Katsina 2011: Ruma Set To Topple Shema

Posted by admin Katsina, State News Thursday, December 30th, 2010

Why Shema is falling out of favour || Feelers from Katsina State indicate that the people are yearning for deliverance. They are yelling, so to say, for the good old days of the great resource manager, the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, their governor from 1999 to 2007, when he was elected president. But what has former Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma, got to do with all this? Good question.

Many people of Katsina State say that only a change of the chief tenant of Government House, Katsina, would reinvent late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s dream.

On May 29, 2003, the current governor, Shema Ibrahim, became the deputy governor of the north-western state when Yar’Adua was elected governor. When providence intervened, making him the presidential flag-bearer of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the end of their first term in 2007 which he won, Shema became the inevitable governorship candidate for the April 2007 election. He won that election.

Although many argued that he rode on the goodwill and structure of his former principal to victory, Shema’s loyalists were quick to counter that the victory did not come from any man. “God did it,” one of them, a permanent secretary in the state’s civil service, said.

But all that is set to change now as the clock ticks towards 2011 with endless complaints against Shema’s administration occasioning calls for “change” by the people. They are reportedly routing for Alhaji Sayyadi Abba Ruma, a former Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources.

Before the countdown to 2011, many people in Katsina had cause to believe that Shema, who is warming up for a second term, had betrayed the trust of the late Yar’Adua. They held that he reversed almost everything and ideal that Yar’Adua as governor stood for. Therefore they vowed that he would not return to office on May 29, 2011.

Katsina people were to manifest their bottled up anger early this year when they booed, jeered and stoned him amidst visiting governors and other personalities at the Dan Marina Cemetary where the remains of the late president was buried.

The police reportedly arrested two persons in connection with the incident but released them later after investigation. The foregoing, as well as others, has challenged many dogged politicians in the state to brace up for the battle for the soul of Katsina State. They believe that the PDP may not win the state in 2011 because there is no democracy there due to the alleged high-handedness of Governor Shema.

Shema’s likeable appearance, especially in public, according to those who know, is deceptive. They contend that having faith in his persona and office means trusting nobody. Katsina people easily reel out what they now describe as Shema’s yellow card of sins against his people. They include the following: For organizing a state congress of the PDP despite a subsisting court order to the contrary, Shema incurred the wrath of the people who are now counting his days in Government House. Moreover, since the discredited congress, all contracts in the state have allegedly been going to the new party structure that he set up.

Ostensibly afraid of party primaries, given the rising dissonance against his administration, Shema has long dismantled the party structure that made the late Yar’Adua governor, and which also made him governor. Thus, with his “men” in charge, the governor believes he would get PDP’s ticket ahead of the 2011 polls. Also, apart from sponsoring media campaign against other candidates, especially those he sees as threats, Shema is perceived as not playing the politics of consensus, even as allegations of embezzlement of council’s funds abound. Many people believe that Ruma will not misappropriate public fund.

The governor is also seen as a non-performer who has not achieved any significant democracy dividend for the people except those of the late Yar’Adua.

On the alleged murder of the chairman of Mashi Local Government Area of the PDP, Tasi Elder Mashi, a strong loyalist of Yar’Adua, Katsina people hold that the governor still has not cleared himself of suspicion.

They also considered it political hara-kiri for Shema to foist a permanent secretary, Alhaji Rabiu Gambo Bakori, as chairman of the state PDP with all his entitlements as permanent secretary paid him. Bakori was also promised by the governor that he would be made the first ministerial nominee from Katsina State as soon as he, Shema, secured a second term in 2011.

The governor is said to be using contracts and intimidation to control the critical sectors of the state’s power vortex. For instance, 70 per cent of contract payments allegedly go to the new party structure set up by him, while 30 per cent goes to the LGAs as against 70 per cent for the LGAs and 30 per cent for the former party structure.

To further his stranglehold on the state, the governor is said to hold onto members of the House of Assembly via contracts. For instance, there are claims that he controls local government chairmen via a law which empowers him to dissolve councils at his whims and caprices. He has, thus, knocked fear into the people.

The appointment of a civil servant as permanent secretary is seen by Katsina patriots as a ploy to have a “yes man” for his personal aggrandizement.

The list, which is endless, includes alleged compromise of traditional and judicial institutions, among others. This development has thrown up contenders who now seek to take Shema’s job on May 29, 2011. One of them, in fact, a front-runner, is the already mentioned former minister of agriculture and water resources, Alhaji Sayyadi Abba Ruma.

First Measures

To register their determination to wrest power from Shema, the aggrieved contenders left the Katsina PDP for Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), with Ruma leading them. He had a tall contender in the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, until recent developments that diminished his chances. But they are not alone in the quest.

Aminu Bello Masari

The former Speaker launched what may have passed for his governorship declaration recently in Katsina. But as promising as his candidacy appeared, he may have fallen out of favour with key CPC members on issues relating to the party’s stance on politicking and corruption.

He hails from Katsina South. His leadership position in a populist effort to reform the PDP saw him and his co-travellers suspended by the National Working Committee. The sympathy that this drew from Katsina people, especially CPC leaders, has since waned, given recent happenings.

Besides, the people do not see Masari as dogged politician with the savvy to take on Shema when the chips are down.

Senator Kanti Bello

The tempestuous senator, with a largely deceptive mien, is from Daura political zone of the state. His zone is referred to as the Easten zone; the zone of CPC’s presidential candidate, Buhari.

He is rabidly anti-Jonathan, especially after the death of Yar’Adua. Eversince, the senator, whom many group with those in the senate whose agenda is either to say the opening or closing prayers or at best concur to motions, is considered a paperweight.

“He rode on the back of Yar’Adua to the senate. But that was then. He can’t return to the senate again and he can’t get the PDP’s nomination for governor either,” said a national officer of the PDP who hails from the North-West. His romance with CPC, some say, is preparatory to running for CPC’s governorship ticket.

The combined consequences of all the foregoing, undoubtedly, portend serious threat to the senator’s ambition.

Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma

This Harvard-trained, very intelligent Katsina State-born politician and technocrat, was one of the most powerful members of the late President Yar’Adua’s administration.

He was the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources until the then Acting President Goodluck Jonathan removed him in a cabinet dissolution earlier this year.

Ruma avoided controversial statements and faced his work squarely. But his critics said he is a deadly actor who preferred to act behind the scene. He also reportedly worked out a soft landing for Yar’Adua, which prevented the latter from being declared incapacitated.

Like Governor Shema, the former agriculture minister hails from Katsina Central. Ruma is said to enjoy massive support from the people, even before he made his intention public. Is he the reluctant candidate that may just clinch the mandate of Katsina people? Political observers have branded him the ‘dark horse’ of Katsina governship battle for 2011.

“He is the ultimate underdog that will pull the carpet from under the feet of other CPC contenders and, eventually, succeed Shema as governor in 2011,” said a Yar’Adua family member last week.

Although efforts have been made by some detractors to discredit his achievements as minister in the ministry of agriculture, Ruma has to his credit the digitalization regime. He is described as “Mr. Value Chain”, by his former staff and colleagues in the agriculture sector.

Before declaring his intention to run for Shema’s office, Ruma’s rising profile among the youths and elite, as well as CPC members, presents him as a formidable aspirant. Although he hails from the same zone with the incumbent governor, there are indications that Shema may need to work more to ward off Ruma’s threat. But it appears that, that may be an exercise in futility as the people appear to have decided the matter against Shema.

He is said to be banking on the goodwill he enjoys with the popular Yar’Adu family to attempt to capture the number one job in Katsina State.

“He has started mobilizing supporters ahead of the 2011 election. He is serious, and banking on the experiences he garnered at both the state and federal levels. More importantly, he is banking on his relationship with the Yar’Adua family to win the governorship election,” the source said.

And despite Shema’s vow to run Ruma out of Katsina State, using both the political and security machines at his disposal, the former minister is dauntless as sources close to his camp dismissed the reports as “distraction.”

Perhaps, there is no other way to assess the ability of Ruma to deliver the direly needed services to his people than to underscore his achievement in securing over N200 billion federal government’s intervention funds for the agricultural sector early in 2009.

At the end of a meeting between the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kanayo Felix Nwaeze, who visited the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, February 27, 2009, Ruma declared: “The position currently is that before the end of the week all the successful beneficiaries of the N200 billion agricultural scheme will be made public. The first tranch of N100 billion which is housed by First Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA) would be released to the 15 successful applicants.

He added, “So far, application for expression of interest amounts to about 55 valued at over N300 billion and after due diligence and a realistic assessment of this individual applications, about 15 were qualified and this 15 would be made public before the end of this week for the immediate take-off of the implementation of this programme.

He continued: “What is also going to be on board immediately is the establishment of farm nucleus estate, and access to this credit facility by small farmers through the provision of value chain infrastructure in clusters that would be reasonable, accessible and affordable to farmers through their cooperative associations which we are making effort to strengthen, identify and provide a means for identification to access this credit facility because it is not only for large-scale farmers but for small-scalr farmers.

“Out of the first tranch of N100 billion, 40 per cent is for small and medium scale farmers and 60 per cent for large-scale farmers. Like I told you, before the end of this week, the list would be out of would-be beneficiaries.”

The foregoing development which signaled Ruma as a minister who had small and medium scale farmers close to his heart, now works for him as one who can fight for the good of the masses. Another virtue going for him is his loyalty and dedication to a course once he identifies with one.

“He is intelligent, but not arrogant. He carries people along, and listens to all,” said a contractor who prays Ruma gets CPC’s governorship flag.

His youthfulness and very wide international exposure, according to some CPC members in Abuja, will be to the advantage of Katsina State should Ruma pick CPC’s ticket and succeed Shema on May 29, 2011.

Apart from Aminu Bello Masari, Senator Kanti Bello and Sayyadi Abba Ruma, there are other Katsina sons seeking the CPC’s governorship ticket. They include Mannir Yakubu, General Buhari’s in-law and a greenhorn, and Senator Yakubu Lado Danmarke, who is in his late 40s and stupendously wealthy. He represents Funtua senatorial district. He is an ex-representative, an ex-councillor and a defector from the PDP. But all fingers point to Ruma.wp_posts

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Posted by admin on Dec 30 2010. Filed under Katsina, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry