Buni and the Limits of Unbridled Ambition

RingTrue

The story of the erstwhile Chairman of the All Progressives Congress’ Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Mai Mala Buni, flying to Dubai for medicals last week did not come as a surprise. Buni was obviously responding to the shock of his removal as the party’s CECPC Chairman. I was even surprised he was not flown out in an air ambulance. I thought he would collapse. Buni, who is also the absentee governor of Yobe State, believed strongly that he had everything about his selfish agenda well-wrapped. Immediately he was appointed CECPC chairman in June 2020, following the crisis that led to the exit of Adams Oshiomhole, Buni started behaving strangely. This selfish ambition turned him into a vampire.

The Yobe governor was no longer satisfied being just governor. At a point, he wanted to transform into substantive National Chairman of the APC. At another point, he thought he could grab the Presidential ticket of his party, using his chairmanship of CECPC. Buni dreamt of becoming the president of Nigeria. Later, he was dreaming of becoming a running mate in the 2023 presidential election. He wanted to become Nigeria’s vice president and allegedly had a deal with a presidential aspirant to ensure his emergence as APC’s candidate.

The main job given to Buni and his team was to organise a National Convention that will berth a new National Working Committee for his party. This was never on his agenda because of these weird dreams. He tactically fought against holding a National Convention with all his might. Buni succeeded in dribbling President Muhammadu Buhari to have the tenure of the CECPC extended three times. All manner of excuses were given for his tenure elongation in order to actualise his personal ambition. Between November 2021 and January 2022, the APC convention was postponed three times. Buni tactically refused to start the processes required, such as sorting out the zoning of various offices, constituting convention committees and serving the statutory three weeks’ notice to INEC. Even when Buhari, after falling for several deceits, insisted that the National Convention must hold on March 26, Buni was still so sure that it would not hold. The plan was to scuttle it by instigating a last minute court case against the convention. He was so sure he could dribble all the way to the end and conduct APC primaries for the 2023 elections, with the court’s restraining ace.

There is nothing wrong with being ambitious and dreaming big. After all, Buni started his political journey as a local councilor. Today, he is a state governor. However, there is a lot wrong with trying to dubiously manipulate a process, system or people to achieve an ambition. That was what Buni was doing with the APC Caretaker Committee for almost two years. The party’s national leader, Buhari, suddenly recovered from his slumber last Sunday and activated the drastic leadership change in APC’s CECPC. Buni got the hint three days earlier and the shock sent him to the Dubai hospital. This is the price to pay for unbridled ambition. Well, wishing Buni soonest recovery.

I hope the runaway Yobe governor will be strong enough soonest and return to the state he abandoned for almost two years. This governor has spent virtually the last two years in Abuja, working as APC Caretaker Chairman at the expense of his main job as the elected governor of Yobe State. I was surprised, when in 2021, Buni said governance was not suffering in Yobe State because of his Caretaker job. Buni simply abandoned his people. This is the truth that must be told. How can a man elected governor be this cruel to the electorates? He once said he visited Yobe at least three times in a month, in defence against the accusation of desertion. This is preposterous. Buni was clearly not voted to spend just a few days in a month in Yobe State. Project Yobe suffered a great deal while Buni was spending more time on project APC because of his unbridled ambition. The other day when Boko Haram attacked Geidam, he was not even available for a condolence visit to the traumatised people. The Yobe APC stakeholders were right to demand his impeachment because of his unavailability in the state to discharge his constitutional duties as governor.

Back then, the Chairman, Yobe APC Stakeholders, Hussain Muhammad, remarked: “It has become expedient to draw the attention of the public, especially the state House of Assembly, to the aberration of having a governor who is non-functional. Buni was not elected as APC’s Acting National Chairman, but as Yobe State governor and he swore to obey the constitution. It is our position that he had become a self-serving governor, who failed and betrayed his people when they needed him the most.

“As stakeholders, we have made both individual and collective efforts at letting Buni realise his mistakes, but it appears that as we inch closer to making him realise, he digs in further into his sit-tight plans at the party’s national secretariat. We, therefore, call on the Yobe State House of Assembly to begin impeachment process if he fails to resign as governor.”

Unfortunately, the rubber-stamping and incompetent Yobe State House of Assembly did not take steps to impeach Buni as requested by the stakeholders then. It is not too late. Yobe stakeholders should renew pressure on the legislators to do the needful. Buni has to pay for abandoning Yobe State. I challenge the lawmakers to commence impeachment proceedings against this governor as soon as he returns from Dubai.

On the flip side, it is pertinent to note that Buni is a great dribbler. This is what the Yobe governor has benefitted from, resulting in his Caretaker Committee operating for almost two years. This country and Yobe State would benefit greatly if Buni puts his dribbling skills to positive use. In the first place, it is an illegality for a sitting governor to be appointed as Chair of his political party. By virtue of Section 183 of the Nigerian Constitution and Article 17 (iv) of the constitution of the APC, it is illegal for a person to hold an executive office in the government simultaneously with an office in any organ of the APC at any level, in whatever capacity.

The Supreme Court affirmed this in the appeal filed by PDP’s governorship candidate in the Ondo State election, Eyitayo Jegede, challenging Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s victory at the October 2020 poll. Jegede rested his case on the argument that Akeredolu was not a proper governorship candidate in the election because his nomination was supervised by Buni “illegally doubling as the APC chairman and the Governor of Yobe State.”

Akeredolu won the legal battle by a fraction with a 4 to 3 decision of the Supreme Court panel in his favour on technical grounds. The majority decision dismissed Jegede’s case on technical grounds, saying it was incompetent as a result of the failure to join Buni, against whom heavy allegations were leveled, as a party to the case.

The minority decision that upheld Jegede’s argument is instructive. It nullified Akeredolu’s election, explaining that Buni breached the constitution when as a sitting governor, he acted as chairman of the APC by submitting Akeredolu’s name to INEC for the election. Contrary to the majority judgment, the minority also ruled that the case was not rendered incompetent by the non-joinder of Buni. With the APC already joined, Buni, who was merely acting as its agent, needed not be joined, the minority judgement explained.

Despite the fact that the judgment held an uncertain future for the APC if Buni was not immediately removed as Caretaker Chairman, the leadership of the party still fell for Buni’s antics for almost one more year. What a dribbler! He is not fit to continue to hold the office of the Yobe State governor. This state obviously needs a new governor. Perhaps, Buni’s deputy, Idi Gubana will be better.

Still on Insane President Vladimir Putin

Last Monday, the evil Russian President Vladimir Putin brashly reconfirmed the real reason he invaded Ukraine. He wants the Crimea region, which it snatched from Ukraine in 2014 to be formally ceded to Russia. Putin, during a third round of peace talks in Belarus, also wants Ukrainian government to allow the independence of the Russian-backed breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. This mad man, as well, demanded that Ukraine must stop fighting Russia, amend its constitution to guarantee neutrality, which would prevent it from joining NATO or the European Union.

Is there any country in the world that will allow any part to secede? For years, Putin has been pumping arms and money to secessionists in Eastern Ukraine to destabilise the country. Will he allow this in Russia? This is a man that brutally repelled separatists in Chechnya, killing thousands of Muslims. Now, he is funding secession in Ukraine.

Putin is inflicting so much pain on innocent people in Ukraine because of his territorial ambition. At least 2000 civilians have been killed since the conflict began on February 24, with Russia deliberately dropping bombs on innocent civilians.

The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the invasion as “a major humanitarian catastrophe,” which has resulted in the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe for more than 75 years. Regional Director of WHO in Europe, Hans Kluge, confirmed 16 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine by Russian troops in 13 days of fighting, leading to nine deaths.

Putin and his troops trivialize life; they are of low minds and have no conscience. I am consoled by the fact that they are also feeling the pain. The Russian military admitted that the Ukrainians killed 498 Russian soldiers within the first seven days of fighting. Two Russian Army Generals – Andrei Sukhovetsky and Vitaly Gerasimov – have also been killed by Ukrainian soldiers.

Malicious Putin thought the invasion was going to be a walk in the park. Ukrainian soldiers are proving to be a formidable force. I see Putin pulling out in shame or Russian Generals killing him and pulling out of Ukraine. One thing is certain: Forces of good will soon overran Russian forces of evil.

Frightening Killing Figures from Kebbi

The latest from the Kebbi State killing field was the murder of 63 Yan Sakai vigilantes by Fulani militias in Zuru, Kebbi State last Monday. The following day, terrorists ambushed the convoy of Kebbi State Deputy Governor, Sama’ila Dabai in Kanya, Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of the state, killing the security aide attached to the Deputy Governor, ASP Idris Libata, alongside 18 other military personnel. The guerrillas were equipped with much heavier weapons than AK-47.

Yes, 82 innocent people killed in two days in Kebbi State. This is the level Nigeria has degenerated.

Hundreds of terrorists move around unhindered, killing and maiming. Musa Arzika, a local, said the terrorists that attacked Kanya “came with around 200 motorcycles riding three on each.” I guess that was why they confidently engaged a combined team of military and policemen with the Kebbi deputy governor. This state joined the club of killing fields about two years ago, with over a thousand lives so far lost

All these killings are happening amid lies by the federal government that terrorists have been degraded. The truth that must be told is that in beloved North-east and North-west of Nigeria, terrorists still raid, killing and abducting residents for ransom after looting and burning homes. Blood has been flowing, with thousands of people killed. The last seven years of the Buhari government have been horrendous.

For the military, I’m shocked that they have not gone after the bastards that killed 18 soldiers in Kanya, Kebbi State. This is a big disservice to the soul of the murdered gallant soldiers.