RE: Aliero and question of moral baggage

It was designed by a group of a few political nonentities desperately looking for political relevance at all cost but consistently being rejected in their communities because of their antecedents which are morally unheard of, socially unbelievable and politically unproductive. By their actions, they truly do not believe in destiny but in their wild dream that their surest way to political limelight is by checkmating Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero’s successful political career through campaign of calumny.

The writer of the article, one Malami Maibindiga, who claims to be an applicant but now employed, albeit handsomely, for the hatchet -man job, tried to ignorantly defend a press release signed by the Secretary-general of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) and published in some newspapers. In the release, the CNPP allegedly asked Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero to resign because of what they called pending court case against him bordering on corruption during his tenure as Kebbi State Governor. It went further to threaten to publish “details of the sleaze presided over in Kebbi State when he governed for eight years”, given to them by the client. These allegations are not new to Aliero  nor the public because they have consistently been published in newspapers since 2005.

We made it clear that the campaign against Senator Aliero begun in 2005 when a baseless petition was written and sent to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the then Kebbi State Governor. After thorough investigation, the two agencies discovered that the petition was politically motivated and as such threw it away.

 The action of the agencies prompted the court case in question, in which the court is being asked to compel the two agencies to conduct another investigation on Senator Adamu Aliero’s tenure as kebbi State Governor. Therefore, the case which is still I court is not directly against Senator Adamu Aliero. Even if there is any court case pending against Aliero, is it in the principles of rule of law which the CNPP claims to be championing to declare him guilty of the offence allegedly committed before the court verdict?

We suspected that the press release was fraudulently written for the selfish interest of the writer apparently engaged for the hatchet-man job against Senator Aliero. Our suspicion was informed by our conviction that CNPP is suppose to be championing the cause of entrenchment of true democracy and rule of law and not the course of political nonentities.

We have been proved right when the national leadership of the CNPP in a press statement dated June 29, 2009 and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, and published in a number of national dailies including that of Tuesday, June 30, 2009 edition of the Daily Trust denied calling for Aliero’s resignation.

In the release, CNPP stated that “Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) in the best democratic tradition wishes to rebut the statement credited to the CNPP to the effect that the Honorable Minister of the Federal Capital territory Administration (FCTA), Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero, should resign within two weeks over corrupt practices”.

To show that the statement was single-handedly written by the Secretary apparently for achieving selfish interest, not with the consent of the leadership, the CNPP concluded the statement with a strong warning, stating that “for the avoidance of doubt, we warn all those who make statements or demonstrates with the name of the CNPP without authorization to stop forthwith”.

So, if the CNPP can disown both the press statement and its writer, then I wonder why Maibindiga should cry more than the bereaved. Of course he should , just to justify his payment. It only goes to show that both the CNPP Secretary and Maibindiga are serving the same masters, earning the same payment for the same hatchet-man job. For that, they will continue to fail.

Let me finally congratulate Maibindiga for getting a lucrative job after several years of joblessness. At least we now know that being wayward resulting from frustrations has its value.

Idris Zuru is Special Assistant, Media and Public Affairs to the Minister of FCT