AMINU WALI, A 'LOW-LIFE' POLITICAL JOBBER?

Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of China, Aminu Bashir Wali, recently said that President Umaru Yar’Adua is the most honest leader Nigeria has ever produced? According to this Yar'Adua town-crier, "in the history of Nigeria, the country had never had a president who openly showed and not only that but practically displayed that he is an incorruptible and honest leader like Yar’Adua, because he never believed in doing anything that would harm the interest of the nation"?

Icheoku asks, did this man try but failed to bribe Umaru Yar'Adua or how did he come to such an emphatic conclusion without any personal experience or knowledge of President Umaru Yar'Adua's infallibility or incorruptibility? Also where has Umaru Yar'Adua manifested his honesty to such a degree or level that he has surpassed all his predecessors in that department? Was it in his promise of power emergency, six months after he is sworn; which is now two years down the road unfulfilled? Talk about honesty! What about his rule of law mantra which his Attorney General Michael Aadoonkaa has perverted? What about his promised election reform when he has failed to implement Justice Uwais recommendations? What about hamstringing EFCC in ferociously going after past corrupt governors? This mallam Wali must be under some influence of something else; as this is definitely not an objective assessment of a government, whose performance so far, is nostalgically invoking the memories of Olusegun Obasanjo's government?

In his own words, Aminu Wali said, "Yar’Adua is the most incorruptible, most honest leader that ascended the leadership of Nigeria, that is why today the nation is having rule of law and due process and he ensure budget discipline and prudent management of the Nigerian resource, by putting the nation on a sound track of transparency and prudent management". By necessary implication, what Aminu Wali is telling the whole listening world is that all previous leaders of Nigeria have been very corrupt and dishonest, including his kinsman, midget Sani Abacha as well as the last president Olusgeun Obasanjo? Why did he not speak up then to alert the world about these past leaders penchant for corruption and dishonesty? What was his parameter for this assessment and were Yar'Adua to recall him today, will his position still remain the same? This man is pathetically shameless and is more deserving of the position of a spokesman to President Umaru Yar'Adua than a Nigerian ambassador to China or anywhere else!

Continuing, Aminu Wali said, that since the past eight years of democratic governance in Nigeria, the country has witnessed unprecedented development? Icheoku says, Aminu Wali, please the show us the evidence? However, Wali had pointed to the provision of GSM (cell-phones) and freedom of speech and associations as his indicators; and you begin to wonder why Nigeria has stagnated ever since her independence from Britain since 1960? It is because of ambition-less mallams like Wali Aminu who have stubbornly held unto governance and been in charge of affairs ever since. Who shall it be told that in the hierarchy of developmental projects, that it is only 'GSM and freedom of speech' that qualifies for "unprecedented development"? Where in his ladder of importance does power, transport, health and even basic water and food supplies fit in?

The problem with these Nigerian political jobbers is that they will readily say and do anything just to remain relevance to each successive government in power including the slow-man, Umaru Yar'Adua's government. Where is this mallam's candour for truth or does he easily sleep at nights with such a guilty conscience of having told known lies? Which sane person, watching the last ten years of "democrazy" in Nigeria, particularly the last two years of a near-stalled governance of President Umaru Yar'Adua, will not see through the fog of lies of this mallam from Kano State, Nigeria? Icheoku asks, in which department of Nigeria's life has the political establishment performed so brilliantly well, that it rises up to Aminu Wali's assessed "unprecedented development"? Our conclusion is that it is only in the warped mind of this mallam, who in an attempt to keep his lifeline job, must sing the praise of his employers, the Umaru Yar'Adua's government. Shamelessly, he is in China lying about how President Umaru Yar'Adua is the best thing to ever happen to Nigeria? Icheoku says, just the facts mallam! And regrettably, the reality on the ground does not support his hopeless claim that at last, Nigerians have found the messiah in his President Umaru Yar'Adua!