The Sunday edition of The Nation newspaper of July 22 featured a short take on Niger State in the “Political Ripples” column (Page 21). The writer subjectively titled his political commentary as “Between Aliyu and Yahaya”. This is not only misleading and presumptuous but also disrespectful to the person and office of the Executive Governor of Niger State, Chief Servant (Dr.) Muazu Babangida Aliyu. There is no way the appointing authority, which in this case is Chief Servant MB Aliyu, can be placed on the same pedestal as his appointee, which in this case is the Chief of Staff, Prof. Muhammed Kuta Yahaya. We shall soon return to this.
In the commentary in question, the writer stated, inter alia, that “within the political and government circles in Niger State today, the fear of Professor Mohammed Yahaya is said to be the beginning of wisdom for many politicians and civil servants”.
Pray, which Niger State is the writer referring to? Certainly not the one we all know, live in, and work for. This is a state where peace and tranquillity reign supreme; where the Chief Servant conducts governance in an open and transparent manner with love and humility. The people are not treated just as the object of governance but as participants and partners whose views, inputs and contributions are indispensable to the successes recorded so far in every strata of life by the administration.
The political class in Niger State is one of the most mature, sophisticated, and public-spirited in the entire country; not for us is any of the sectarian strife, political violence, bickering and polarization that we have witnessed in other parts of the country. Niger State has the distinction of being home to two former Heads of State; rather than this fact tearing the state apart or heating up the polity, the state has been able to convert this uniqueness to great advantage with the leadership qualities of the Chief Servant.
There is no disquiet amongst the political class in Niger State; neither are there rumblings in the state’s civil service as a result of a so-called super appointee whom the article in question chose to rate even far and above the appointing authority. If we may ask again: Where on earth does such an anomaly exist? The wheel of the Niger State civil service grinds efficiently without rancour and power struggle, thanks to the immense wealth of experience that the Chief Servant brought from the Federal civil service and which he deployed to make our state civil service one of the best and most professional in the country today. We are proud of the civil service that we have today; it is a worthy legacy which Dr. Aliyu shall bequeath to Niger State after a meritorious eight-year service.
The author was right when he stated that Prof. Yahaya was Secretary to the State Government in the first dispensation of Dr. Aliyu as Chief Servant; but again he got it all wrong when he proceeded from that premise to state that the said Prof. Yahaya “is regarded by many as the most powerful man, who allegedly determines who gets what, when, and how in the North Central state”.
What a fallacious statement! Those faceless “many”, whom the writer attributed that unsubstantiated statement to, must be jaundiced indeed! It shatters the boundaries of reason and logic to say that the clay is superior to the potter; don’t you think so? If a single official, who was appointed, were to become the de facto and de jure as the writer laboured to establish, though unsuccessfully, what becomes of the established and time-honoured machinery of government in the state? Where is the role of the state executive council? What becomes of the executives of the ruling party in the state? This is not to talk of the Chief Servant himself on whose desk the buck stops; or has that stopped being the defining character of the presidential system of government that we now operate in this country?
It is just not true that a single person wields the enormous power as outlined in the write-up; even the Chief Servant, who by law is empowered as the Chief Executive Officer of the state, delegates a lot of his duties, functions, and powers to a plethora of officers of whom Prof. Yahaya is just one. In the Presidential system that we operate, there are other arms as well as tiers of government which serve as checks and balances on the executive arm of government. The state House of Assembly and the judiciary are independent of the executive. In Niger State, this is truly so. There are also the local governments, which form the third tier of government, which also run their own show according to rules and regulations stipulated by the country’s constitution. In all of this, there is no magic that anyone would conjure that would make him or her man ride rough-shod over everyone else, more so when we have exited military dictatorship.
The writer of the article in question exposed his under-hand in the last paragraph of his piece that dripped with malice and which can be seen as obvious political propaganda when he said “Yahaya’s closeness to the governor may have fuelled speculations in the state that he is being prepared for the governorship seat in 2015, a development which may pitch the governor against some powerful retired generals in the state who have a different game plan for the 2015 race”. 2015: That magical date again! So this really is not about Prof. Yahaya but about some people’s designs towards 2015! Prof. Yahaya is a mere pawn on the political chessboard of those who have started the 2015 race in 2012! Focusing on Prof. Yahaya is the peg they need, as it were, to prosecute their political agenda.
Otherwise, how can ordinarily reasonable people accuse a Chief of Staff to a governor of being “close” to the governor? Do they want him to be very far away or to be estranged from the governor? Do they understand the duties of a Chief of Staff? Is there a way he can creditably perform the functions by being far removed from the governor? At any rate, the Chief of Staff is not the only appointee of the governor who is close to the governor; there are so many other appointees and civil servants who, by virtue of the responsibilities bestowed upon them, must be close to the governor. This is as it should be, not only in Niger State but also all over the country.
Prof. Yahaya was at the nation’s premier university, University of Ibadan, before Dr. Aliyu appointed him Secretary to the State Government during the first dispensation; he is therefore not the obtrusive politician that some people would have us believe. The professor rightly saw his appointment as a call to duty despite his unparalleled love for his vocation as an academic. The confidence reposed in him by the Chief Servant humbled him and made him to give his all to the assignment – and that is what he has done since he joined the government of Niger State.
Prof. Yahaya is not about to be deterred in his single-minded determination to continue to give his all to the service of his home state. He is grateful for the opportunity that he has had to work at close quarters with the Chief Servant; to say that he has learnt a lot will be an understatement. His commitment is to the success of the government of Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu; his goal is none other than the goal of the Chief servant. To those who have goals that are at variance with the best interest of our dear Niger State, we advice them to please find somewhere else to ply their disruptive trade. The government is focused on, and committed to, delivering the dividends of democracy to the good people of Niger State and shall not be diverted from this singleness of purpose. There is no schism or polarisation in the state civil service; there is no animosity amongst the Chief Servant’s team; and there is no tension state-wide amongst the political class
• Bamidele, Journalist and public affairs analyst writes from Abuja.
