26-11-2027.

I have dragged my feet in weighing in with my little contribution on this issue, which has been in the public domain for a long time, because some institutions and people far more weightier than me, have spoken on it, and pleaded to the Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu to facilitate the release of the, Maryam, better known as Hamdiyya. 

In fact, the girl herself, alleged that you ordered your policemen to shoot her, to which they pointed out to you that the sound a gun would attract unnecessary attention. All the same, she alleged further that your instructions were nearly carried out when the she was gagged, tied, bundled and thrown away in the bush. Many Nigerians did not find it funny, nor do they see her arrest and detention on your order as a show of power, but as a show of shame by you, Your Excellency.

The point that you need to understand is that one cannot be in politics and escape criticisms. Anyone who does not want to be criticised should have nothing to do with active politics, especially to the extent of contesting for as high an office as that of a state governor.

Besides, it is said that a person who has no ‘enemies’ is a complete failure in life, and as a state governor, you would definitely hate to be called a ‘complete failure’. Again, there is another saying that ‘anyone who does not like the heat, should get out of the kitchen’, because people (like you Mr. Governor) in glass houses should not throw stones, otherwise the house (your esteemed self) will suffer some damages. Some of them irreparable and irreplaceable, to be sure.

Your Excellency, the case of Hamdiyya  was not the first time you unjustly flexed your official muscles against innocent people, who, by the way, are bonafide members of your ruling All Progressives Party (APC). The first time you ordered the police to arrest and detain a young man for re sharing a picture of your wife spreading money at a we wedding ceremony, despite the fact that it is an offence in Nigeria, punishable with six months in prison. 

The original picture was shared on the social media by a very close friend of your wife’s, but because she was fully connected and therefore ‘unarrestable’, you decided to vent your anger on a very soft target. The innocent boy was that soft target.

You are already referred to as the governor who is in love with billions, because of your penchant for spending ‘BILLIONS of Naira, in projects where only MILLIONS are needed for the job. Your popular gaffe before a crowd of cheering villagers, was where you told them that your government had spent N1.2 billion to REPAIR 25 boreholes. Every right thinking person, but the poor audience, knew that the amount was way too high for a mare repair of only 25 boreholes. When the backlash became too much, your information handler and a commissioner told the world that yours was a slip of the tongue.

His Excellency also claimed to have spent billions of naira in fencing roundabouts in the state capital. He again claimed to have spent yet many billions to erect dividing fences in some major towns in the state. Your love for executing projects worth billions of naira has even made some people in the Northern part of Nigeria to think that you did not deserve to become a state governor.

Anyway, the Ordinary President, in his ever popular programme, the Brekete Family, called on you to order the police to release Hamdiyya, whose only ‘offence’ was telling the truth about the pervasive hunger and severe hardship in Sokoto state and Nigeria in general.

Even the Abuja-based Tik Toker, Murja Ibrahim Kunya, had, in her characteristic manner, spoken about the ordeal of the girl, and pleaded with you to use your office and your good sense of judgment to order for the release of the girl. 

Your Excellency, the case of Hamdiyya was not the first time you unjustly flexed your official muscles against innocent people, who, by the way, are bonafide members of your ruling All Progressives Party (APC). The first time you ordered the police to arrest and detain a young man for resharing a picture of your wife ‘spreading’ money at a wedding ceremony, despite the fact that it is an offence in Nigeria, punishable with six months in prison. 

The original picture was shared on the social media by a very close friend of your wife’s, but because she was fully connected and therefore ‘unarrestable’, you decided to vent your anger on a very soft target. The innocent boy was that soft target.

The truth of the matter is that there is a perversive hunger, unbearable hardship and extreme anger in the country because of the self serving leadership we have, from the federal and state levels. A brief check of the country’s severe situation could be found all over the social media trending every minute of the day.

By the way, we will not get tired of asking you the whereabouts of your more illustrious state man and former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, and the 19 ‘powerful’ governors of his time. Shagari and all, but two of the governors, are dead, leaving Nigeria to continue without their ‘powerful’ presence.

Again, the likes of Malam Abba Kyari, the influential Chief of Staff of President Buhari, Malam Sama’ila Isa Funtua, an in-law to former President Buhari and ally to Malam Abba Kyari, Alhaji Wada Maida, former Senator Efeanyi Ubah, Chief Emmanuel Uwanyawu and a host of many others have, in recent time, all gone back to their maker, leaving behind fortunes running into trillions of Naira.

By the way, no uncomplimentary adjectives and remarks that were not used to describe the president and his regime, to the extent that some people are openly calling on the military to take over government from the present corrupt, inept and incompetent regime led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

The same Tinubu that criticised many of his immediate predecessors for the ‘hardship’ in the country, and which he repeatedly told the world about, had many people to believe that he would provide solution to the crisis of confidence that bedevilled the criticised predecessors. He however, proved them absolutely wrong, by being a monumental failure as a leader of a country.

Perhaps, leaders in Nigeria are avariciously cornering every available resources for themselves, because their certainty that NO AMOUNT OF RIGGING  during the general elections would bring them back to continue from where they stopped. STOPPED, they would be for good, by the grace of Allah. No self-respecting voters would ever bring back such bunch of corrupt and selfish leaders to load their style of leadership again. And it is given that most of them would take to their heels and scurry out of the country for exile, to which all the compatriots who love Nigeria would utter ‘good riddance to terrible rubbish’.

In the event that they use the force of guns (remember we are in an animal farm situation, that is similar to a police state) to rig their way again, they may as well remember the saying that, ‘Those who live by the gun, die by the gun’, sooner or later.

The extreme display of foolishness by the leadership of Nigeria has but forced a revisit to Indra Ghandi’s evergreen quotation, “If there is an idiot in power, it means those who elected him are well represented”. He could as well have Nigeria in mind.

It is the collective prayer of all the oppressed in Nigeria, that may God rid the country of inept and corrupt people who parade themselves as leaders, and replace them with politicians who fear Him and fear accounting for ALL the things that they had done in the temporary world, especially when they held power as leaders.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.