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Tag: Marwa

  • I will transform Adamawa – Marwa

    I will transform Adamawa – Marwa

    Former Military Administrator of Lagos and Borno States, Buba Marwa, on Tuesday declared that he is the best candidate to occupy the Adamawa State Government house.

    The former governor, Murtala Nyako, was impeached last month by the state House of Assembly on alleged corruption practices. He has threatened to take his case to court.

    According to him, all his remarkable achievements as the Military Administrator of Lagos and Borno States will not only be replicated in Adamawa State but the projects number will be at least doubled in the state.

    Marwa, who was also a former Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa, said: “I am running in the next election by the grace of God.”

    On whether waiver will be given to him to contest on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, he said: “Yes and I think that is a concluded business. PDP is looking for good men who will win elections and I am one of them by the grace of God.”

    “Adamawa State is like comatose after Nyako’s administration. It is half-dead and it needs a Marwa to resuscitate it and bring it back to where it belongs.”

    Speaking on his planned program for the state, he said: “Free education, free healthcare, infrastructure, the roads that I did in Lagos like 700, we will double it in Adamawa if not more by the grace of God.”

    “The water supply, the most difficult area in the country is Borno State, I was governor there and I did over 1,000 boreholes and wells there. Agriculture, fishery jobs for the youth. We will work for the PDP and the people.”

    On how he intends to confront the security challenges in Adamawa, he said: “It is my job as you know.”

     

  • Presidency, PDP woo Marwa, Gunduri

    Presidency, PDP woo Marwa, Gunduri

    Aware of the implications of the defection of its key members in five Northern states, the Presidency and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have adopted some desperate measures to stem the tide, reports Assistant Editor, Remi Adelowo

    These are indeed not the best of times for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    With the 2015 general elecions just some months away, both the Presidency and the leadership of the PDP have in the last couple of weeks embarked on desperate measures to mitigate the recent losses the party recorded, following the defection of five of its govenors and 37 lawmakers in the National Assembly to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Aware that some prominent members of the APC are not happy over their seeming loss of influence in states where some PDP governors recently moved to APC, The Nation gathered that the Presidency has constituted a high powered team to woo these APC members to the PDP.

    In Adamawa State for instance, two prominent APC chieftains, General Buba Marwa and Mr. Marcus Gunduri, who are alleged to be unhappy over the handing over of the party’s structures in the state to Governor Murtala Nyako, are reportedly under immense presure to defect to the PDP.

    The thinking in the Presidency is that if Marwa and Gunguri move to PDP, the effect of Nyako’s defection to APC would be greatly minimised. Marwa and Gunduri are no pushovers in the politics of the North-East state.

    According to a source, both the Presidency and the PDP leadership are aware that the only way to salvage whatever remains of the fortunes of the party in Adamawa State is to woo Marwa and Gunduri to the party.

    The source quipped, “The Presidency knows that with the combination of Nyako, Marwa and Gunduri, Adamawa State will surely be a walkover for the APC in 2015.”

    In the 2011 governorship elections, both men gave Nyako a run for his money in a poll that was adjudged by many observers as one of the most keenly contested governorship elections in the country.

    During the election, Marwa contested under the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), while Gunduri was the candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Both parties, along with the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) have since merged to form APC.

    Though The Nation gathered that Marwa and Gunduri have so far spurned entreaties from the PDP, some of their supporters are allegedly asking them to consider the PDP offers. The supporters’ argument, according to a source, is that Nyako is not likely to adopt the spirit of ‘give and take’ in the control of APC structures in Adamawa State.

    What has further boosted the confidence of PDP leaders that Marwa and Gunduri may move to the party is not unconnected to the absence of the two APC chieftains at a recent meeting convened by Nyako at the Government House in Yola.

    The meeting was at the instance of the national leadership of APC, which recently mandated Nyako to harmonise his differences with Marwa and Gunduri. Both men gave no reason for their absence from the parley.

    The situation in Sokoto State where the governor, Aliyu Wammako also defected to APC is also similar to Adamawa’s.

    Sources revealed that the Presidency has desperately tried to convince some PDP stakeholders not to move with Wammako to APC. One of such people is Wammako’s deputy, Muktar Shagari, who a few days ago visited the Vice President, Namadi Sambo in Kaduna.

    During the visit, Shagari reportedly assured the VP that Wammako’s defection to the major opposition party will not affect the PDP’s control of the state in the next election.

    Until now, Wammako and Shagari were believed to be close, which explains why the latter’s latest action came as a shock to many political observers.

    According to a source, Shagari’s political moves of recent formed the major part of the discussion between Wammako and former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta a few days ago.

    The Nation gathered that Wammako had sought Obasanjo’s intervention in appealing to Shagari, who is known to be his political godson.

    Obasanjo, it was, who brought the two men together in 2007. The former President was alleged to had asked Shagari, his former Minister for Water Resources, to step down as the PDP governorship candidate for Wammako, who had just defected from the ANPP, following his parting of ways with the then governor, Attaihiru Bafarawa. Shagari not only relinquished the governorship ticket, he also agreed to be Wammako’s running mate.

    As compensation for his decision to remain in PDP, The Presidency, according to a source, has allegedly promised Shagari the party’s 2015 governorship ticket. One other option being considered by the Presidency is to lobby Wammako’s predeccessor, Bafarawa, an APC chieftain, who is alleged not to be happy that the APC structures in Sokoto State would be controlled by Wammako, his reported political foe.

    In the case of Kano State, no effort is being spared by the PDP leadeship to mitigate the effect of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s defection to APC.

    The ruling party is also allegedly banking on the complaints by some APC stakeholders, led by former governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, to maintain the party structures in the state.

    Presently,there is a battle for supremacy between Kwankwaso and Shekarau over the control of APC structures in the North-West state.

    While Shekarau’s camp argue that the former governor, being a founding member and a former presidential candidate should be recognised as the APC leader in the state, supporters of the incumbent governor think otherwise.

    According to them, Kwankwaso, based on current political realities in the state, stands head and shoulders above Shekarau and should be accorded that status in APC.

    With this battle for supremacy yet to be resolved, sources revealed that the PDP has sent emissaries to Shekarau to consider defecting to the APC with the promise of being made the leader of the party in the state.

    The Nation however gathered that Shekarau bluntly told some PDP leaders who recently visited him that he has no intention of leaving APC, because of what he described as “my disdain for anything PDP.”

    But the Presidency and PDP leaders are still not giving up on persuading Shekarau whom they consider a big fish capable of serving as a counter-poise against Kwankwaso.

    Beside Shekarau, the Presidency is also banking on the support of Mohammed Abacha, the eldest surviving son of late dicatator, Gen. Sani Abacha, to shore up the PDP’s support base in Kano State.

    In the last few months, the younger Abacha has been quite visible in the state. Recently, he was part of a PDP delegation that accompanied the Minister of State for Works, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, who was in the state to inspect some Federal Government projects.

    But it remains to be seen if these desperate measures are enough to reverse the dwindling fortunes of the ruling party in these core northern states.

  • Marwa: Quintessential leader at 60

    Marwa: Quintessential leader at 60

    In September, 1996, the rumour mill in Lagos had just manufactured a bumper one. Scores of people at Agege in Lagos State had suddenly given up the ghost after a meal of beans. For days the news thrived and nearly every home started bidding  farewell to any food made of beans. Moinmoin ( a mashed beans laced with fish and eggs, wrapped in green leaves) , akara (bean cake), gbegiri (beans soup) wanke (a delicacy of beans for Northern Nigerians) ewa oloyin (honey beans) and any other food made of beans in a jiffy became personnae non gratia in Lagos. Like an uncurtailed wild fire, the conflagration spread to many other parts in Nigeria. Those who had stored beans at home before the rumour, began singing nunc dimitis to this source of protein, savouring whatever remained in bits as if they would never eat this food again in their life. The price of beans dropped drasticaly as there were no buyers again. Insects started feeding fat on this delicacy usually ferried to markets in giant sacks. People started talking of dead bodies of fellow homo sapiens who died of food poisoning without anyone seeing their corpses. Yet Lagosians were scared to their marrows.

    The man at the helm of affairs in Lagos State, then Colonel Mohamed Buba Marwa (now a retired Brigadier-General) was troubled. This handsmome master’s degree holder in International Relations and Public Administration from Harvard and Pittsburgh universities in the United States of America respectively could not imagine his fellow Lagosians losing their robust figures for kwashiokor, as beans is the major proteinous  food that unites the commoners with the silver spoons. He sent his officials to the National Food and Drugs Agency (NAFDAC) to find out from the laboratories if indeed we had poisoned beans in town. They returned with the negative verdict. This was published as news, but it was a water poured into the basket. While on an assignment in Lagos one day,  Tuesday, September 24, 1996, to be precise, Marwa’s convoy passed the popular Ketu bus stop. His vehicle suddenly halted, making a reverse. The armoured corp officer jumped down. No one knew his mission. Nevertheless, everyone in the convoy came down and raced to catch up with him. To their shock, the man headed straight to an akara seller by the roadside and asked the petty trader to sell a ball of akara for him. Pronto, he posted this delicacy into his mouth and started chewing, to the delight of the Lagos crowd that have swarmed around their charismatic leader. He told the akara seller that he will pay for all the fried akara balls and invited everyone to join him. Hesitantly two or three officials (including this writer joined him) and before you could say Jack, Lagosians bombarded the rest of the akara, munching the free breakfast with delight. Marwa had taken the bull by the horns. The print and television media made a feast of the front page stuff, especially the photographs. On the next day, the beans scare became a hoax and everyone resumed duty with beans without any tinge of fear. Leadership by example!

    On Wednesday, July 7, 1998, Marwa was at Abuja for the Federal Executive Council meeting at Aso Rock, Abuja. Suddenly there was a breaking news. The symbol of democracy in Nigeria, Basorun Moshood Abiola, had dropped dead in the course of a meeting. This was big trouble, especially in the nation’s commercial nerve centre, Lagos. Fighting erupted, especially at Alapere, Ketu, Agege, Ojuelegba and Idi-Araba areas of Lagos. General Abubakar Abdulsalam (rtd), then Head of State, had to dispatch this former Aide-de-Camp to Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd) to Lagos, assisting him with a presidential aircraft as it was an emergency. When we alighted at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, we had to navigate through a lot of unusual routes  to avoid boiling spots of bonfire. This was not a day for siren. When we eventually got to the Lagos House, Marina, Marwa held a short meeting with a few members of his team. He, thereafter, sent for highly respected Muslim and Christian leaders to go and break the news to the Abiola family at Ikeja, Lagos that night. At 8am the next day, he made a state broadcast on the sad news, extolling the virtues of Abiola. He mourned him and directed that all schools in Lagos State to be shut for the rest of the week as a mark of respect. In the evening, he paid a condolence visit to the Abiola family at home. This visit was the greatest risk and gamble, combined together during this period when the military was not in the good books of Nigerians. Passing through thousands of people, Marwa who trekked quite a distance was the only one in his entourage allowed entry through the gate manned by seemingly militant and angry youths. They assured him that he was safe with them, as he was their man, blocking his security details and taking their positions. A few of Marwa’s security details, not in army uniform, myself and my own chief cameraman, Elder Titus Fapohunda, scaled the fence to enter. When Marwa was through with the visit a batallion of Lagosians escorted his convoy back to his Alausa, Ikeja office, singing thus: “Marwa o, o se wo ni, awa o je gba soja laye, Marwa o, o se wo ni “ (But for you Marwa, we would not have given any soldier a chance).

    The next day, Marwa was on his way to office when his convoy ran into a procession of the University of Lagos students on their way to Abiola’s house. He came down from his vehicle and commiserated with them. He advised them to be peaceful throughout. He then ordered Major Abayomi Opeolu (rtd), the then Task Force Commander on Envinromental Sanitation and his team to serve as their escort and ensure their safety. In the afternoon, he was on a peace mission to some volatile areas in Lagos. At Idi – Araba, he had to walk on broken bottles to quench the rage of what could have turned into an ethnic war.

    Was it not Marwa that brought the armed robbers to their knees  throughout his nearly three-year administration in Lagos State through a re-invigorated Operation Sweep to the point that armed robbers wrote and placed in his mail box (made available to all Lagosians for passing of information, free of charge) that he should allow them just one week to operate, so that they could have a merry Christmas? Was it not this former Military Governor of Borno State that constructed and rehabilitated over 700 roads in Lagos State through the Direct Labour Agency headed by Engineer Kehinde Osikoya? This agency constructed the dualisation of the Ikorodu Road in Lagos.

    This former Nigeria’s Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Permanent Mission, United Nations Headquarters in New York established the Lagos State College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and provided added infrastructural facilities to convert General Hospital, Ikeja into the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). He completed the housing estates initiated by his predecessors, Sir Michael Otedola and Brigadier-General Raji Rasaki (rtd) and named the estates after them. He built the massive estate named Marwa Garden, the Howson Wright Medium Income Estate and Owutu Low Income Estate, among others.

    He introduced the tricycle called Keke Marwa. He engaged area boys and girls in different ventures, teaching them new skills and paying their salaries. They turned good boys and girls during his tenure, becoming bakers, painters, horticulturists, road construction workers and so on. To his credit, the Eko Tourist Resort Centre, Akodo came into being.

    Throughout his stay in Lagos State, he never wore the mien of a militant person, yet with brilliance, determination, vision, milk of human kindness and fear of God won many battles without raising a stick. When the United Action for Democracy and a pro-General Sani Abacha group were spoiling for a showdown on a rally, same day in Lagos, Marwa drew a line on the  sand and  dared anyone to cross it.

    The vibrant Nigerian media fell in love with him for his outstanding performance. In his Cross Roads column in The Guardian of Sunday, May 17, 1998, Reuben Abati (now President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity) asked the then Head of State, Sani Abacha, to learn from his surbodinate, Marwa. He said and I quote: “Marwa is this administration’s most popular, most celebrated  officer. I am not one of his fans. I consider the man too much of a performer and a popularizer. His politics is rather syrupy. But in Lagos State, where the man is Military Administrator, he stands out. Serving in an administration and under a boss, that is constantly criticised, why does Marwa stand apart from the crowd? What makes him the saint in Abacha’s tainted administration? It is a contradiction that requires examination to provide us an insight into how one style can help condition and mediate public perception.”

    In the Nigerian Diet of Wednesday, September 3, 1997, a highly respected human rights crusader and legal luminary, Femi Falana (SAN), was reported to have said that Marwa was deliberately brought to Lagos State to make a point that in the military, there were good administrators. It is a ploy to sell General Abacha through Marwa to Lagosians. That is why the administrator has been going round to tacitly campaign for the Head of State.”

    Though he missed death by whiskers as the bomb placed near Sheraton Hotel failed to meeet its target (Marwa), this did not dampen his enthusiasm. Through Adekanola and Associates, a consortium of chatered accountants, he raised the Internaly Generated Revenue (IGR) to an appreciable level in Lagos State, so as to accomplish his projects without relying on federal allocations.Though a devout Muslim, his administration provided funds for the building of a mosque and a church at Alausa Secretariat.

    When he handed over to his successor, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, on May 29, 1999 and a few months later, he was retired from the army, he and some of his foreign friends formed Albarka Airline. As the Chairman of Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) at Kaduna, he ensured that guns used in the military were manufactured locally. As an Ambassador of Nigeria in South Africa, his era witnessed a robust relationship with dignity and respect accorded to Nigerians who were hitherto treated with disdain. Though the scheming in the political turf did not allow his presidential ambition to materialise and his governorship ambition in Adamawa State is yet to succeed, Marwa, a chieftain of the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC), who clocks 60 on Monday, is not a personality to be written off. One day, he will, by the grace of God and the goodwill of Nigerians, be able to re – enact what he did in Lagos State for Nigeria.

    •Ogunbambo was Chief Press Secretary to Marwa when he was Military Administrator of Lagos State from August 22, 1996 to May 29, 1999

  • Marwa under pressure

    Marwa under pressure

    Former Military Administrator of Lagos State, Ambassador Buba Marwa, is under intense pressure to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ripples can reveal. The former Nigeria High Commissioner to South Africa was a PDP stalwart until he decamped to the CPC, on which platform he contested for the Adamawa governorship in 2011 and lost to the PDP candidate, Muritala Nyako.

    In the last six months, some powerful interests in government have called on Marwa to return to the PDP, but sources disclosed that some of his closest political associates are still saying that on no account would he return to the party now or in the nearest future.