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Fela, Shata, Gambara,
Wargajeje & the Lamido Campaign-By
Adagbo Onoja Newsdiaryonline Sat March 5,2011
 For
two reasons, Lamido’s campaign for re-election as governor of
Jigawa
State is the campaign to
watch. The first is the context of the recent “network of
falsehood” in reaction to his current political stand while the
second is the transformation of support for the Lamido political
personality into a virtual mass movement before our own eyes. A
badly bruised opponent, an anti-Lamido player or a hate monger
may be inclined to regard this as propaganda but even such
people will know in their mind of minds now that there is such a
phenomenon on the ground.
There
might have been a mistake in the failure of the Lamido regime to
capture and convert his mass base into a developmental army ever
since in the form that was common in the benchmark year many
African countries gained independence. At independence, they
needed new crop of patriotic volunteers to be entrusted the
delivery of development to those who have been bypassed by
colonial state. That was how volunteer corps became part and
parcel of the politics of development in places like
Ghana,
Kenya, Guinea, Egypt
with Ghana’s
Young Pioneers being the best known.
Today,
there is a sense in which that situation applies to Jigawa on a
micro scale in terms of the politics of mass mobilization,
political grooming and development delivery. Substantially, the
Lamido phenomenon and the campaign are still driven by the
youths, women and children as independent actors and players.
Their escort of “Jirgin Futon Al’uma” Or “the
Ark that can carry everybody and can
sail successfully” is a major dimension of this.
It is
something else witnessing the post rally escort of the bus from
the rally ground in Maigatari on February 28th, 2011,
for instance, by women and children. And then the daily ‘bye’
and ‘welcome’ receptions for the same bus at Dutse in which
children, women, shop keepers, policemen and other bystanders
trek along the bus from the General Hospital in the town well
beyond the Government House gate, right into the Governor’s
Lodge. It is such a moving popular appeal, a fitting subject for
a serious doctoral thesis on contemporary populism in
Northern Nigeria. More so in a country of
uninspiring leadership!
In other
words, there is a way in which the phenomenon is playing out in
the campaign where all the hot issues are being raised, from
issue of cultural integrity and national security in Nigeria to the question of Jigawa as
a case study in tendency politics and social transformation. But
more importantly, these are being raised along side the
noticeable hilarity from the protest musical underlay of the
campaign.
The
musical component of the campaign has two theatres. One is the
central campaign bus aka “Jirgin Futon Al’uma”. Here, there is
every musician you can think of but the most dominant are Fela,
Mamman Shata and the Lamido resident lyricists. Most of these
lyricists celebrate the accomplishments of the governor,
sometimes to hyperbolic extent. There is, for instance, the one
whose number can be interpreted to mean that Lamido has flooded
Jigawa. That is his own creative way of saying the Lamido
government has provided water everywhere in the state. Although
this is true, the imagery of flooding is the luxury only a
creative artist is permitted.
But these
statements contain very significant sociological information
about the soul of the society in which they are embedded. But
then, only those who ride in the bus enjoy this. Here, Fela and
Mamman Shata and the lyricists are predominant. At a time like
this, there can be no better stuff than Fela’s rebellious stuff;
from Shakara Oloje to African Lady to ITT to Zombie, the
ultimate yabbis. It sets the mood for the campaign. It brings
back the memories of Lamido’s brushes with the authorities ever
since. And it all makes him to ask whether he should renounce
his own political past or continue in the line of defiance and
rebellion against authoritarianism.
Instructively, Mamman Shata is, in a way, another irreverent
musician. Although, unlike Fela, he sang praises of people, he
too worshiped only at his own alter in the sense that he chose
his objects of praises. According to him, only once he sang
under duress. From a thematic point, Shata was an establishment
singer but who was distinguished by his mastery of sarcasm, his
wits and wisdom. Subsequently, he was feared by his rivals. His
powerful satire was his main source of power.
So, these
two in particular set the tone. But they recede once the PDP
leaders move from the bus to the podium. Here, it is the Gambo
Gambaras, the Fati Nigers, the Abdulmajeed Kato aka Wargajeje
and many of them that take the centre state. But it is Gambo
Gambara and Wargajeje that carry the day on each occasion
because of the subtlety of their use of the Hausa language and
the viciousness of their attack on the opposition generally and
anti-Lamido forces in particular.
One of
Gambo Gambara’s creative mischiefs is an arrow at anti-Jonathan
elements. During the time of OBJ, he said, the people of the
North accepted him, the North re-named him Uba Sirajo, turbaned
him and elected him into office. And in the case of Jigawa, a
Saminu Turaki, fearing loss of election, brought Obasanjo to the
state even though Obasanjo is a Christian. Now, some people in
the North says Jonathan is not acceptable because he is a
Christian. But he asks, “Did Jonathan stop anybody from
practicing his religion?” It is a rhetorical question in that
audience as the answer comes in a massive ‘nay’.
Therefore, he says, he would head straight to Jonathan after
praying, saying he couldn’t imagine seeing water in the tap and
go for the water in the well. He cannot follow the ACN because
their symbol is the broom. According to him, the broom sweep
problems that will come back and disturb its owner again. As for
the Congress for Progressive Change, (CPC), he says it has HIV,
saying the only change they have is making people to suffer
queuing to change their money. He had in mind the currency
change exercise under Buhari in 1984.
Sinking
his teeth obviously into Saminu Turaki, Gambo Gambara says there
is no way a dog will come and follow a Liman. “When people were
sick, he did n’t come; when they were hungry, he didn’t bring
them food; when they died, he didn’t come for condolence.
Overnight, he comes to say he wants to be elected. Who will
elect him? Again, the audience rises in approval of the potshot
and darts throwing. That is how entertaining he could be.
In the
case of Abdulmajeed Kato aka Wargajeje, he has a vocalist who
goes by the name “kuran Wargajeje” which crudely translates to
Wargajeje’s hyena, (scatterer). He is the one who sets the
agenda for Kato to descend. At the rally at Kaugama on March 1st,
2011, the Kuran said he wanted to talk about the opposition.
Kato said no, he was not interested in talking about the
opposition. Why, he was asked by Kuran. He said it was because
their rallies were never bigger than the space he was standing
on the podium. Instead, he said he would talk about Lamido whom
he described as the tormentor of the opposition, “the answer to
those who stole their money and brought only frogs and snakes”.
That was another harsh reference to Saminu Turaki, whose ACN he
described as a party of many truths.
In other
countries where the theory and practice of talent hunt is alive,
these would be the cultural stars. But in Nigeria,
these talents rot away and only a few of them like Mamman Shata,
Ebenezer Obey and a few others made it to creative limelight.
In the
case of the Lamido campaign, they break the tedium of the rally
speeches but also preparing the ground for Lamido to take the
floor. And when he does, there is always that pin drop silence
unless the governor has said something and the restless drummers
go extra-ordinarily wild and everyone has to ‘wait’ for them to
restrain themselves. This repeats itself as soon as he says any
other thing that appeals to their sensibility.
One of
such is Lamido’s analogy that Nigeria’s resource is like the
fish-whether it is dead or alive, Islam does not forbid eating
it. Jigawa, he said, is keen on getting its own share of the
fish, dead or alive because Jigawa has a catching up to do.
And he
says politics of national unity is the issue now because God
must have a reason for making Nigeria a country of the Christians,
the Muslims, the Hausas, the Kajes, the Igbos, the Beroms, the
Kanuris, the Yorubas, etc. To the extent that there is neither
any party exclusively for the Muslims nor is there any candidate
who would say he or she doesn’t need Muslim or Christian deputy
and votes, he insists the politicians must stand where they can
say the same things they say in Lagos
in Jos, Enugu, Ibadan, Abia or Jigawa. When he rounds up with
the usual “Assalam Alaikum”, the yell of approval can usually be
heard in as far away as
Kano.
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