Judging from former Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shehu Shema's malicious remarks about the administration of his successor, Rt. Hon. Aminu  Bello Masari during a BBC interview last week, it is safe to conclude that for eight years Shema must have treated himself to a total media blackout in order not to read, watch or hear anything positive about the Masari administration on any news medium.

He must have also not visited Katsina State in order not to see the landmarks of the Masari administration's developmental projects scattered all across the state, then he must also have shunned any conversation about Katsina State in order not to hear anything positive about that administration.

Otherwise, then Shema merely spewed out the hate he must have harboured against his successor all along, either on account of the woeful loss of his candidate to Masari at the polls in 2015 or simply because his achievements were obviously surpassed by Masari in the latter's very challenging yet very eventful and successful eight years as Governor.

Many who watched or heard the BBC interview must have wondered if shema is blind, not to have seen the first flyover bridge in the whole of Katsina State at GRA Roundabout constructed by Governor Masari, besides two underpass Bridges each strategically located, one at Kofar Kaura and the other at Kofar Kwaya which have greatly decongested traffic along IBB Way and on the intersection between Dutsinma and Jibia road?

Has shema not seen the Dutsinma-Tsaskiya-Babban Duhu road, as well as the Sheme-Faudawa-Kadidau-Dandume road, Fago-Katsayal-Jirdede road, Marabar Sandamu-Baure-Babban Mutum road, Gora-Makauraci-Gamzago road, Marabar Sayaya-Sayaya-Mazoji road, Eka-Kadandani-Kuraye-Yargamji road and Dankaba-Abdallawa-Jifatu?

Moreover, has Shema not seen or heard of the Tsanni-Tsauri road, Batagarawa-Tashar Bala-Lambar Rimi-Tsegoro road, Unguwar Lalle-Unguwar Waziri road, Funtua BCGA Dry Port dual carriageway, Funtua township roads, Nagogo-Yahaya Madaki road, Dayi-Tuge-Gangule-Gundawa-Wawar Kaza road, Kwanar Sabke-Dan’auni-Ruwan Kaya-Dutsi road, Randa-Doguro-Gallu-Sonkaya-Kwanar Gwanti road, Yandaki-Gafia-Abdallawa-Dankaba road, Tudunbala-Kandarawa road, and Gurjiya-Karkarku road among others?

In the environment sector, has Shema forgotten that he left a Katsina where floods washed away hundreds of houses of poor peasants each year across Malumfashi, Jibia, Daura, Danja, Kaita, Dutsi, Dustinma and even dozens of communities within Katsina metropolis? Now that floods no longer wash away people's houses, shops and farmlands in Katsina State, does Shema think that rain has stopped falling in Katsina or does he think those poor peasants have vacated their houses, business  premises and communities in those Local Government Areas, since their monies have been siphoned by leaders that should have constructed drainages to guard them against flooding. 

After he left office, has he not seen the state-of-the-art drainages constructed by the Masari administration across those Local Government Areas to protect those residents against the ravaging floods?

It is on record that besides and the hundreds of capital projects across the education, works housing and transport, environment, agriculture, security, youth and women empowerment among other sectors, one of Masari's last activities in office was closing two court cases against Shema which bordered on embezzlement of Local Government and SURE-P funds, cases which if pursued meticulously could lead to untold embarrassment on former Governor Shema.

It was only because of Masari's gentlemanly posture as an elder statesman that he left the sleeping dogs lie. What right-thinking Indigenes of Katsina State expected of Shema was that by now he has must have moved past the politics of bitterness. But it has turned out that he still habours bitterness even over matters that he cannot change, such as the fact that Masari has served as Speaker of of the Federal House of Representatives and as Governor of Katsina State for eight years, and he has left a sound legacy that will be seen and applauded even by generations yet unborn.