Re- Kano's improved Ramadan Feeding: Where That Reporter Got It Wrong
By Usman Aminu Sani
I read the above captioned article written by one Yakubu Musa and published on the back page of the Daily Triumph dated August 22, 2011. The said article was a response to the Ramadan Feeding story earlier carried by the Peoples Daily Newspaper of August 14, 2011.
As a matter of fact, Kano is not the only state the Ramadan feeding story was critical and blunt about, knowing full well that truth as bitter leaf is hard to chew by some politically motivated persons as Yakubu Musa displayed in his arrogant piece. We had other states as Katsina, Plateau, Kaduna, Niger, Bauchi, Jigawa, etc that also received the evaluation of their poor arrangement for their Ramadan Feeding Programme.
According to a local gnome, "only a person who dries cloth in an open air that frequently looks out for any sign of rainfall, perhaps to prevent his cloth from getting wet. This is why it is not surprising to hear the kind of reaction made by governor Kwankwaso against the Ramadan feeding story in some northern states of Nigeria, which he used as subterfuge to launch attack and threatened his state journalists against the background of the newspaper report.
All the same, the purpose of this feedback is to correct some wrong assertions made by the writer of the above captioned piece, which he wrote to create false consciousness against the past administration led by indefatigable Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Sardaunan Kano. It is ironical and a sad note that Yakubu Musa is equally guilty of what he claimed the Peoples Daily reporter did. For the fact that Musa does not want to hear the truth about his benefactor, Kwankwaso, does not make whoever is bold to tell the truth a sycophant, because the worst sycophant is the person who knows the truth but choose to pretend against it.
During the Shekarau administration, the Ramadan feeding programme was so organized that every one in the state felt its impact to the extent that one had unfetter access to the distribution centres, which were all over the place as there was no form of any hideout as it is presently happening under the present administration. For instance, there was this particular day in the past Ramadan period I was moving from the Kano city to Naibawa on a motor-bike. I could not remember how many free Ramadan distribution vehicles I saw on the road with large number of people on queue to collect their various types of food being doled out to them. One did not need to ask to know the distribution centres because it available every where and highly conspicuous in all nook and cranny of the state. No one complained about the well coordinated Ramadan feeding arrangement under Shekarau administration because it took the programme with utmost attention it deserved.
But in recent time and with governor Kwankwaso's second coming, things became nosedive. The feeding arrangement became obscure and haphazard. It is funny that Musa Yakubu is just telling us where people can get the Ramadan food when the Ramadan is just a week to end. At least, I have never set my eyes on any one collecting Ramadan food that emanated from the present government except from the individual philanthropists. One even concluded that the feeding arrangement was suspended by this government just as some other good programmes of Shekarau administration was suspended by the government. It is an open secret for every one to see the level of personal witch hunting and acts of vindictiveness being launched by the present government against perceived foes. We can see that the purported Ramadan feeding centres mentioned by Musa in his misguided piece existed only in his world and that of his co-travelers.
It is also on record that in the first coming of the present governor of the state, the governor often called selected individuals to the Government House for their breaking of fast during the Ramadan period. This is a fact and not even Shekarau's enemy can deny all of the above. If this was the case, which in its actual fact, it is, why should any one blame the Peoples Daily reporter for telling the truth about the present government insincerity and lukewarm attitude toward this year Ramadan feeding programme? Musa Yakubu and his ilk should be properly schooled that it is far better to throw food at the masses than to corner the food or deprive them of it as in the case of this government. Since Kwankwaso assumed leadership some three months ago, he has only been doing wuju wuju to people, bulldozing houses and seizing plots of land like a military junta, all in attempt to avenge his personal grudges against perceived enemy.
Talking about deception in Musa Yakubu's sycophantic piece, no one is guiltier of this than Musa's wuju wuju governor who does opposite of his claim. How far with the ICT Park building, which the governor claimed would be used for the so called "Mega School". He is now going to use the building for "Informatics School". Is there any difference between ICT and Informatics? The present government instigated the misconception that the sum of three billion naira (sic) was used by government for Shekarau's house as spelt out by the law when the actual cost was not more than N600M. Surprisingly, Musa Yakubu's benefactor asked for N1.3billion for his own house but was rejected and about N900M was approved for him, which is even far more than that of Shekarau's. This is not all.
There was this claim by governor Kwankwaso that Shekarau cornered the land allocated to Kano in Lokogoma, Abuja for his cronies (sic) but the government was put to shame by the former Minister of the FCT, Senator Adamu Aliero who disclosed and opened the cankerworm against governor Kwankwaso's unfounded claim. Again, the governor also used his body language to allude that he was the one who established the State University of Technology in Wudil whereas it was established by the then Military Governor of the state, General Idris Garba in 1988. Contrary to what the government made the civil servant to expect about their salary, the government ended paying salary in the way its predecessor did. The governor who had vowed to deal with the state journalists for performing their duties was recently quoted in the state print media, pledging to support journalists in the discharge of their assignment. It is, however, worrisome that a leader could be this inconsistent to his people.
The author of the above captioned piece is now in position to see clearly the kind of leadership stuff his benefactor is made of. If Musa Yakubu had known this, he would have courted a change of mind not to waste his precious time fabricating things to favour his mentor. He should advise the governor to concentrate on what he can do to bring about development and progress for the state and her people. This is only possible if he desists from apportioning blames and avoids undermining the beautiful works of his predecessor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau,Sardaunan Kano.
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