Adamu Adamu, APC Bauchi Congress And The Decline Of A Public Intellectual — By Misbahu Shehu Gokaru

Bauchi State historically has been the bastion of progressive politics in Northern Nigeria, long before other states joined the bandwagon. However, in recent times, there’s been asteady decline due to the heightened and often times avaricious interests of political actors. For instance, the People’s Democratic Party PDP, currently in power in the state has seen major political actors leaving its fold, because of the junta like manner it is being run by the State Governor Bala Muhammad. Influential members of the party left because of the seeming high handedness the political leadership was exhibiting in all ramifications. It has become imperative to remember that it is the dictatorial tendencies of the Governor that led to the exit of former Speaker of the HoR Yakubu Dogara and former Governor of Bauchi State Isa Yuguda, to jump ship and join the APC, which is invariably a plus to the APC in Bauchi State.

It seems the Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu is borrowing a leaf from the handbook of the one-man show that pervades the ruling party in the State, and he should have a rethink instead of recreating the same scenariothrough the prism of a lack of internal party democracy.

As a so-called Party leader, the Minister should remember that his task is simply that of an adjudicator, to serve as an arbiter in promoting internal party democracy where the wish of the majority will prevail always and not perpetuate the tyranny of the minority. A true leader will desist from forcing his choices and will on the people.

The constitution of the APC is clear on the tasks of a party leader -there’s no clause in the APC constitution that lists or elevates a leader over the place of stakeholders. Mallam Adamu should make up his mind if he wants to contest and stop this proxy manipulation of anointing one of his lackeysas State Chairman.

It was Lord Acton who made the memorable statement that Power Corrupts and Absolute power corrupts, this saying hasn’t been truer than in the case of Adamu Adamu, who for several years was a columnist and public intellectual, whose pen was responsible for shaping public opinion, sermonizing on the pulpit of public good and decency and working towards the establishment of an egalitarian society.

In Mallam Adamu’s search for the Utopia, that he prolifically wrote about, he wanted public officials to be accountable, brazen embezzlement was frowned upon, and the development of Nigeria was a mono-manic pursuit.  This was the reason for the singular motivation of the excitement that greeted his ascension to the Ministry of education. His appointment by his mentor and friend President Muhammadu Buhari to one of the most critical components of government, in the last six years has been nothing short of a lackluster performance characterized by University Staff strikes, dilapidated education infrastructure and a distinctive failure to arrest the mass abduction of school children.

However, today is not the day nor time to x-ray his stewardship as a Minister of the Federal Republic but his foray into Party Politics as a “So called” party leader in his native state Bauchi. Indeed, he has acted out of character, the character that he had spent years building as a polemicist. For several years he has sermonized, he has lectured and pontificated about the character of man and what makes a man flawed, most especially he has consistently amplified why the Nigerian State and its institutions have remained flawed over the years.

Unfortunately, at the time it matters most Mallam Adamu Adamu like a prodigal preacher has jettisoned all he claimed to have stood for by imposing a candidate in the just concluded APC Bauchi State Congress, by imposing Babayo Aliyu Misau as Chairman of the APC, against the popular choice of the Stakeholders in person of Alhaji Sanusi Aliyu Kunde. This is despite the unanimous agreement of other contestants from Bauchi Central to step down for Kunde to lead APC.

Ratan Tata of the Tata Group had this to say about legacies “Apart from values and ethics which I have tried to live by the legacy I would like to leave behind is a very simple one – that I have always stood up for what I consider to be the right thing, and I have tried to be as fair and equitable as I could be”. It is left to be seen if Mallam Adamu Adamu’s actions will be a legacy of fairness and equity or become the subjects and characters he spent his entire life riling against. The following weeks and months will tell.