BY JAMES KANYIP
Our Brother, one, Yerima Christopher Nuhu, wrote a piece in two (2) installments posted on Gurara Forum Timeline entitled: “THE MAN JAGABA ADAMU JAGABA; (sic) CAN HE BE TRUSTED?”. The first installment was posted on 25/08/2018; and the second was posted today, 06/09/2018. The way he ended his piece in the second installment implies that he has more to say. I will respond to him with the much he has written and wait for any further piece from him, if any.
In the first installment of his piece, Nuhu said that he had written Jagaba off since his first tenure as a Member of the House of Representatives from 1999-2003 as a result of his involvement in the attempt to impeach former President Obasanjo over allegations of bribery and corruption. His grouse with Jagaba was that Jagaba should not have partaken in that attempt to impeach Obasanjo because Southern Kaduna people had benefited from the Obasanjo regime.
I wonder why Nuhu, who had “written off” Jagaba between 1999-2003, would wait till 2018 (after a period 15 years) to write instalmental pieces on him to air his qualms. Why did Nuhu not write when Jagaba was the State Secretary of PDP; and when he contested and won the seat for the House of Representatives in 2011 and 2015? Why did Nuhu wait till 2018 when Jagaba is contesting for the Senatorial seat to write?
In any event, what is even wrong if Jagaba partook in the impeachment process of Obasanjo if he had good cause and conviction to do that? Is the allegation of bribery and corruption not a ground for the impeachment of a President? If Jagaba at that formative stage of our present democracy could be bold enough to partake in the attempt to impeach Obasanjo who was in the same political party with him, it showed how courageous and fearless he was even as a young parliamentarian.
Nuhu tried to pontificate Obasanjo as a “God-sent”, “messiah” and “blessing” to Southern Kaduna; and that “it was a major political blunder, a gaffe and a practical demonstration of insensitivity” for Jagaba to partake in the attempt to impeach him. Nuhu concluded that as a result of Jagaba’s “conspiracy” and “insensitivity”, he had “to pay for it dearly because it cost him his reelection to the green chamber in 2003”.
Nuhu has failed to list the achievements of Obasanjo in Southern Kaduna and to its people for the period under review (1999-2003) to justify the use of the appellations “God-sent”, “messiah” and “blessing” employed by him to describe him. If there were allegations of impeachable offences of bribery and corruption against Obasanjo by the National Assembly, should we be blinded by regional and ethnic sentiments to overlook them?
I also find the assertions of Nuhu a bit paradoxical and contradictory. If Jagaba had paid dearly for his political “conspiracy” and “insensitivity” to the people of Southern Kaduna which cost him his re-election bid in 2003 as he asserted, why is Nuhu making a big issue out of it after 15 years? Does he want Jagaba to be ‘punished’ for the second time? I think Nuhu is merely hallucinating. Jagaba had won elections twice (in 2011 and 2015) to the same Green Chambers. In 2015, he even won his election under the platform of APC. This showed his widespread acceptability by his people. So, why the fuss now?
In the second installment of his piece, Nuhu tried to paint a picture of a Jagaba that left the PDP when it needed him most and defected to the APC to contest election to the Green Chambers. To Nuhu, that move by Jagaba was “self seeking and egotistical!”; and “a grievous letdown!”. To him, Jagaba’s move was a “classical (sic) case of politics devoid of principles and ideology, the end should justify the means”. I will excuse Nuhu’s ignorance here. Let me enlighten him a little.
If Jagaba’s case was self-seeking, egotistic, a let-down, or devoid of principles and ideology as Nuhu asserted, his people would not have voted for him to the Green Chambers for the third time under the platform of APC in the 2015 general elections with a wide margin against his PDP opponent. The fact that his people voted for him in the manner they did was conclusive proof that they asked him to defect and he heeded their clarion call.
I am sure Nuhu is ignorant of the reasons why Jagaba defected to the APC preparatory to the 2015 general elections. I challenge him to go and ask the PDP Chairman of his Local Government Area. I am sure he is also ignorant that it was the same members of the PDP in Jagaba’s Constituency that gave him the majority of the votes to win the election. Nuhu does not know that Jagaba had never segregated between APC and PDP members in his Constituency when he was in the APC; and that when he distributed poverty alleviation materials to his constituents, majority of the beneficiaries were PDP members. Nuhu may not know that Jagaba was once physically attacked by some APC members because of his favourable dispositions to PDP members. Importantly, Nuhu is oblivious of the fact that it was the concerted and collective efforts of the PDP Chairmen of the 8 Local Government Areas that constitute the Southern Kaduna Senatorial District that went to Abuja to convince Jagaba to come back to PDP.
In an attempt to disparage Jagaba, Nuhu said; and I quote him:
“I also wish to bring to the fore the key and frontal role as usual that Jagaba played in the emergence of the APC Government at both the State and the National level; as usual, his role was key and frontal in foisting a Government that has demonstrated outright dislike and hatred to Southern Kaduna. A Government that audaciously admitted to paying the Fulani terrorists that have caused us so much grief and sorrow, pains and deaths.”
I think Nuhu is trying to bring childish and infantile ethnic sentiments to play here. Were there no killings in Southern Kaduna during the PDP era? So, Nuhu wants us to believe that the PDP government had also “demonstrated outright dislike and hatred to Southern Kaduna”; and that all those that partook in bringing the PDP government at that time were also guilty of these killings against their own people? Does Nuhu want to tell us that all our Southern Kaduna Brothers and Sisters that are in the APC, either as members or in government, have complicity in the killings in Southern Kaduna? Come on! This is preposterous! Nuhu should bring up better points than this wishy-washy assertion. This is cheap.
For the records, Jagaba was the first Representative from Southern Kaduna to move a motion on the floor of the House against the attacks and killings in Southern Kaduna even when he was still in the APC.
Nuhu concluded his piece on Jagaba as follows:
“By his actions, he has proved himself to be unstable and reputed for biting the fingers that feeds him, yes, the PDP made him and he fought them to a standstill. He mislead (sic) his supporters into the APC, midway into the tenure he dumped them and jumped ship back into the PDP.”
I think Nuhu should not cry more than the bereaved. The last time I checked, he was not, and still not, the PDP spokesman or any major stakeholder thereof. His, is the case of a meddlesome interloper seeking for unnecessary attention. PDP has good spokesmen at both the National and State levels. If Jagaba had fit into the description ascribed to him by Nuhu, PDP would have responded and taken the appropriate measure(s) against him. But, since it has not, Nuhu should keep his peace and seal his lips.
I understand where Nuhu is coming from. Primary elections are around the corner and he is doing all he can to discredit, demarket and disparage Jagaba for reasons that are covert and best known to him. Unfortunately, he has done a bad job. It is sad that the trend taken by Nuhu is commonplace with Southern Kaduna youth. They thrive more in pulling their own down than in promoting them by being petty and personal.
If Nuhu had a candidate in mind that he wanted to promote, he should have done so outrightly instead of dissipating his time and energy to write against Jagaba. Attempts to disparage Jagaba will never promote his preferred candidate.
We must encourage those aspiring for political positions to give them a shot. No political position is the exclusive right of anybody. Politics thrive when we have choices to make. The question that Nuhu should have addressed is whether or not Jagaba is competent to be our Senator. And, his answers should be issue-based. Unfortunately, he veered off.
In an attempt to discredit, demarket and disparage Jagaba, Nuhu has succeeded in promoting and endearing him the more to people like us.
Kanyip is a legal practitioner and writes from Kaduna
