by Dairus Samson
One politician in Gombe who I believe is yet to get proper accolades will be the Late Senator Idris Abubakar, and I daresay that in Gombe we are yet to see a politician in Northern Nigeria, replicate his bravery and fearlessness.
For those who do not know, at the beginning of the 4th Republic, Sen. Idris was in the centre stage in the face off, between the Legislature and the Executive in Nigeria.
This was when former President Olusegun Obasanjo dared to remove the then Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo, to which Sen. Idris in no ambiguous terms stated, “…I do believe that it would serve that it would not serve serve the interest of any person outside the Senate to impose [his], will on the Senate.” Calling out President Obasanjo for having what he called an ‘excessively inordinate interest’ in the removal of Chuba Okadigbo as the Senate President.
I mean, boy!!!, it that was a bravery in it’s own class to stand up to Obasanjo and call him out like that. This was a lawyer, a bloody civilian if you may, standing up to Obasanjo and the his militarised political cabal at that time. He insisted that President Obasanjo could not of his whim, remove Chuba Okadigbo, that he must first present before the Nigerian Senate whatever issues he has against it’s President, and allo the Senators decide. That was when he dropped his famed quote;
“Democracy is no respecter of persons, it’s a respecter of institutions; it is a respecter of constitutionality and due process”.
A few months later Senator Idris will be the first Senator in the 4th Republic to move for the impeachment of a sitting President, over his non-implememtation of the Appropriation Act. He gave meaning to the word “opposition”, making sure the Executive Arm stood on their toes and did what was required of them.
More than encomiums, I think there is a need to borrow a few wisdom on the political ideologies he possessed, perhaps it’ll serve as a lesson to our current political class, especially those from Gombe South.
Since his passing, we rarely hear our Senators raise cogent issues on the floor of the house, regarding how our democracy will be shaped. We want to hear our legislators do more ‘ayes’ and ‘nays’ on the floor of the house.
We need them to hold government officials accountable, we need them to probe misappropriations and corruption on behalf of the people. We need them to move motions that will shake the fabric of this nation and change our course for good. As the Late. Senate rightly posited,
“…you have to carve a nichè in the political psychology of Nigerians while contending at the same time with he fact that you have to work. The work cannot wait for the time that Nigerians are comfortable, and even the work you do is not understood by Nigerians…and if you don’t resist the temptation and compromise by sacrificing quality on the altar of speed in the interest of convenience; while you may be satisfying a very shot term interest of populism, you would be sacrificing a long term interest of what is beneficial to democracy.
This statement after over 2 decades of his passing still holds true. While it is good our representatives are sharing cash here and there and have chosen to engage in the politics of welfarism, they must never forget that they are primarily responsible for Nigeria’s democracy.
This also apply to those in the Gombe State House of Assembly too, who seem to have no business at all except to rubber stamp activities of the Executive Governor.
To the best of my knowledge, ever since Hon. Bldr. Samuel Markus Wina moved the anti-kidnapping bill, which was signed into law by the Executive Governor, Alh. Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, we are yet to see it’s implementation.
There is even now a brewing housing crisis in Gombe, and there is no legislation by the State House to move for better housing conditions and streets for every of it’s settlement.
You will go to areas that are supposedly “newly developed”, especially when they are not high brow areas and you find indiscriminate buildings, no streets of passages. Today here in Gombe, there are areas that if God forbid a fire outbreak occurs, it’ll consume several properties and even where there is a firetruck, it wouldn’t be able to pass.
This is in addition to drug abuse and addiction among young children, underage prostitution, excesses of heads of institutions and government parastatals while the Gombe State legislators sit idle.
Most recently Gombe United has been under fire for their terrible performance, the Governor has claimed the state is sinking millions of Naira into the team, how come the Gombe State legislators are yet to conduct a probe?
You will wonder what then are they’re responsibilities. Infact you will rarely hear the Gombe State House of Assembly in the news, because there is absolutely nothing worthwhile to report.
In remembrance of the erudite Senator, I hope politicians especially legislators are able to cue from his wisdom and do the needful, to strengthen democracy and hold the Executive arm accountable.
Dairus Samson is a journalist. He writes from Gombe.
