RIBADU SPITS FIRE

By Tukur Ahmed
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Adamawa State, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, has committed hara-kiri; he has threatened the people of the state with fire and brimstone, even though he is still seeking their mandate. The ex-cop and EFCC boss went berserk and spit fire in the presence of journalist at his Yola residence on Saturday, February 28, 2015. He said his compatriots in the state have forgotten he was a cop and EFCC boss who gave bloody noses to Ministers and governors. He warned that the citizens of the state who take him for granted will soon know who he is in their “small Adamawa.”
Ribadu was reportedly irked by either the plain rejection or poor reception he received in his campaign tour of the 21 Local Government Areas in the state. Beclouded by myopia, haughtiness and weird political calculus, he thought he would get red carpet reception and meet huge welcoming crowds wherever he went. Unfortunately, he was terribly disappointed when he didn’t meet people at some of the rally grounds as they deserted him; he was therefore taken aback and bitter. Now, frustration has set in. The lack of support or plain rejection has not gone down well with Ribadu, who saw himself as a Crown Prince only waiting to be summoned to the throne!!
The former EFCC boss has so soon forgotten how he emerged as governorship candidate at a Kangaroo primary election held in Abuja. If he has short memory, the people of Adamawa State have not forgotten or forgiven that incident. Ribadu was a highly respected Nigerian with his anti-corruption credentials. With what happened at the Kangaroo primaries in Abuja, he has lost all the respect and credibility he had.
In 2007, impeached Governor Nyako was similarly imposed on the people of the state and they are still grappling with the wounds and trauma he inflicted on them with his inept and corrupt leadership which left them grossly impoverished and dichotomised on ethno-religious divides. They are yet to overcome and forget what ex-governor Nyako did to them. Although Nyako’s case was much more better, what is transmitted through the grapevine doesn’t paint Ribadu in good light; that he will be worst than Nyako in terms of inflicting pains through discrimination, disempowerment and misery. This is what will befall the vilified and impoverished people of the state and what sends them scampering for cover whenever Ribadu approaches their domains for campaigns.
Malam Nuhu Ribadu seems to have forgotten his grievous sins against his compatriots; he is oblivious of the fact that nemesis is trailing his footsteps and the victims of his vindictiveness are now wielding their own weapons and waiting anxiously to disgrace him at the polls on March 11, 2015. Already whispers making the rounds in Yola, the state capital, say the fate that befell his late father at the polls in 1979 when he was roundly defeated by a relatively unknown Alhaji Abubakar Barde (of blessed memory) is what will befall him on March 11, 2015.   
Ribadu is seen by some people as unlucky while others attribute his poor political outings to his past sins against prominent citizens in the country. In 2011 when he contested for the presidency on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), he lost woefully and came a distant third after President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari; now in 2015, his best chance, according to pundits, is to retain the same third position in Adamawa state. The dismal result will tell Ribadu his class and rightful position in the state. This will be a bitter lesson for those that reach the apex of their professions, attain national prominence and forget their home bases.
People that traverse the length and breadth of this country know the huge community services rendered by prominent Igbos, Yorubas, Binis, Kanuris, etc. In Adamawa state, most of our blessed and well to do citizens who attain national prominence disregard and snub their brethren and their local communities. But when election periods come around, they troop home thinking that they will be rewarded for doing nothing to their communities or expect to reap from where they never sowed anything. This era is gone.
Malam Nuhu Ribadu is firing shots and threatening fire and brimstone for nothing. He should ask himself what track records of exemplary service he has in the state or programs and projects he executed for his community in Yola, apart from malice and vengeance that he visited on the prominent sons of the state. Can he honestly face former Vice President Atiku Abubakar or former governor and present Minister of Youth Development, Boni Haruna? Why did he go on self-exile and become a fugitive under late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration? Let him therefore stop his empty threats and reap what he sowed as EFCC boss!!!
Tukur Ahmed writes fron Karewa GRA, Jimeta-Yola.