I can’t believe you are 62-year old today. How time flies! When I was informed on Wednesday that you would be turning a new page of your life on Saturday; I thought someone was trying to play me April’s Fool.
Just this evening, the internet told me you turned three scores and two years today.
Let me first of all congratulate you once again for your recent emergence as the Senator-elect of Kaduna-South senatorial zone. Considering the decent campaign you ran that was devoid of the usual mudslinging, I must not hesitate to state here that your victory at the February 25th poll was foretold even before you threw your hat into the ring.
I need not remind you that your election as Senator is coming at a time of great distress, made worse by the rising waves of insecurity that has plunged our communities and our country into a horrifying night of despondency. While I am tempted to condemn the incumbent APC-led government, I also recall that even before the arrival of the APC to the corridor of power, our story has not been different as we also faced a vicious enemy that is poised in seeking our annihilation.
Let me be quick to remind you that conspiracy theories alluding to the fallout of climate change to explain our pitiful security problems are only aimed at veiling the real motives of our attackers. When we are told that these incessant killings ripping across our communities are farmer/herder’s clashes, we are tempted to ask why these dreadful killings are extended to women and children in the dead of the night.
Your emergence as Senator-elect comes with a burden of salvaging what remains of our distressed communities. Many of our communities have been destroyed, with inhabitants fleeing to make-shift IDP camps for refuge. With insecurity shredding our once prosperous and peaceful people, we have become walking corpses in our lands.
While we ponder of a frightful tomorrow, both state and national leaderships remain recalcitrant and unperturbed at the horror unleashed on us by these monstrous angels of death. As it is now, we have been turned into soft targets for terror gangs whose dream is to decimate and reduce us into oblivion.
If the past offered us opportunities in improving our fortunes, we made small use of it, preferring to neglect the bigger picture where prosperity is shared and not restricted. Our past representatives and appointed leaders never rose to the occasion by exploring options beyond our immediate communities; they became cheerleaders of our wailings.
In sticking to our book of Lamentations, these leaders made us embrace the permanent corner of protest as we continue to play victimhood. Unknown to many of us, other communities have suffered worse fate in the hands of these terror gangs under the watch of the Nigerian State.
After nearly eight years of a government, led by Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, the agony of the past stares us in the face, with the threat of a repeat if we refuse to unlearn our past. Of course, that does not foreclose the legal fireworks that may soon commence in proving the inviolability of the electoral victory of the APC in the March 18th Governorship poll. Much as we have witnessed spates of protest by various groups in the state over the outcome of the guber polls, we must be patient to await the final adjudication by the courts.
In the next two months or so, you shall be inaugurated as a Member of the Red Chamber of the National Assembly. It shall mark the end of Senator Danjuma La’ah’s eight years in the Senate. What is most important for now is what strategies you will deploy to change the story of a Zone inhabited by intelligent people, yet impoverished as they continue to cling to hope that someday, their conditions will be improved upon by leaderships that do not give a damn about them.
I am aware that you are not ignorant of the dynamics that led to your emergence as Senator-elect. Even when others thought the PDP would suffer defeat in Zone 3, I asked: What has the APC done to Kaduna South Zone after nearly eight years of being in the saddle of power? It was obvious that, considering the footprints of the el-Rufai government, it was better clinging to a party that identifies with you in your moments of needs than succumbing to one that has demonstrated unrestrained neglect.
Against the backdrop of your past performance in the House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019, I am confident that you will leave no stone unturned to rise to the occasion. Your most important duty is to contribute to the process of lawmaking and bring to the attention of Nigerians and the world the travails of your people. An effective liaison office in feeling the pulse of the people must not escape your attention.
Furthermore, you should note that as Senator of the Zone, you have become a leader that must provide leadership, not only to members of the lower chamber of the National Assembly, but also to members of Kaduna State House of Assembly from Kaduna South Zone 3.
Incoming Distinguished Senator, you are no longer stranger to what is obtainable in the National Assembly. With the benefits of hindsight, you are well experienced enough in honing your lobby skills for the overall good of your Constituents.
Others have warned us not to expect much from you as you will become an Absentee Senator once elected. My response has always been that as long as you work to attract laudable projects to our communities and draw the attention of Nigerians and the world to what ails us as a people; I shall have no problem with your absenteeism. I shall judge you on the basis of your performance in your efforts of working for the common good, rather than attending to personal issues.
I beseech you to pay more attention to youths of the Zone that have been deprived of opportunities in life. More than anything, I implore you to focus on programmes that can assist our youths to access funds from government agencies and global donor bodies for empowerment. Most importantly, we look forward to your timely collaboration with both the State and Federal Government, including relevant security agencies, to confront the challenges of insecurity plaguing our Zone.
Impressed by your emergence that is coming on the heels of resuscitated hope for the future, you must ignore the politics of ‘gulma’ that sets brothers against brothers as you seek collaboration of all for inclusivity across religious and ethnic divides in advancing the development of Kaduna South Zone.
Sir, avoid the company of political shenanigans who troop to you for personal favours and, instead, seek the company and attention of people with altruistic purpose to help you navigate honest paths of working with diverse groups for the overall good of our people.
We have invested so much hope and dream in you. Please tread carefully because you are treading on our dreams. Accept my hearty congratulations on your arrival at the second step of the sixth floor of life. May the new year of your life bring increased devotion in the service of our people. Here is wishing you abundant good health and impressive collaboration with both local and global progressive groups as you prepare to be sworn in as our Senator in June 2023.
