Senator Ali Ndume (Borno South) has done all in his power to posture as a man of candour. Since winning election and representing Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza constituency in 2003 in the House of Representatives, he has not looked back, and has not been fettered by any electoral loss save the troubles his frankness and idealism have brought him. Brilliant (having graduated magna cum laude from the University of Toledo in Ohio United States), and fearless, (having fought many a political battle and suffered grave injuries), he has remained undaunted by opposition and by facts that sometimes unsettle his suppositions and conclusions. He must be doing many things right in his constituency to have won promotion to the senate in 2011 where he has remained ensconced despite his prejudices and fallibilities.
On June 8, undeterred by the constant explosions of his myths and hyperboles, the gritty senator took on President Bola Tinubu on television by denouncing the endorsements the All Progressives Congress (APC) has received ahead of the 2027 presidential poll. To Sen. Ndume’s unhappiness, some 22 governors have so far endorsed the president for the poll. That’s nothing, fumed the senator, some 22 governors also endorsed ex-president Goodluck Jonathan for the 2015 poll and still lost the election. As he snorted: “It happened before, not once, not twice. It happened during Jonathan’s presidency. That does not mean anything. Politicians are decamping, but the people who are the voters are not decamping. I don’t have access to Mr President, but I hope that he would look back historically and see that the gathering of people to endorse you does not mean anything. Jonathan had 22 governors then endorsing him, like was done now. And what happened? Jonathan lost woefully. And even that time, what happened? A lot of money was spent – over N2 billion or whatever. Even the election was shifted, but we are not learning our lessons. I pity Mr President for this kind of thing.”
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It may very well turn out that the endorsements may be overstated, but Sen. Ndume took too much liberty with facts by exaggerating Dr Jonathan’s endorsements. The former president did not have more than 16 governors endorsing him for the 2015 poll, not 22. Yes, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controlled 22 states at the time, but some five of them had aligned their goals and destinies with the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC) shortly before the presidential election. Dr Jonathan’s camp was unfortunately depleted in 2015. However, this was not the first time the Borno senator would be engaging in flagrant distortions. In 2017, with his characteristic candour unsupported by any investigations whatsoever, he accused former senate president Bukola Saraki of getting enmeshed in a scandal involving the violation of Customs and Excise regulations, and Dino Melaye, another senator at the time, of brandishing a fake university certificate. He was to apologise days later, but not before he was suspended for six months for unjustifiably traducing his colleagues.
Does Sen. Ndume learn from his many verbal and legislative mishaps? No. That would not be in his character. Not only does he make mistakes, many of them shocking and profound, he also doubles down on his errors and even sometimes tries to canonise them.
He revelled in similar fallacies two Fridays ago when he gleefully spoke about Boko Haram attacks on former Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai. He had said: “We are in a dire security situation. Just two days ago, Buratai was attacked at the front operations base in Borno. His team responded gallantly, but the insurgents managed to destroy several military assets. The situation in Borno is deteriorating rapidly. Insurgents now move freely, torching and stealing military equipment. It is becoming a full-blown crisis. All six geopolitical zones are experiencing security challenges to varying degrees. All six geopolitical zones are experiencing security challenges to varying degrees. Even in the South-South, we are grappling with economic sabotage like oil theft. At this point, the South-West appears to be the only relatively safe region.” But as soon as flak started to fly, he backed down and said he was misquoted. He insisted he spoke about an attack on Buratai town, not on the former army chief himself. He was of course more likely to have spoken about an attack on the army chief, instead of the town itself. But if he insists there was no such attack on the person of the former army chief, so be it. However, what made the story worthy of headlines in nearly all newspapers, thereby according it more oomph than it deserved, was the senator’s characteristic hyperbole. Reassuringly, it was obvious the army chief was uninterested in joining issues with him, perhaps recognising that it was the senator’s habit to cry and see wolf where none existed. But trust the senator to promote more hysteria.
If he is as thoughtful as his office requires, and a little more reluctant to attack the government of the day, he will be less inclined to talking up a storm anytime he speaks, and even more admiringly providing depth and answers to the puzzles he raises with gusto. He referenced the instability and chaos in Nigeria’s five geopolitical zones, singling out the sixth, the Southwest, for praise. But he offered no clue why the sixth is rather safer and more developed than the rest. Might it be their secularism, their liberalism, their great historical conurbation, or anything nuanced and subliminal? Or does he think it is merely coincidental? Is he aware that the country’s common malaise is also beginning to erode the Southwest’s values? Sen. Ndume should kindly let his interventions be less acerbic and hyperbolic, capable of shedding more light on current social and political challenges, and explicating deep economic matters upon which he has sometimes imprecated ignorantly?
