revive the culture of tax payment and shore up Internally Generated Revenue, he hopes that these new businesses would help augment whatever is coming to the state by way of federal allocation. According to him, the vision is to modernise Sokoto, open up the state, and launch it as a major economic hub, without losing any of its rich history, culture, religion and proudly conservative setup.
Back to the breakfast laid out before us…
The governor began with a profound apology, when he learnt that all I wanted for breakfast was Koko and Kose, both of which were not on the menu. Poking a joke at me, the governor told us that the cook, upon learning that His Excellency would be having breakfast with some big men friends from Lagos, probably tried to prepare something close to what we were supposed to be used to.
Unfortunately, I’m not a foodie. I usually get filled by the mere sight of the food. But I do better with the local meals, which explains why I ate Tuwo Shinkafa and Mia Koka every day, for the five days I spent in Sokoto, during the 15th All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC), dubbed Sokoto 2019. On some days, I actually ate Tuwo twice – only changing the soup. I had to summon all the will power in me to resist Tuwo on this particular morning. And since there was also no fura or nunu on the menu, I settled for Irish potatoes and some sweet sauce that I didn’t know what it was made from. Of course, I didn’t ask Gov. Tambuwal. He might be Speaker, teacher, governor, astute politician, first class administrator, life bencher, humanist, welfarist and all, but he doesn’t look like someone, who can find his way around the kitchen.
Fortunately, my two other editor friends, who were also guests at the table, gave a good account of themselves, adequately making up for my usually very disappointing food capacity.
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For me, chatting and sharing jokes with the governor was food enough.
I actually began to pick interest in the man, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, in the build-up to his emergence as Speaker of the House of Representatives. My admiration for him literally shot through the roof when he and his long-standing friend and ‘partner in crime’, Emeka Ihedioha (who is now also the governor of my own home state, Imo), pulled off that midnight coup that produced them, as Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively. As a journalist, one is naturally attracted to people, who challenge the status quo. It is even more so when the two men can hold their own anywhere in the world with their grey matter content. What even made their emergence so sweet was because of the person at the receiving end of the bloody nose – OBJ. Luckily, OBJ has now accepted both men, as sons in whom he is well pleased. But, of course, the full story of the event of those 48 hours has not been told, especially, as it relates to the role played by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, how the duo of Tambuwal and Ihedioha were smuggled into the NASS complex to evade arrest by the security agents, and who eventually kitted Tambuwal in South-south attire, and Ihedioha, in Hausa attire (complete with Shagari cap), etc. Suffice it to say that the two – even out of the Green Chambers, have remained best of friends as well as political associates, the kind of t
