✕ CLOSE Online Special City News Entrepreneurship Environment Factcheck Everything Woman Home Front Islamic Forum Life Xtra Property Travel & Leisure Viewpoint Vox Pop Women In Business Art and Ideas Bookshelf Labour Law Letters
Click Here To Listen To Trust Radio Live

Of Aleiro and question of moral baggage

The other day, the special Assistant to the FCT Minister on media, Mallam Abdullahi Zuru as is infamously in tandem with his hack mannerisms and…

The other day, the special Assistant to the FCT Minister on media, Mallam Abdullahi Zuru as is infamously in tandem with his hack mannerisms and empty bombastic hallucinations which smacks of an ill-trained and donkey-aged propaganda tactics, took on the Conference of Nigeria political parties (CNPP), which in a press release a week earlier, asked the FCT Minister Adamu Aliero to resign on account of allegation of monumental act of corruption pending against him in the courts. Some respected indigenes of Kebbi State have consistently and without let, harangued Aliero with well crafted charges of corruption while he (Aliero) was governor of Kebbi State between 1999 and 2007. They had endlessly petitioned anti-corruption agencies to investigate him, a call repeatedly turned down by the ICPC and EFFCC. They took their case to the courts praying for leave to force the agencies to investigate their allegations. It was in the thick of this debacle that Aliero became a senator and then a minister. It was on the basis of this that the CNPP questioned the wisdom of President Yar Adua in appointing Aliero a minister when very serious allegations of corruption, which cast doubts on the integrity of the minister, are pending.

Without as much as tarrying awhile to weigh the consequences of an ill-digested, ill-informed and irresponsible reply, Abdullahi Zuru, willy nilly, and without any shred of imagination and maturity, entered the fray in an attempt to, come what may, protect a man that stand accused and therefore unfit to hold such a sensitive office of FCT Minister.

The first pedestrian interjection by Abdullahi Zaru was his questioning the intellect and experience of the leadership of the CNPP. What an affront! Just look at it; the spokesman of a consistently accused person, a political jobber, a restless hustler, an influence-peddler and a political jackboot, questioning the integrity of the finest brand of the nation’s political class, the conscience of the nation, who have outgrown any form of material inducement. All the other inglorious and senseless arguments put forward, down the line, were equally classless, disjointed, pointless and dull.

The point in the whole gamut is that no anti corruption agency has ever carried out any investigation on the allegations leveled against then Governor Adamu Aliero. To our knowledge, the agencies consistently refused to take heed and recoiled into their shell in the face of intervention of some powerful forces. It was the agencies’ foot dragging which necessitated the resort to the courts to force them to do their work. To suggest that the case in court is not directly against Aliero is to take infamy to a ridiculous level. What did people like Abdullahi Zaru take us to be; empty barrels?

The most pointless proposition by Abdullahi Zuru was the intemperate and low level reasoning that Aliero was thoroughly screened by all arms of security agencies and cleared to contest the Kebbi central senatorial election in 2007” and that “Senator Aliero went through similar security scrutiny before the confirmation of his nomination for ministerial appointment”. Can you see how empty some of these people can be? Pray, where were they when Salisu Buhari passed through similar so-called security scrutiny and clearance, got to the House of Representatives and even became the speaker before an Alhaji Dododo blew the whistle on him?

The Salisu Buhari escapist tantrums and the inability of the security checks and scrutiny has roundly proved that criminals or desperate politicians with skeletons to hide…skeletons such as acts of mind boggling and monumental fraud can easily feign a meek debonair to calm nerves and carry his bag of shame through a cash and carry scrutiny check point. Quite a number of such cases have been uncovered after the deed has been done.  That is why people of doubtful character arising from allegation of misdeeds of criminal nature are, in saner climes, kept away from public offices until such a time when their innocence is established. If Salisu Buhari had been well checked and stopped from contesting election, the avoidable tribulations the nation passed through and the unquantifiable psychological trauma Nigerians were exposed to  and the attendant loss of man hour, cash and time expended on the case would have been avoided.

Since Aliero has a case to answer and since questions have been asked about his integrity, his appointment as Minister should have been halted until he is able to come out of it unscathed. This cause is safest, wisest and better for the country.

Malami, a job applicant wrote from Kofar Kola, Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State. [email protected], 08051023690


VERIFIED: It is now possible to live in Nigeria and earn salary in US Dollars with premium domains, you can earn as much as $12,000 (₦18 Million).
Click here to start.