This is a confession I should have made much earlier. But failure to do that at the time it should have been done has caused many people to be unfriends and unbrothers with yours sincerely. And I do not blame them.

For the purpose of clarification, let it be understood that I am NOT the Director General Media of the Katsina state government. Any impression so created by me or anyone else, is not intentional, but highly regretted.

I even went out of my way to disassociate myself from anything that might associate me with, or be misconstrued as me not wanting to leave the office of the, DG Media. For instance, I removed myself from the membership of the media group that I founded on the ground that I was no more in the government. The group’s name used to be ‘Dallatu Radio And Television Rapid Response Squad’, but when all the other members agreed to change the name of the group to ‘Gwagware Radio And Television Rapid Response Squad’, I quickly gave my approval and wished them well.

Not only that, I also wrote to them on the group’s WhatsApp platform to tell the members that I would not be one of them anymore, noting that “I cannot function in my time and function in someone else’s time”.

It has also made some others to take my articles for granted. This is so, because they (wrongly) thought that my articles on their principal were necessary since I was the DG Media to a governor that was in the ruling APC. And their principal was the (acting) chairman of the party.

I argued the matter with them because they insisted that my writing on their principal was not a big deal, since I was the DG Media in an APC government. Even though I told them that I was no longer the DG Media, and that I could not be on the seat ‘for ever’, they still insisted that it was expected of me to be positive and polite to the party chairman.

In any case, it is no fun being in the corridors of power if one is not close to power, as was my case. I was in the corridors of power as (first) a Senior Special Assistant (SSA), then Director General (DG) Media in the second term, but I was not close to power by any definition of the phrase.

It had not been so, though. I used to be one of the closest people to the principal, but became the most disliked person by him. And my sight was the last thing he wanted to see. What a transition. It was akin to ‘from grace to grass’. That was my lot, the fate that befell me.

This had affected me negatively in the estimation of those in whose presence the principal used to ‘disgrace’ me, which was most of the time. For such people, I was a nobody who was just tolerated by the principal for reasons they did not know.

The irony of the whole thing was that some of such people did not believe that the principal would ever become the number one citizen in Katsina state. Their thinking was that he had had his time, but not anymore. Others even went to the extent of publicly insulting and abusing him. But all of these were not reasons enough for him to show any disdain for them, as he did me with fashion, most of the times. 

As a matter of fact, they became the ones who were closest to him outside his immediate family. It would appear that he could not go through the day well without seeing some or all of them. And they made good use of that to further polarize the principal and myself. 

I also used to be the negative target of the their nightly discussion with the principal. During some of those discussions some people expressed the wish that I be dismissed from the job since I was said to be ‘contributing nothing to the many successes of His Excellency’.

They allegedly employed all the dirty tricks to have me either fired or get me further away from our principal. It would seem that they had their way, as he showed his great dislike of me, not minding who was around at the time.

There were times during the first term when ‘prayer sessions’ were held in the office of someone who I thought sympathised with me, and the prayer was that ‘may the ruling APC never come back to power’. That was the prayer, because of their belief that I would not again be in the office to deny them the chance to get money, since my principal had an inexplicable dislike for yours sincerely.

All, for no fault of me, except to hazard a guess. In my thinking, the reason being my flat refusal to be obsequiously loyal to a super political appointee. Someone who saw himself as a very powerful person in the then government wanted me to ‘abandon’ my principal and take him for my boss. I said a flat no to him, in as many words, too.

It was the same person who headed any committee that was established by the government as its chairman, all the time. This is why throughout my stay at the government house not once was I ever involved in what was to be done. Be it a bye election or the main election, yours sincerely was never involved. 

During the Senatorial bye election that saw the emergence of Honourable Babba Kaita as a Senator, I was neither involved by my principal nor by the chairman of the organising committee. Ditto the gubernatorial reelection campaign of 2020. 

I was also not involved nor was I given a single naira to run the activities of my office despite the fact that I wrote five times to the campaign committee to that effect. The committee was, as usual, headed by the powerful political appointee as chairman and two others, who assisted him to run the whole thing.

The same person who, in addition to his, also did my job. I was the de facto press secretary, but he was de jure press secretary, and he did whatever jobs he wanted without fear of being rebuked or reprimanded by the overall boss. Seemed as if he actually was encouraged by the boss himself.

And since he appeared to have his way in the then government, his way and words ruled the day and negatively sealed my fate with all those that mattered, including the principal and most of his many visitors. Everybody, except the number two person in the state. Only him sympathised with me and went out of his way to help.

I therefore sincerely apologise to whoever my shortsightedness on the matter may have been a source of concern, anxiety, worry and displeasure. Especially the current DG Media. To him I owe thousands apologies, as Mr. ‘Ranjit Sigh’ of the  ‘Mind Your Language’ would say in the comedy of the same name.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.