Between Umaru Babura and Michael Audu Buba

They both worked tirelessly for the people of the north in particular and Nigeria in general. They served meritoriously and left footprints that guided the evolution of modern Nigeria. They believed in the north and in Nigeria, they built bridges of harmony in religion and ethnicity. They never discriminated against people within their political and administrative enclaves.
Above all, they were honest and ran the affairs of state with the necessary caution and purity and established very firmly the culture of service and worship, which was the undertone of the official philosophy of the Northern Region and its government.
By the time the military stroke in January 1966 none of these gentlemen who were ministers had enough money to transport himself and his family to Kano and Shendam respectively. Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki, the 18th Sultan of Sokoto, who was the permanent secretary in the ministry where Chief Michael Audu Buba was the minister, told the story time and again that after the January 1966 coup, his minister, Michael Audu Buba, who had earlier secured a loan from the Northern government and procured his vehicle which also served as official vehicle, had to request for time to finish paying the loan before he left Kaduna for Shendam.
In the end, Sultan Dasuki said Chief Buba had to wait until the car was sold, paid the balance of the loan to the treasury before using what was left to hire trucks that evacuated his and his family’s luggage to Shendam. That was after having served as a regional minister for many years.
The story wasn’t different with that of Alhaji Umaru Babura, who was also a minister and had to wait until relations from Kano sent in trucks and moved his luggage and those of his family out of Kaduna to Kano. They were two amongst many men of honour and integrity that lived in this part of Nigeria. They understood the essence of life, service and politics. They did not indulge in what the elite of today do. They did not steal our resources; they did not use ethnicity and religion as tools of political attainment and economic strangulation.
Like their leader, the Sardauna of Sokoto, who though a devote Muslim, loved and treated all as equals. I am always excited about John Cardinal Onaiyekan’s story when he came tops in the school certificate examination in the whole of West Africa and the Sardauna had to drive with the Northern Regional cabinet all the way to Aliade in present Benue State to celebrate this illustrious son of northern Nigeria.
The essence in this piece this week is to underscore the role which prominent Nigerians of northern extraction are playing or have played in propelling religion and falsely, into the front burner of our national political discourse. Prominent here is my teacher Professor Jerry Gana.
They came up with different concepts and theories to set the people of the north apart using mainly religion. They emphasised concepts brought about honestly by people like the late Joseph Sarwuan Tarka, Patrick Dokotary and others in the north central area of Nigeria to unify the multitudes within the sub-region for purpose of self-determination and development. The current crop ensured that the honesty and sincerity in the initial middle belt project was bastardised to the extent that the meaning was changed from its geographical applicability to a religious concept.
How would someone from Chibok in Borno State or Zuru in Kebbi State be called a middle belter? That wasn’t the original idea of Chief Tarka et al. The Turks of today chose to be lazy, struggle for access and control of resources. They divided the people along minor fault lines in most cases and they earned power and authority in return.
In the last election, the people of Niger State gave Professor Jerry Gana and his team the beating of their lives. They chased away the politics of religious divide and resoundingly voted for David Umaru as one of their senators and defeated the sitting governor, Babangida Aliyu.
The election of David Umaru was for me a testimony to the fact that Nigerians, especially in the north, are coming of age and doing away with those who have lived by falsehood and division as a strategy of political and economic control.  When David Umaru defeated Dr. Shem Nuhu in the run-off election after the death of Senator Awaisu Kuta, King David Mark refused to swear him in until the PDP was badly beaten in the March and April election. I wonder what David Mark was thinking when he chose to confirm the nomination of Musliu Obanikoro as a minister when majority of the senate thought otherwise.
The March 28 and April 11 elections marked the beginning of the end for those religious bigots in politics. People have shown very clearly that what they need is service from those who represent them. The elections have confirmed that religion shouldn’t be part of politics if the north central area and the way it voted is anything to go by.
People like Jerry projected the APC as an Islamic party. The lie couldn’t fly as Benue, Plateau and all others in the north central area have fallen to the control of the party. The meaning is that people have since identified that these claims are false and not in their best interest.
It will appear that the political scene in the country has changed and for good and the good of all. The politicians must realise that the only thing that would save them is service to the electorate. No more reckless use of religion and tribe.
The lives of people like Umaru Babura and Michael Audu Buba should form the basis of the activities and characters of those in positions of authority. They lived honestly and died in peace. Those who took after them didn’t do as much and that is why we are here. We must learn some lessons from their lives and times if Nigeria is to do better.