Burden of Truth: Sadiya Umar Farouk Meddling in Bauchi Politics

By Sanusi Muhammad

“One lie built on another is like a thatched house, and before long it will rain through” ……African proverb
She was appointed as a cabinet minister by President Muhammadu Buhari to serve a specific purpose in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and possibly beyond. Along the line, she has abandoned those core responsibilities of the federal ministry she was appointed to lead. In place, she has opted to meddling in juvenile politics in faraway Bauchi State that may sooner than later create crisis within the polity to her credit.

As rightly captured by Bulama Bukarti in his Wednesday, January 5, 2022 back page column of Daily Trust Newspaper, “The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouk, is herself from Zamfara State. She was appointed to the position of a minister because she is a woman and from Zamfara and she is supposed to represent the people of Zamfara in the federal cabinet. But she has done nothing to help the women and children of her state devastated by terrorists. If Sadiya, cannot help her own constituency what more of the rest of Nigerians”.

I doff my cap for the courage of Bukarti to have captured the lingering pathetic situation of the devastated people of Zamfara by exposing the failure and incapacitation of their daughter serving as the Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Minister from addressing the issues bedeviling the existence of victims of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping in her native state of Zamfara and several other places in Nigeria. Instead of attending to the needs of the unfortunate victims, she has since diverted her attention and service to juvenile politics in Bauchi state in support of the gubernatorial aspiration of her husband who is touted as a 2023 gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC.

One has no moral justification to quarrel with Sadiya over her support to the aspiration of her husband as a right but that should not be at the detriment of service to Nigerians through a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) piloted by a senior brother to her husband.
The game plan is to woe the support of the gullible to the tall dream of her husband through the distribution of forms for federal government economic empowerment schemes and loans superintended by her ministry.

The game plan is already heating the polity in Bauchi state and creating ripples that may eventually snowball into crisis if left unchecked. Several complaints were lodged with the Bauchi state government to checkmate the excesses of the minister, but for reasons not clear, the government is yet to act.

But if one may ask, why is Sadiya so determined to abuse the trust reposed in her by President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerians to achieve selfish interest of her husband who is in blind aspiration to ‘unseat’ a performing governor? Is she against the rapid socio-economic development of Bauchi state under Governor Bala Muhammed? Does she want to create another Zamfara state unfortunate scenario in Bauchi state? Or she is in day dreaming to be addressed as the first lady of Bauchi state in her wildest imagination? For quite some time now, a few media houses and a cross section of the social media in connivance with some spurious political elements have lent themselves to the unholy enterprise of running down the reputation of the Bauchi governor ostensibly- for political recognition, blackmail and cheap sympathy against 2023.

Most of the negative publications and confrontations targeted at the man are usually full of falsehood, half-truths and innuendos. All these whiles, the good people of the state have restrained themselves with considerable effort, of course from joining issues with those mischief makers with the belief that with time, they would realize the futility of fighting a man that has a good vision for the people and also with those understanding that after all, silence, as is said, is the best answer to a f—l.

In Nigeria, like all contemporary societies of the world, the challenge of leadership in whatever capacity is daunting. How do you ensure that you satisfy the generality of the people with pandering to the whims and caprices of the stakeholders? By stakeholders, I mean those whose main desire is the generosity that cater for their needs and messages their over-bloated egos. I mean those who think rightly or wrongly that public or private office must be misused to their selfish advantage against the collective welfare of the people whose plight Sen. Bala Muhammed holds in trust as part of his mandate.

The core of these people is the elite who either feast on government without adding any value in return other than claim of indigenization of the state for ignorance of historical facts that was blocked or, the opponents of the man who are bent on destroying him at all cost to create a window to attaining public office or access to the corridor of power for selfish interest as the case with Sadiya Umar Farouk and her co-travelers. Such opinions and efforts to unseat Bala Muhammed are usually from the spent horses that wander wild without a parking lot in the bottom pit of hell. Imagine a retired Chief of Air staff and serving as Nigeria’s ambassador to Chad Republic stooping so low for a governorship assignment instead of deploying his wealth of experience in security management for the safety of Nigeria. Sadiya could have advised her husband to deploy his experience in military duties to secure Zamfara state from the threats of terrorists than her clandestine efforts to destabilize Bauchi State and abusing the trust of Nigerians. In Nigeria, an opposition has acclimatized to seeing the negative side of things against their contender, smoke screening the positive ones.

To be constructive in criticism is to enjoy sympathy from the hapless listeners or readers who will in the affirmative hail the critic as a hero without understanding the motive behind the spurious criticism and allegations carefully assembled for greed. These army of irredeemable malcontents masquerading as critics or aspirants do not criticize or challenge Sen. Bala Muhammed with the sincere intention to correcting his perceived mistakes if any but to divert his attention to trivial issues of no value.

Rather, they attack him in the market square with the aim to undermine and destroy his reputation and political career with fiction and primitive imaginations from their narrow evil minds and weak thinking faculty.

Overtime, Sen. Bala was once under strident criticisms of some spoilsports who maliciously accused him of imaginary offences. Those spurious allegations laced with hatred were traded despite glaring evidence of credible performance within limited resources. A cursory look at all the allegations reveals lack of any iota of truth to trouble a mind and disturb a sleep, hence the silence all along.
Not satisfied with the outcome of the mischief, they resorted to recruiting extra hands to do the fighting for them hence the behind the scene presence of Sadiya Umar Farouk.

It is simply comical that the governor would be so daft to watch his detractors threatening his reputation as advanced by the dullards without responding. No sane person of Governor Bala’s societal status and educational attainment can bite the fingers of his own people no matter what, lust for wealth accumulation and imaginary political ambition. The administration Sen. Bala pilots works on the tenets of an ideology of upgrading all sectors of the economy from the old order of grab that never has a space in his dictionary of probity and transparency that can neither be denied nor debated even by the insane in or out of opposition.

Majority of Bauchi State electorate have rated the performance of their governor high and prayerful for his re-election in 2023. What else? The respect, prayers and love extended to the governor by majority of the governed are enough pointers to his detractors and opponents in a wild goose 2023 chase.

Sadiya Umar Farouk and her co-travelers masquerading as politicians should hurry to embrace the truth to at least sheath their swords than embarking on a wild goose chase of envy and hatred to achieve political sympathy.

Then come to think of it, an adage says, “a river whose sources are well known can hardly sweep the discerning even if in its self-delusion it becomes a cascading avalanche”. No matter the quantum of negative criticisms, spurious allegations from neophytes, challenges from jobbers borne out of hatred, Sen. Bala remains focused in life and his vision of working assiduously for the liberation of Bauchi state, whether in or out of government remains a bond.

It must be pointed out that Sen. Bala Muhammed has institutionalized a brand-new style of leadership in Bauchi State that has vision or better still, demonstrated clear ideas anchored on sincerity, which exemplifies an ethical disposition and willingness to pursue those ends, even against the current of moral and ethical permissiveness prevalent in the society.
It is my ardent hope that the kind of obsession that his critics have so far displayed will not dovetail into an incongruous situation whereby if they are unable to fulfill their marital responsibilities to their wives, they will not blame this amiable, gentle and peace-loving man called Sen. Bala Muhammed.

President Buhari should caution his Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Minister to keep away from meddling into the political affairs of Bauchi so as not to create an unpleasant political situation with public resources. If she is genuinely interested in supporting the economic viability of the people, let that be done through the known conventional system.

Muhammad is a commentator on national affairs