Ordinarily, I would have maintained a dignified silence because responding to unconfirmed statements by misguided persons would have amounted to a complete waste of time and energy. But on a second thought I decided to write this rejoinder not necessarily because of the importance I attached to the earlier write-up by the so-called ‘critical’ Stake holders but because of the good people of Jimeta and some gullible members of the public who might swallow hook-line-and-sinker the dish of lies being served by a group of self-seeking individuals. I am writing as an indigene of Jimeta and a well-informed and ardent supporter of the PDP. I stumbled upon this piece credited to Jimeta ‘critical stakeholders’, which does not exist in PDP constitution.

The sponsored article did not display any intellectual depth or academic prowess. The sponsored writer probably woke up from a bad dream and remembered one personality and decided that the only way he and his cohorts can achieve a level of relevance in the present political equation of the state is to try character defamation because in all his three pieces that I read, he only castigated the SSG maintaining same style of writing and raising same points. Hence, evidently same sponsor(s). Jimeta community has responsible stakeholders who maintained their dignity and have remained relevant in their wards, and the LGA in its entirety. Therefore, I would not generalize my rejoinder because of the action of a few selfish sadists. They would rather want everyone to be a colossal failure as they have been. Hence any attempt to think outside the box is termed anti-party because they epitomize greed and self-aggrandizement. They are mostly capitalists, mainly concerned about themselves and their cohorts and not the greater majority.

We will still address their nauseating and obnoxious allegations. A Kangaroo meeting was said to have taken place at HAMAB motors. The venue of this meeting was indicative of the caliber of individuals that constitute the so-called ‘critical’ Stakeholders. The venue also spelt the agenda of the meeting which was anchored on nothing but envy which clearly confirmed the clique behind it. The squabble with these disgruntled elements is primarily because mallam Bashiru is a principled technocrat that cannot be easily jostled with. There is yet another laughable point raised by the misguided and sponsored writer.

To start with, the writer raised the issue of Bashir’s indigeneship. For an adult that was born in Jimeta and lived for over 55 years therein, what more are you looking for? The story of Bashiru who was orphaned even before birth, because I am privileged to know, would be an interesting read. However, this is the problem of people putting themselves
in a cul-de-sac. These are people who rejoiced when the current Prime minister of Britain was said to be of Indian ancestry and jubilated when some Nigerians won elections in the USA. Hypocrisy is indeed a cancerous disease. I wish they have something tangible to offer in terms of contemporary life experiences. In this age, are we capitalizing on heritage or what one brings to the table? What you have to offer and how you have contributed to the development of Jimeta – both infrastructurally and in terms of human capital development should dictate how you are valued in the society and not where one’s ancestral linage could be located. Confining ourselves and repeatedly claiming ‘Dan
Jimeta’ is not what matters, but being intentional and instrumental to the development of the city with any little opportunity we have. The envious critics who have been capitalizing on heritage are beneficiaries of government at state and National levels for more than three decades with nothing to show in Jimeta and even their wards. In the last four years alone, Bashir has facilitated the construction of tarred roads in Ajjya, Alkalawa, Bekaji and other parts of Jimeta. Bahiru can boast of drilling not less than 20 boreholes in Jimeta –with 10 specifically in Ajiya ward. These are verifiable facts. Can any of these self�acclaimed ‘critical’ stakeholders beat their chests on any developmental project in their wards to their credit? Who should we consider as pride of Jimeta? The few selfish capitalists or the SSG? The SSG is not a man of many words but actions. He believes in doing what will impact positively on the lives of the populace. The cheap blackmail by the disgruntled individuals cannot deter him, that is why he never bothered about their previous write-ups attempting to blackmail or dent his image – now we are enlightening the populace on true position of things.

Secondly, while he was giving reasons for PDP’s failure in Jimeta, I was a bit embarrassed because there shouldn’t be any need to revisit that. H.E is aware of specific people that resolved to work for only the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. They rented an office and named their movement ‘Atiku Tan’ – a Fulfulde phrase meaning ONLY Atiku. The author clearly indicated that the clique did not work for H.E Governor Ahmadu Fintiti, as they left only the SSG to deliver Jimeta for him. If only mallam Bashiru and his supporters would ganner 24,000 votes for H.E. in Jimeta, if the so-called ‘critical’ stakeholders had supported, H.E. could have obtained more votes to even win Jimeta. It’s a known fact that this clique supported the APC governorship candidate during the election which is no news to governor Fintiri. Therefore, commending the governor at this stage is sycophancy of the highest order. Now that the table has turned, this ‘critical stakeholders’ are looking for how to become relevant. They misjudged. They believed that sacrificing the SSG on their altar of mediocrity can win them the favour of the Governor. Unfortunately, His Excellency knows better. He cannot buy into their lies and shot himself on the foot. He knows those who worked for him. He cannot consult a group of rag-tag politicians who have nothing to offer while considering people that worked hard for his success. The author equally raised the issue of Mallam Bashiru’s involvement in anti-party activity
during the governorship and state assembly elections. For the records, this ‘Atiku TAN’ movement did not only fail to work for H.E. during his election, but the condescending hypocrites worked for his strongest opposition, Senator Binani. Saying that the SSG supported the Labour Party candidate at the presidential election and the SDP candidate at the state assembly election is synonymous with saying he chased shadows; in fact, it is an insult on his intellect and personality – well, I leave this to readers to judge.

Mallam Bashiru was the very person that stood through thick and thin during the
membership party primaries and ensured that all the 35 votes were cast in favour of the out outgoing member, Hamidu Sajo Lekki. Most of the stakeholders were dissatisfied with
the outcome. The member has parted ways with everybody that supported him while he was canvassing for support in his first term. Immediately after the election, he left his home and relocated to the government lodge where he isolated himself from the same
electorates and supporters that voted him into power. According to his supporters, he became inaccessible, he rarely picks no returns calls which further isolated him from the public, which is not good for a member representing his constituents. He created Lekki network during 2019 electioneering campaign and toured the 11 wards with the group. From his assumption of office till date, none of the members has reaped the fruit of their labour which caused them to part ways with him. No wonder, the same network
campaigned against him in the recently concluded election. Lekki was nick-named ‘Maradona’ because of his mischievous attitude – he always wants to play safe by being a mischief maker. This soured relationship between him and the and the so-called ‘critical’ stake holders, most of whom vowed not to support his reelection bid
because he is not a sellable political commodity. Sheer arrogance and pride have made Lekki not to tour the 11 wards to canvass for votes, and he even got confrontational with anyone who mobilized electorates for him to campaign to. When it was obvious that Lekki’s relationship with the electorates has turned sour, H.E had to intervene by inviting Jimeta PDP stakeholders, and not the self�acclaimed critical stakeholders, to canvas support for the member. It is on record, that on
two separate PDP functions, the SSG had admonished the member to mend his relationship with the electorates, but he did not heed to these pieces of advice. His failure to campaign at ward levels as done by other candidates including H.E. caused him to lose the trust and votes of the electorates which unfortunately, negatively affected the
governor’s votes in Jimeta.

There is nothing wrong with having a team to complement the party’s effort in campaign, but instead of working with the party structure, Hamidu formed a 10-man campaign committee in each ward outside the party structure and solely relied on them for his votes. In fact, Lekki could not even distribute bulk of the resources given to him for his own re�election but kept it to himself, which many sarcastically refer to as his gratuity. Consequently, the member was clearly the architect of his own doom. What does a man expect when he is hunting with hounds and chasing with the hares? Failure of course. It is an anathema for one to eat one’s cake and still expects to have it. Our state assembly member should lick his wounds with serenity and calmness of spirit because any attempt to attribute his failure to any person or group amounts to efforts in futility.

Finally, it is the governor’s prerogative to appoint the SSG, which he can pick from any LGA but most importantly, it should be an experienced, trustworthy, a confidant and reliable fellow. Mallam Bashiru must not necessarily maintain the position of the SSG, but I hope among this clique, we have an educated and experienced person to take up the role. Mallam Bashir is not only a technocrat, but he is intelligent, principled, focused, dogged, resilient and most importantly, he is a reliable and dependable ally of H.E. Ahmadu Umau Fintiri. My heart bleeds as a handful of critics get unnecessarily envious when we should be thinking of utilizing our good offices for the success and progress of not just Jimeta but the state in its entirety.

Abubakar Ibrahim writes from Jimeta, Adamawa State.