Kano Govt: Awkwardly Assessing It’s Assessments

By Bala Ibrahim

Pursuant to my last article, where I touched on the recklessness of the Govt. of Kano state under H.E. Abba Kabiru Yusuf, captioned: KANO GOVT: A RENDEZVOUS WITH RECKLESSNESS AND EXECUTIVE RASCALITY, responses came as expected. Some positive, while others were negative. That is normal and in conformity with the spirit of matured discourse. However, two peculiar responses compelled me to write this article, the first came from someone whose name I don’t know, but who was apparently responding to a question put forward about my identity. In order to get someone out of the way of danger, in case something untoward is targeted at me, I felt I should correct that mistake of identity, so as to keep him safe.

The second came from Sunusi Dawakin Tofa, the spokesperson of Governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf. I would start with the first, which goes thus: “Assalamu alaikum. Yaya Ibrahim, on who is Bala Ibrahim. He was a one time lecturer in the Dept. of political science, ABU, Zaria. He is of the radical left and always contributing with articulate and sound view points on most national issues. He anchors a weekly program on Trust TV and is an official of one of those Centers for Democracy(not sure of the name). Ha hails from Roni, now in Jigawa State. Although not my post but hope Ado Abdullahi will shed more light. Grateful forgive me if I have mistaken the name for another person. My Regards”.

All I can say is that indeed you have mistaken my name for someone else, because this particular Bala hasn’t the education to lecture in the Dept. of political science, at the prestigious ABU Zaria. He is also not fit or tailored for the aforementioned tasks. They are all above his prowess. And he has never been to Roni.

The second and the one from Dawkin Tofa would not have received any glorification from me ordinarily, but because there is the issue of professional ineptitude, or misunderstanding of the essence of Public Relations, whose objective is to earn understanding and support for the Government, through a sustained effort, that would establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between the government and the public, I feel I owe it a duty to respond to this professional delinquency.

Until now, I thought PR had gone past that archaic way of accusing opinion writers of “being sponsored by”, or “being on the pay roll of”. It used to be the vogue, in the days of lazy journalism, but not any more, with the advent of freedom of speech, which gives people the power or right, to express their opinions without censorship, restraint or, legal penalty.

From Dawakin Tofa’s rejoinder, it is evident that Governor Abba Yusuf needs the assistance of everyone, including my humble self, otherwise the future consequences of his misguidance would be disastrous. Rather than address the issue at hand professionally, and in a manner that may even ridicule the author of the article, Dawakin Tofa went bananas, with a boring and long shopping list of things that are actually the basis of electing the governor in the first place. Is it something new to say that the governor had built schools, paid salaries or purchased ambulances for hospitals? Are those not the primary responsibilities of any government? Come on Sunusi, you need to wake up and smell the coffee of proper PR and modern journalism.

No wonder the Kano Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) is on a boycott of the Governor’s activities. Yes, there is a deficit in the professional quality of advise given to His Excellency.

From the look of things, Governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf is caged by professional advisers that seem thirsty of professional advise. Only yesterday, I read of the opening of another frontier of professional warfare for the Governor, this time around with the police. On the advise of someone, I guess, the Governor is accusing the commissioner of police in the state, of refusing his orders and taking orders from somewhere else. I had to read twice, and listened to the press briefing before I believed it. Can you see why some of us are against the establishment of state police? Yes, the Governor is the chief security officer of the state, but he doesn’t appoint, deploy or give directives to the CP. That is the duty of the IGP, except in states where the governor is caged by professional advisers in need of professional advise.

There is a famous quote by Abraham Maslow, which refers to a concept commonly known as the law of instrument. It says, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”. Over-reliance on the advise of people that are bereft of ideas often results in repeated mistakes, or even destructive ones.

Governor Abba was wrongly advised to demolish people’s properties. That brought him to a political warfare with the public. He was advised to wrongly dissolve the Emirates established by his predecessor. That has brought him to a warfare with our fathers. He was wrongly advised to maltreat the members of the Correspondents’ Chapel. That has brought him to a warfare with my people, the members of the fourth realm. Again yesterday, he was advised to start a war with the police. Haba! No leader can survive a war with such multitude of enemies. No way.

For God’s sake your Excellency, you need a new style of leadership, because you are made to be awkwardly assessing your own assessment.