SOLOMON KUMANGAR AND HIS PROXY WRITERS
By Ahmad Sajoh
I have read a piece by my friend and brother Mr. Solomon Kumangar which goes as a response to my earlier write up addressing the state government on their denial of Ribadu Square for the flag-off of the Binani campaign.
Typical of the character of Kumangar, he left the issues in question and descended to name calling, falsehood and insults which are the only currency he trades in. If anyone could be said to have damaged the Fintiri government irreparably it is indeed Mr. Kumangar. He lacks the integrity and knowledge to promote any system let alone a government. Perhaps that is why the government had to look for some responsible journalists to do the right things while he is left to continue to employ proxies to write the kind of thrash he spews in his name.
Ordinarily he does not deserve a response from me, but I will do so as an advice to him as both a senior colleague and incidentally as a benefactor. Hope he remembers that at least in his journey of life I once helped him. So if anyone can be said to have betrayed a benefactor, he is a typical example. But I never expected any gratitude or appreciation from him. He does not have the character or temperament to appreciate anyone. What you don’t have, you can’t give. That’s a fact of life.
I have held the office he is holding long before him. Never did I once use a proxy to write for me and never did I use gutter language to address any situation. When you represent a government at the level he is, your character defines the government. And if the language Mr. Kumangar allows his proxy writers to use could be used to define this government then I really feel sad as an Adamawa person.
Let me put it to him very straight and clear, I was never helped by him, never helped by his principal who I only met once in a plane since he became governor and during that encounter with his principal I was the one that helped him by giving him a very valuable book on leadership and management. I did this because I see him as a leader and I believe adding value to his leadership will benefit my state of origin. I am a student and I believe the greatest gift you can give a person is a source of knowledge.
At one point the proxy writers who know and understand their paymaster very well spewed some incoherent and inconsequential nonsense hoping to show knowledge of my person. If Mr. Kumangar had been diligent even in reviewing what was written, he would have realized such lies had gone over the board. But he did not. He just allowed the unbridled falsehood to go as written because in his shallow mind it had captured what he wanted to say about me. To say Senator Binani will not smell the Government House is to play God. The decision as to who occupies the seat of governor later in the year is in the hands of God Almighty not proxy writers or their paymasters.
Let me also put it on record that there is no dispute whatsoever between my humble self and my brother former Governor Bindow Jibirilla. And the writer is in no position to raise any issues related to the former Governor after all the invectives his proxies had written on the governor in the past. Sometimes people get into such a state of confusion when they are forced to make friends with people they call enemies in the past. If for any reason he wants to apologize to Governor Bindow for all the bad things he wrote about him in the past, let him do so without mentioning my name. The biggest lie in the entire write up is to say all Bindow’s commissioners pledged to support Atiku and Fintiri except my humble self. That is not just false but shameless. None of them, and I repeat none of my former colleagues has joined that misadventure.
For the records, party fidelity means a lot to me. It is a matter of principles not a matter of choice. The first time I picked up a political party card in this dispensation it was an APC card. I never picked another and will not do under this dispensation When I fought to make Bala Ngillari governor in 2014 I declined an offer to serve in his government because it was a PDP government. This was purely on account of party fidelity. When in 2015 I joined the Bindow government it was an APC government. And today I am in APC supporting all APC candidates with no exceptions. That for me is what party fidelity is all about. But I do not expect unprincipled fairweather adventurers in governance to understand. It requires guts and honesty.
My last word on this matter is to remind Mr Kumangar that in 2014 he stole my entitlements after the removal of Nyako. All other appointees in the government house collected their entitlements except my humble self. The person bringing it to me was called back at the pilot gate and told to return it to Kumangar on the orders of the then acting governor Fintiri. The person is alive and can testify. Those entitlements included refunds of out of pocket expenses in respect of running my office for the period the state government accounts were frozen and improvements made to the facilities in the government house press section. Facilities he enjoyed then and still enjoys. It also included allowances of some government house reporters.
Two things I said earlier and I still stand by them. Since the Court of Appeal declared Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, the current government has been both fearful and jittery. The proxy writers concluded by claiming that helping people cannot win votes. Perhaps it is expedient to advise the government to note that in times of difficulty nothing wins people’s hearts like empathy and generosity. Being stingy and arrogant cannot win votes. That’s a fact. By the way Mr Solomon Kumangar remains my younger brother and friend.
Sajoh is former Adamawa Commissioner of Information and Strategy
