I have never been a fan of Ali Modu Sheriff’s kind of politics. It is a political philosophy predicated on the principle of the end justifies the means, which I find appalling. His praise epithet, known as “kirari” in Hausa, recited at all his political gatherings before he mounted the podium throughout his eight year rule as governor portrays him as a “ruthless and mean” person. Perhaps, a critical analysis of this praise epithet will help Nigerians understand why he will continue to be a source of nightmare to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), unless he has his way.
Anyone who openly challenges SAS, as he is popularly called, has murdered sleep. The way and manner he humiliated the late Mala Kachallah out of office in 2003, describing his election as a mistake (kuskure), and how he almost made Borno State ungovernable for Kashim Shettima between 2013 and 2015, tells the story of the “Lion of the desert.” The duo’s crime was that they refused to be puppet governors.
However, there are three qualities I admire in the former governor. First, he is a goal getter who never sleeps until he gets what he wants. Second, he never takes anything for granted, such that the way he will fight a common man on the street undermining his political interest is the same way he will fight a governor or president.
Third, more than any other living politician in Borno’s history, he understands the power of money in achieving political goals. This partly accounts for why he has come this far in the murky waters of Nigeria’s politics. I believe that these qualities, if better managed, can propel him to greater heights, but blind ambition, obsession with power and vendetta have so much blurred his vision that he cannot see these political assets in him.
His unending desire to become the PDP national chairman at all costs, after the duo of Governors Ayodele Fayose and Nyesom Wike tricked him, underscores his obsession with power. This has continued to erode his remaining political capital, if he still has any. A keen follower of the chairmanship crisis does not need a soothsayer to know that some chieftains took advantage of his financial war chest, collected his money and hoodwinked him into becoming acting national chairman, but left him in the cold at the eleventh hour.
That was also the basic script of his political act while he held sway as governor of Borno for eight years. Sheriff does not deserve anybody’s sympathy over his current travails, as what you do unto others shall be done unto you. Perhaps, the late Dele Giwa had him in mind when he said “any evil done by man to man will be redressed; if not now then later, if not by man then by God. For the victory of evil over good is temporary.”
For those who have forgotten, I will recall three major instances out of many to buttress my point. In 2003, he had promised Mohammed Kumalia, a one-time All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Minority leader in the House of Representatives that he would make him governor after dethroning the late Mala Kachallah.
The young, charismatic and eloquent Kumalia took Sheriff’s words as the gospel truth, started campaigning underground, putting up political structures and even sold one of his properties in Abuja to raise money for the project. At the eleventh hour, Sheriff told Kumalia at the tarmac of the Maiduguri Airport that he has changed his mind because people said he cannot deliver the state to the party. Kumalia was heartbroken; their relationship degenerated leading to his expulsion from the party.
He has not recovered from this political blow dealt on him by Sheriff till this day.
There was also the case of his other political soul mate and controversial strong woman of Borno politics, Fati Kakeena. He had promised her the ticket of the Borno North Senatorial district under ANPP. After the elections got to the elections petitions tribunal, he turned his back on her and attempted to bring in Ambassador Ahmed Baba Jidda, his then secretary to the state government. This episode led to a long drawn political and legal battle between him and Kakeena that they have remained sworn enemies till this moment.
While the case of Kumalia and Kakeena sounds like child’s play, Kabir Wanori, a staunch Mala Kachallah loyalist, is one politician who will never forget the former governor. Sheriff made him decamp from the People’s Democratic Party to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) promising him heaven and earth, only to dump him like garbage as soon as he joined the party. Wanori became stuck politically like a car broken down midway into a journey, until Governor Kashim Shettima rehabilitated him two years ago.
The PDP, on the other hand, does not deserve the sympathy of Nigerians too. They knew who Ali Sherifff is before bringing him on board. One thing he loves after his life is power. You cannot befriend a mortuary attendant and say you do not want to see dead bodies. The PDP should not shed crocodile tears. The party was built on deceit and thrived on injustice for sixteen years. It is responsible for Nigeria’s economic woes today and is reaping the fruits of its labour.
The question is: Does Ali Modu Sheriff need to be PDP national chairman to be relevant in Nigerian politics? The answer is ‘No’. In fact, the manner he has continued to move from one court to another getting all sorts of injunctions is injurious to his political career. The PDP as it is today is a liability and bad brand that no amount of rebranding can repair. In addition, the party’s chieftains do not seem to realise the import of Obasanjo’s tearing of his membership card in the countdown to the 2015 general elections. The former president simply tore the future of the party and no amount of coalition can revive it. Sheriff is just one of the party’s many problems.
He also does not have what it takes to lead the party because of his personality. Sheriff still has a hangover of Borno’s kind of politics where there is no plurality of views. Hence, he failed to understand the inner workings of the PDP that he said through his aide that he had expelled the likes of Jerry Gana and others who are founding fathers of the party. It was from this point, his trouble with PDP started. It is ridiculous that a man who is a barely two years in a party will expel those who wrote the constitution of the party seventeen years ago.
As it is today, Sheriff needs to lie low and do proper stock taking of his political career. He left the All Progressives Congresses (APC) under controversial circumstances over irreconcilable differences with the leaders. At a point, he almost engaged Bola Tinubu in a physical combat just because he would not be allowed to produce a candidate for the position of national chairman and secretary respectively. Since joining the PDP, he has continued in the same manner, clashing with the governors elected on the party’s platform. He has made enough enemies in his eight year rule as Borno governor, alongside the Boko Haram controversy. He cannot afford to make more as his shoulders are not broad enough to carry the burden. There is a popular Hausa proverb that applies here: “Da mugun rawa, gaara kin tashi”, meaning “instead of a bad dance, it is better one does not get up at all.” For how long will he continue to accumulate excess luggage for a political career marred by controversies?
Sheriff, despite his stupendous wealth, cannot win the chairmanship of his home local council, Ngala, today, not to talk of becoming a senator in Borno Central, with eight local government areas. He should stop deceiving himself, if people are deceiving him, that he is a presidential material. According to a Malawian proverb, “he who thinks he is leading and no one is following him is only taking a walk.”
I wonder how his wife, Fati and children feel when they read stories from Nigerian newspapers posted on social media and the kind of nasty comments that follow. I do not know his children, but I surely know his wife is too gentle for the kind of controversies he keeps getting into. I also wonder what the friends of his children say when they read these negative comments.
Ali Modu Sheriff, by any standard, either before he became governor or after, is not a poor man. He comes from one of the richest families in Borno. Politically, providence has smiled on him as the first son of Dikwa emirate to be elected governor twice; he was elected to the Senate thrice, though inaugurated twice as the third one was truncated by the military; and reduced the Borno State PDP to spectators for eight years despite holding the government at the centre. Hence, he does not need to be active in politics to survive. Then, why all this trouble? He needs to save his wife and children the trauma of these negative commentaries about him in both mainstream and social media.
In addition, no matter how biased a historian may be, the story of Nigeria’s democratic experience in the last sixteen years cannot be written without mentioning the name of Ali Modu Sheriff. In the case of Borno, the story will be incomplete without a chapter being dedicated to him. What else does he want?
Above all, he needs to take a break in order to not to do more damage to the family name. Today, the mention of his name in any part of the country elicits negative reactions because of the brand he has unconsciously built for himself. He needs to protect the family name and allow his other siblings to make their mark in national politics. It is interesting to note that out of his father’s fifty five children, he seems to be the most “famous”, but there are others doing their things quietly that people may not know are from the family with him.
His insistence on treading the same path can deny his other siblings the opportunity of attaining prominence in national politics because he is damaging his political career and the People’s Democratic Party. The former governor must realise his current actions can rubbish the hard work of his father, Galadima Dikwa, Modu Sheriff. He is gradually becoming a mirror through which Nigerians view the family which may be wrong. Galadima Dikwa is one Borno businessman I respect so much, regardless of what others may think of him. Despite his little education and humble beginning as a local perfume seller, he achieved what the likes of Late Ahmed Mai Deribe could not achieve despite being close to the corridors of power. Every Borno man knows what happened to Deribe’s eldest son, Zanna, at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) despite his father’s stupendous wealth. It is better to allow sleeping dogs lie. He needs to learn from this and tread softly because power makes and destroys people.
No matter how many court judgments he gets, the PDP governors who are the heartbeat of the party are not likely to accept him; neither will he give up on his ambition to lead the party. He has inflicted enough damage on the party that it will go into the Edo governorship election in disarray. He has also put the “Inconclusive” National Electoral Commission (INEC) in a bigger dilemma on how to proceed with the Edo elections.
Ali Modu Sheriff must realise that his desperate attempt to lead the party is an exercise in futility. This is because the PDP is a sinking ship and the forces against him are far more mischievous than he is. But true to his praise epithet, he will continue to punch holes in the umbrella, so much so that everyone in the party will become drenched. He will also take the undignifying responsibility of being the undertaker for the party. Excess luggage in politics comes with so much pain that it buries both the owner and his luggage.
