Open Letter to Audu Bulama Bukarti

Dear AUDU BULAMA BUKARTI, I first came across you through a collection of audio tutorials for students of the Nigerian Law School and you became my teacher, my lecturer and a mentor even though we have never met. I have followed your activities with keen interest because you are a courageous person that is selflessly fighting for the downtrodden. But like all humans, we are not free from error and that is my humble submission after reading your assessment and subsequent judgment on Governor Mai Mala Buni within twenty four hours of taking his oath of office.

The yardstick for measuring the performance of a government is longer than this and it has almost become a “tradition of democracy” all over the world to use the first hundred days of a government as a pointer to the direction it is heading to. This is fair for the leaders, the led and the neutral commentators. With time, it will come and I hope fate wills that we will witness it.

The belief in fate and timing for everything form the foundations for theists like you and I and our belief that everything has been predestined by our Creator. I am sure that Mai Mala Buni acted within his rights and belief by taking in a third wife but most importantly because the God that gave him that unalienable right willed it so. The event, the parties and the timing were all put in place and fated to happen by Allah (S.W.T) the master of planners and there is nothing you and I or any other person could’ve done to change it, even if we wanted to.

I am sure as an advocate of positive change, you spoke in fear of the former administration having a grip on the present and not allowing it to thrive at the pace we expect. You are a true democrat, Sir and I would love to put your fear to rest because those who know him know that personal relations would neither affect his will nor his plan for the good people of Yobe State. I am sure you had the same conviction while supporting Kwankwaso’s in-law in the recently conducted Kano Gubernatorial elections.

Not everyone knows Mai Mala, it could be argued, but almost everyone read his inauguration speech and in his words some of us found hope that cannot be erased in twenty four hours or twenty four days. We listened to a man who acknowledges the growth and development of the modern Yobe but is not satisfied and wants to immediately upgrade the health, agricultural and education sectors. Sir, I listened to a man hell bent on doing his own work, not for some wanton gain or to satisfy and enrich “friends, families and in-laws” as you put it but to work for the hundreds of thousands of Yobeans who suffer under bad leadership and thrive under a just and fair one. I know a few of them, you might know a lot of them but Mai Mala Buni set out to identity all of them during his campaign and to work for them because like every visionary, he knows the effect his actions will have on them and getting married didn’t have any negative effect like you concluded.

He also intends to tour the seventeen local government councils, hold Town Hall meetings and interact directly with his people. He will listen to our problems and whatever advice we have to give. I am sure you will agree, Sir, that such level of inclusiveness has not been associated with any government since the second republic. Sir, you are an ardent worshipper in the temple of justice and a relentless Human Rights Activist, you began your journey from Bukarti and I am sure that the people there and Yobeans at large are proud of you. However, not everyone is as lucky and/or as talented as you are. I believe, having seen it all, you are in a position to tell the government about such people and how their lives can be bettered. We hope to see your advises/suggestions to your governor on how to better the lives of the people of Bukarti and the larger Yobe, and perhaps, we may now hold him on that.

The words in your audio tutorials helped my career, sparing a few more words every now and then about issues that will directly affect the common man will help in more ways than you can imagine. Thank you, Sir. Eid Mubarak.

Yours sincerely,

Barrister Suleiman Hassan Gimba.