By Aminu Idris Gagi
It’s sad, when a social commentator is trapped in one perspective, even in a long passage of time. Moreso, when affairs disprove him in a shocking way. The wisest of such unfortunate analysts opt for silence, which even if not golden, offers them the obscurity to sulk in silence.
Even so, it’s better for a demystifie ed writer to open his eyes and ears to current affairs, so as not to bite his tongue any time he is tempted to speak again.
I had followed and respected Aminu Mohammed as a commentator on the politics and governance of Sokoto State. At the onset of the Aminu Waziri Tambuwal administration in 2015, he was one of the frontline promoters of that government, only to later, turn fiercely against the same government, when his mentor, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, politically parted ways with Tambuwal. As if released from a spell, Aminu onwards saw and wrote nothing good about the governor he once assessed as a great achiever. All the good work that Tambuwal did seemed to vanish suddenly.
Not long after the fall of the PDP government in the election of 2023 and the initial euphoria of the victory, Aminu virtually disappeared from the scene. Instead of promoting the governor he actively campaigned for, he took occasional swipes at the APC government headed by his master’s protege for the widely held reason that he was being left out of the cold by a government he gave his right arm to support.
As an avid follower of media coverage of politics and government, I sympathized with him and understood why he had to quit the scene but it seems Aminu Mohammed has been cajoled to join the fray again. His latest outing on Facebook has however, shown that during his absence, he’d not only shut his mouth but also his ears and eyes to the situation in Sokoto State. So, he’s back again singing an old song that has lost its appeal with listeners in the state and nation at large, who are deeply regretting their support for APC at all levels.
Aminu Mohammed’s popular pitch was his one-track-minded criticism of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal’s policies, which was his major relevance amongst the detractors of the previous dispensation. I thought his long silence was induced by the shame that the clueless government he’d helped to enact has proved the worst fears of those who opposed it but he’s opened his mouth to prove that he’s nothing better to offer than the cacophony of desperate defense of a failing regime.
Just like the rest of APC apologists, Aminu Mohammed has opted to choose the easy but ridiculous justification for the current government’s scandalous performance by blaming all its escapades on the PDP and its previous administration. In his latest Facebook writeup, he neither explained the rationale for Ahmed Aliyu’s spending of huge sums of money on the repair of 25 boreholes, nor explained the renovation of three roundabouts at a scandalous cost.
If Aminu Mohammed wanted to make any difference to the bad narrative on the government he’s now warming up from the bench to defend, he’d have discussed the widespread allegations of criminal breaches of due process in its procurement activities. These, he should’ve addressed, not only to the PDP but also to the entire nation, who are witnesses to the irresponsible governance, which his political masters have enacted in Sokoto State.
Aminu Idris writes from Kubwa, Abuja
