Let me start with a confession. I’m
not a politician. By that I mean that
I have never enrolled as member of
any political party in this country. I
have also never run for any political
office on the platform of any of the
multitude of political parties vying
for attention in the national
political space.
The Nigerian situation is centuries
away from that state of excellence
both in principle and in practice. It
operates rather as an attack dog in
blindfold with a warped sense of
perception and direction. That is
the tragedy, our tragedy.
The latest and best example of this
tragedy is in Taraba State where the
All Progressives Congress’ political
opposition vehicle with Alhaji
Hassan Ardo in the driving seat has
completely lost its break and sense
of direction. Ardo’s recent
outbursts against the government
and person of Arc Darius Ishaku,
governor of Taraba State is a
testimony to the widely held belief
that the APC in Jalingo is incapable
of rising above the trauma of its
defeat in the 2015 governorship
election. It has remained in its
state of perplexity since the end of
the election and the long legal
tussle which eventually ended in
favour of the candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In
its state of confusion (or is it
convulsion), it has always made the
mistake of standing the truth on its
head. This is unfortunate.
A few days ago, Ardo confirmed to
the general public that he and the
state APC were still in their state of
confusion. During a news interview
in Jalingo, he shocked all by asking
Governor Ishaku to resign his
position. Of course, the question
most people, including this writer
were prompted to ask was: for what
reason? It was the most unexpected
statement at the time it was made.
It is no surprise therefore that
many people promptly labelled it as
an iniquitous act of political
indiscretion and ignored it. It came
at a time that the administration of
Governor Ishaku was enjoying its
most favourable public rating. It
also came only a few weeks after
teachers and local government
workers were paid two months of
their outstanding salary arrears. It
came at a time government was
being praised for cleaning the
state’s payroll of ghost workers and
saving the state of millions of Naira
lost monthly to fraudsters.
Ardo also took umbrage at the
decision of the Taraba State House
of Assembly to reduce the tenure of
local government councils in the
state from three to two years. The
main plank of his argument against
that decision is that it will not solve
any problem. I waited to hear from
him what problems the three-year
tenure solved while that policy was
in place. He said nothing and I
heard nothing. Ardo must take the
flak for that omission.
From my vantage position of an
outsider (I’m not a public servant) I
can safely conclude that the Taraba
State APC needs some tutoring on
the important subject and place of
political opposition in a democratic
process. Nobody is suggesting that
the APC or any political party for
that matter cannot criticise the
government and the Governor of
Taraba State. Far from being the
idea. But such remarks about
government’s decisions and policies
must truly reflect the truth.
Ezekiel Bawa, Jalingo, Taraba State.