For some of us in our mid-40s, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of House of Representatives was a role model in many respects. For millions of younger Nigerians, he is also a beacon of hope. Coming from a humble background, those of them born with no silver spoon in their mouths would see in the speaker a realistic possibility of mother luck also smiling on them to rise to the top echelon and bequeath shining legacies to society.For a leader seen as such, there is additional responsibility on his part to strive to live above board so that even if, in the true imperfect nature of man, he is found wanting, it will be excusable. With more and more indiscretions swirling around our role model, one finds it necessary to ask: does the word legacy have any meaning to our own Yakubu Dogara' Is he aware that by his massive achievements, he is automatically, and not by choice, a role model to many that would want to emulate him, and he owes them every responsibility to remain as one'Several well-meaning Nigerians have expressed deep reservation, if not outright disgust with what they call Dogaras proclivity for pettiness. The speaker is seen by this school of thought as someone given to stirring the hornets nest at little or no prompting. Penultimate week, he led a delegation of some members of the National Assembly to protest against the governor of his own state of Bauchi. It is quite a legitimate thing to do, if he and those that followed him had done their homework right.But from the look of things, they were so much in a haste to politically deal with Governor Mohammed Abubakar that they threw all decency and caution to the winds and reported the governor to the national chairman of the APC when a federal institution of repute, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) had earlier investigated the matter and given the Bauchi governor a clean bill of health.In his high position, Dogara does not even need the Freedom of Information Bill to find out that the N8.6 billion bailout funds that they used as the main plank of their protest had since been applied for the same purpose for which it was collected, which was settlement of backlog of salary arrears of the states civil servants. Dogara and his co-travellers also did not need to carry out any research to know that the Bauchi bequeathed to Governor Abubakar in May last year was almost a failed state pillaged and mismanaged by his immediate predecessors.As of May last year, Bauchi State ranked 33rd in Nigerias poverty index. In terms of statutory allocation of funds from the Federation Account, it currently ranks among the lowest. Yet, it possesses one of the highest number of civil servantswell over a hundred thousand. Blessed with people in high places, such as our own Yakubu Dogara, the expectation was that a common front will be forged to find lasting solutions to the deep mess the State has been callously thrown in by the marauders of the past.There ought not to be any interest in the states resources, as the agitators are rumoured to have. Sadly, in Bauchi today, there are talks to the effect that all the protestations have their root in Governor Abubakars refusal to kowtow to the selfish demands of some Abuja politicians of Bauchi origin, which include the need for the meagre resources of the state to be placed on a table and shared out to the powers-that-be on a monthly basis. In the words of the senior special assistant, media and communications to the Bauchi governor, Comrade Mohammed Sabo, problem started between Dogara and his group, on one hand, and Governor Abubakar, on the other, when they told the Governor that President Muhammadu Buhari has blocked leakages in the National Assembly and they wanted the governor to connive with them and short-change Bauchi people, he refused. Thats why they are fighting him.A commentator, Abdullahi Musa, got it right when he said that as a lawyer, Dogara knows very well that you dont come to equity with dirty hands. To the thinking of Dogara and his team of spin-doctors, accusing the governor of Bauchi State of not applying the sum of N8.6billion bailout funds to the purpose (according to them) for which it was collected, or merely saying he is running a government that excludes their personal interests, will get the nation abandoning the real issues at hand to shift attentionMany Nigerians have expressed disgust that the timing of Dogaras allegations against the Bauchi Governor, and ridiculously following it up with personally leading a delegation to protest against him, is not right.The speaker should have known that Nigerians have gone past the stage where they will swallow hook, line and sinker, allegations from any political adventurer. People now dig deep to get to the root of any matter. In the globalised world we all live in, one does not even need to undertake a trip to Bauchi to establish the veracity or otherwise of Dogaras baseless allegations.Even when he knows it was all landmines set up to entangle him, the Bauchi Governor disappointed the perpetrators of this evil by not sacking tens of thousands of civil servants and causing deep damage to the innocent ones among them. To minimise the damage and ensure justice, the governor decided that the way to go was to institutionalise a process of sieving the grain from the chaff by identifying actual workers from the ghost, non-existent ones.But in a manner that left their planks open, and which could lead people to suspect their involvement, Dogara and his gang had as a prime reason for their protest to the APC National Chairman, the need to get the governor to stop the process of verifying the truth. In the words of Senator Suleiman Nazifi, (APC Bauchi North), all the unending verifications must end, even though they know, more than most of us, that what they were demanding will only benefit a few, at the expense of millions of good people of Bauchi State.To lay a solid foundation for the development of the state and boost its sources of revenue, the governor has developed and transformed the Yankari Games Reserve to international standards, and has been paying commensurate attention to overall development and transformation of all of Bauchi, not sections thereof, even though he is inhibited by the clearly-known national tragedy of paucity of resources.The governors aide also pointed to intrigues surrounding the general election year of 2019 as another reason Dogara and co are neck-deep in fighting the governor. The group is believed to have co-opted a member of the federal cabinet to contest against Governor Abubakar in 2019, in case Dogaras rumoured candidature fail to fly.To buttress the fact that the motive of the latter-day agitators is far from being noble; that it is all about personal interest, they complained to the APC National Chairman that Governor Abubakar is running an exclusive government. This was also shot down by Comrade Sabo, the governors media aide when he pointed out that after the gubernatorial primaries, the governor picked Engineer Nuhu Gidado as his deputy, though Gidado had contested against him in the primary election.Again, the allegation that the governor has side lined them is unfounded because five serving commissioners are close to these people who are now fighting the governor. Why are members of the House of Assembly and the state chapter of the APC not complaining' It goes to show that the Abuja politicians are out for mischief.For me, the Abuja-based Bauchi politicians should do away with ego and any pecuniary interest and selflessly join hands with Governor Abubakar to develop Bauchi, so that at the end of the day, the people would be proud and thankful to them.If President Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders had taken the habit of asking their governors to buy for them houses at home or abroad or share out resources belonging to many to just a few, they will never have earned our collective respect as they do today. Gaya is the Vice President (North) of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
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