The National Assembly has come to be known as one of the strongest pillars of our democracy. This arm of government’s role became much more appreciated when a President took ill and constitutional crisis loomed. The senate stepped in and saved the country’s democratic process.
Nigerians expressed huge appreciation but to the legislators alone. Little was mentioned of supporting staff who play indispensable roles in the National Assembly to keep the democratic wheels turning. The whole lot falls on the Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA) who is charged with providing effective bureaucracy for the lawmakers.
Since 1999, the assembly has had various Clerks which rolled over to the current Clerk, Alhaji Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa. Like the Senate President and other Principal Officers, Maikasuwa has played a very crucial role in stabilizing and even repositioning the out-going seventh National Assembly. It has even been argued that for obvious reasons and for being a civil servant, Salisu and his team were indeed the unseen hand or force that made it possible for the lawmakers to successfully carryout their assignments properly and scored a high marks in discharging their responsibilities.
The CNA has used his wide administrative experience and exposure as well as contacts to provide a conducive environment for the lawmakers to do their work very well. Salisu’s administrative ingenuity coupled with his style of operations has succeeded in sorting out many knotty issues faced in the assembly in the past four years. A critical look at the score card of this silent achiever shows the CNA’s efforts at boosting the morale of workers through improved welfare packages, transportation and housing facilities, enthroning the culture of transparency, due process and the rule of law in the assembly’s management, apart from insisting on merit and accountability as well as providing conducive atmosphere for workers to do the best. As narrated by an insider recently, the proactive stance of the Maikasuwa’s team since it came on board has brought him closer it to both staff, the lawmakers as well as their leaders to an extent that service delivery and others are now smoothly done in a manner that compares to what obtains in developed democracies. It must be noted here that one of the issues which got prominent attention of Salisu has to do with the welfare of workers as recently admitted by most of the workers. The Maikasuwa’s-led team did not spare any minute in ensuring that justice and fair play prevailed in this issue. The way and manner workers issue were given priority attention in the schemes of things had gladden people’s heart.
It is not surprising that most of the projects initiated by the Maikasuwa team like transportation for workers and office furniture etc, have been successfully accomplished due to the support and interest shown by the Senate President, Senator David Mark and his Principal Officers. Some of these projects also include office extensions, ICT appliances, and some mouth-watering incentives for the workers. The National assembly Staff housing project has also left the drawing board and is being pursued apart from refresher course organized for the training and re-training of workers. His open-door policy, transparency, rule of law, merit and compliance with due process has put him as an innovative CNA in the history of the assembly. The reasons for the success so far recorded by the incumbent CNA are not far-fetched. To begin with, he is a tested administrator having served meticulously in various positions of responsibility in the country’s bureaucracy. He came in with a vast experience having which he garnered in the sensitive offices he held before he transferred his services to the NASS. Another advantage the CNA has is the fact that he has worked closely with some of his predecessors directly in their offices. Salisu is also a patient leader or is it silent achiever who believes in striking when the iron hot in order to achieve desired objective. But more than any other issue, Salisu has guts to do what many of his predecessors could not attempt to do while in office. Outside the National Assembly, Maikasuwa is a non-political and a completely detribalized leader. Maikasuwa’s current grassroots appeal stemmed from the humanitarian services he has been rendering to the people where orphans, youths, widows and many other groups of people are assisted giving them hope and reason to live. His friends cut across political divides and from all tribes. [myad]
Two women Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs): Ladies of Grace and Agape Sisters, have threatened to protest naked on April 25 if the female governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Taraba state governorship race, Senator Aisha Alhassan is cheated and intimidated.
Coordinator of Agape Sisters, Mrs. Jean Onuh, issued the threat in Abuja today at a news briefing in Abuja on the Taraba election run-off election scheduled for April 25.
Onuh said that Senator Aisha represented the interest of Nigerian women in the Taraba governorship poll holding on April 25, even as she alleged that the Senator is being intimidated by her opponents and officials of the Independent Electoral commission (INEC).
“We would have remained quiet and very neutral but for our disadvantaged background and the clamour to sustain the goals set for Nigerian women in the post Beijing Conference.
“We dare warn of adverse consequences should the establishment known as the Taraba cabal insist on intimidating a female contestant in the race.
“We will mobilise hundreds of thousands of Nigerian women to protest nude on April 25, if any official behaves funny,’’ Onuh said.
She called on all involved in the Taraba poll to remain neutral and urged registered voters, especially women, to ignore all kinds of intimidation to come out and vote for Aisha. [myad]
There was a drama at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Enugu today, when two persons presented themselves to collect the certificate of return for the same Nsukka/Igboeze South federal constituency.
The two persons, Mr. Ikechukwu Ugwuegede and Dr. Patrick Asadu, both of them members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have been engulfed in a legal tussle over the party’s candidacy for the election.
Asadu, a member of the House of Representatives, secured a ruling at the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja recognizing him as the right candidate for the election.
Ugwuegede, however, appealed the ruling.
The two appeared at the INEC office during the presentation of certificates of return to the Governor-elect and National Assembly members-elect but were denied the certificate.
Each of the candidates pleaded to the National Commissioner of INEC, Dame Gladys Nwafor, to collect the certificate but the commissioner declined.
Presenting the certificates, Nwafor, who is the INEC National Commissioner for Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi states, urged the elected officials to fulfill their campaign promises to the people.
According to her, today is a very unique day for the INEC and the government of Enugu State.
“We are here to give certificates of return to whom the electorate has given the mandate to serve the people.
“It has not been an easy task for both the commission and the contestants. I call it a divine mandate to serve the people.
“Enugu State is one of the most peaceful states and I am happy to be associated with the state,” she said. [myad]
The Governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu has said that the recent defeat of the People Democratic Party (PDP) at both national and state elections did not come to Nigerians as a surprise because “we saw it coming.”
Governor Babangida, who spoke in Minna as a special guest of honour at a convocation lecture of the Federal University of Technology (FUT) today, said that the refusal of the PDP to honour the “single-term agreement” led to the party’s heavy defeat at both the Presidential and governorship polls.
In a lecture, titled: ‘The role of Law in the enhancement of socio-economic growth of the nation,’ Governor Babangida said: “Many of us saw it coming. When I reminded us that we had an agreement for one term (that President Goodluck Jonathan had agreed to run for one term), they nearly crucified me. When I led the G7 (group of seven aggrieved PDP governors), they did not do what we wanted them to do until five members left and they did what we asked them to do.
“I recall also that when APC (All Progressives Congress) came on board(emerged as a political party), I was the first person to say I was very happy that ‘now, we have a strong party to put PDP on its toes’ and many people were asking that ‘are you really a member.’
“Up until the last elections, the allegation against me had always been that I was a supporter of APC; and now, you have seen the results.”
Governor Babangida listed other reasons he believed accounted for the failure of the PDP at the polls, saying: “Nigerians wanted a change and Nigerians got the change. You will have many reasons. One, PDP has been around for 16 years and there is no way you will be around for 16 years and you will not make mistakes. So, there are many reasons that will be put together and we will be able to understand and guide people.”
The governor explained that corruption did not end at stealing money but indulging in malpractices, admonishing people to desist from acts that were capable of destroying our economy.
Speaking after former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Legbo Kutigi, delivered a lecture, Babangida said that not only government officials were corrupt, but that corruption “starts from the home.”
He called for devolution of power in the country, saying politics was about bringing development to the society and not to enrich oneself.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Governing Council, FUTM, Prof. Ahmed Alkali, said, “Nigeria is at a crossroads because 2015 is a year of political transition.
“If Nigeria must fight corruption, we must all check ourselves to ensure that at all levels, we kill corruption. Anything we do in excess is corruption.” [myad]
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has again put off the planned contract signing of Coach Stephen Keshi, contrary to assurances by NFF General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi. No official explanation was given by the federation but a top staff contacted on the matter simply volunteered the federation was not ready. Another top board member who did not want to be quoted explained that there were some issues that needed to be trashed and which necessitated the shift. He could not confirm a new date but said that the signing may hold next week. However, a source hinted at possible reason for suspension of the event, noting that Keshi’s contract papers were supposed to be vetted and approved by the National Sports Commission but which has not been done. Such statutory role of the commission, it was learnt cannot be carried out in a hurry, suggesting that next week may not yet be feasible. Other reasons adduced include the fact that the NFF President, Amaju Pinnick is away in London. [myad]
Reasons of high unemployment and a failure to address growing inequality by the government have been advanced as the cause of a wave of anti-immigrant attacks in South Africa.
An analysts, Mr. Mienke Mary Steytler of the South African Institute of Race Relations said: “We believe that the cause of the xenophobic attacks is policy failure by the government. High unemployment and inequality are not being tackled.”
The violence against immigrants has left at least six dead and more than a thousand displaced since the beginning of the month, with attacks spreading from the east coast city of Durban to parts of the economic hub, Johannesburg.
“The root of this problem lies in our inability to bring about economic growth and decrease the inequality that plagues our nation,” said the main opposition Democratic Alliance’s leader in parliament Mmusi Maimane.
South African President, Jacob Zuma, on April 16, appealed for the end of attacks on immigrants as a wave of violence that has left at least six people dead threatened to spread across the country. In the past two weeks, shops and homes owned by Somalis, Ethiopians, Malawians and other immigrants in Durban and surrounding townships have been targeted, forcing families to flee to camps protected by armed guards.
“It is the hopelessness that results from unemployment that drives drug use and criminality in these communities, and underlies xenophobic attacks.”
In January, foreign shopkeepers in and around the vast township of Soweto, south of Johannesburg, were forced to flee and six were killed as looters rampaged through the area.
And in 2008, 62 people were killed in xenophobic violence across the city’s townships.
The current outbreak has been largely blamed on a speech last month by King Goodwill Zwelethini, traditional leader of the Zulus, in which he blamed foreigners for South Africa’s high crime rate and said they must “take their bags and go” — to loud applause.
The king has since said his words were misinterpreted, but for some, Zwelithini simply articulated what many were feeling.
“People are frustrated,” said Braam Hanekom, director of Passop (People against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty), a Cape Town non-profit organisation that supports asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants.
“It’s hard to fight for jobs. It’s hard to fix the economy. It’s hard to create opportunities. It’s very easy to blame someone, but it’s hard to blame the elected leadership who have the majority of support on the ground.
“It’s much easier to find a soft target to express your frustrations, whatever those frustrations are, and foreign nationals are the soft target that frustrated communities have chosen to pick on.”
– 1 percent of population –
Accused of flooding the country, foreigners in fact make up just one percent of the working population in KwaZulu-Natal province — where the latest violence began — and only four percent nationally, according to a study released last year by the Wits University-based Migrating for Work Research Consortium.
The researchers also found foreign workers were more likely to take jobs South Africans are not willing to do, or to start their own business: 21 percent were self-employed, 11 percent were employers.
In downtown Johannesburg earlier this week, as foreign traders closed shop and clustered anxiously on the sidewalk, South African Eveline Mangani elbowed her way in front of a camera and began loudly decrying the anti-immigrant sentiments.
“I’m very hurt by people saying they must be kicked out of the country, because I survive thanks to them,” she said.
“I get all my stock to resell from them. So I can put food on the table so that my five kids can survive. Now the shops are closed and look at my bag: it’s empty. I want the shops to open and I want them to be protected -– Somalis, Ghanaians, Ethiopians must be protected.”
The commercial success of foreigners running small general stores can be a sore point -– and a cause for envy, said Paul Ngema, provincial general secretary of the National African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NAFCOC).
“When you look at people, they derive their income from running ‘spaza’ shops. Most of these foreigners, they come and also run the same small businesses -– and they happen to do it better than the local ones. You may call it perhaps jealousy.”
In January, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu was accused of fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment when she said foreign shopkeepers must share their trade secrets.
“Foreigners need to understand that they are here as a courtesy and our priority is to the people of this country first and foremost,” she was reported as saying at the time. “They cannot barricade themselves in and not share their practices with local business owners.”
But as the violence has continued the message from government has changed.
“Many (foreigners) are in the country legally and contribute to the economy and social development of the country. Many bring skills that are scarce that help us to develop the economy and are most welcome to live our country,” President Jacob Zuma said in parliament yesterday. [myad]
A former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Vincent Ogbulafor, has made it clear that if he would defect to All Progressives Congress (APC), it is not now, saying that his visit to the party’s office in Abuja was meant for him to congratulate it’s national chairman, John Oyegun over the victory of the party in the just concluded general elections.
The former PDP boss, whosneaked into the national Secretariat of APC in Abuja told newsmen after emerging from a private meeting with Oyegun that he just came back into town yesterday and decided to drop-by to congratulate the national chairman of APC for a job well done.
He said when asked if he is moving over to the APC: “I am still in PDP. Not yet. Even if I will, not yet.”
The former PDP Chairman also expressed delight with the victory of General Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential election even though he blamed the lost which PDP encountered in the election to the dismantling of the Governors’Forum. [myad]
Unknown gunmen yesterday assassinated the Ughelli branch chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Delta state, Barrister Austin Icheghe.
The assassination was one in the series of killings rocking Ughelli metropolises in the Ughelli North Local Government Area of the State
The incident, it was gathered, happened at about 9 pm at the 14 Ekredjebor residence of the victim in the presence of his immediate family.
A niece of the deceased, Egunor Uviesa told newsmen that her uncle was shot in front of his apartment while alighting from his vehicle at the close of work.
“As soon as he came down from his vehicle, they accosted him, and shot him on the head with the bullet damaging part of his face. He was immediately rushed to a private clinic here in Ughelli were he was confirmed dead.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Director, Center for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged, (CENTREP), Barrister Oghenejabor Ikimi has condemned the incident, describing it as barbaric even as he wondered why anyone would want to sentence a lawyer to death.
“The killing of the NBA chairman brings to mind the incessant killings in Ughelli which is on the increase in recent times. We are tired of cases of unresolved murders and assassinations nationwide.
“A year ago, two lawyers in the State were murdered by unknown gunmen on their way to court and the police are yet to arrest the culprits till date. We are calling on the State Commission of Police and his men to wake up and checkmate these killings because we are tired of these killings.” [myad]
When I arrived home from office early in the week and told my wife that the N20 Billion which the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the then Sanusi Lamido Sanusi insisted was missing from the government vaults and for which he was sent on suspension was said to have been traced to Zenith Bank Plc, she screamed: “it is a lie!” In quick succession, I told her that General Muhammadu Buhari’s certificate which the Nigerian Army declared missing during the campaign for the 2015 election had been found, she exclaimed again: “it is a lie!” It is not impossible that any other sane person that hears about the incredible news would react the same way, especially so soon after the election which the victim of the so-called certificate-gate, General Buhari won and long after the victim of executive brigandage, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi ascended the throne of his ancestors as Emir of Kano. With these two unfortunate incidences, in addition to many others that might be in the offing, one is even hard put to ask a question: what type of country is Nigeria? Or, in other words, what type of leaders have Nigeria been saddled with all this while? Or, more appropriately, what type of system is Nigeria operating that breeds this kind of weird leadership?
Corruption and impunity have so permeated the society that no one, not even our leaders are ashamed of the bizarre nature of what they are doing. For, is it not a shame that just a few days after General Buhari won the election, the leadership came through the backdoor to announce that the N20 Billion has been found? One imagines if it was President Goodluck Jonathan that won the election: it is most likely that no one would have come up with the truth: that the money is there somewhere intact. And on top of it all, such falsehood and criminality would have thrown the integrity of the now Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II into jeopardy. The N20 Billion would have ended up in private pockets! It is unfortunate that unnecessary religious, ethnic or regional and class sentiments have been played up for long, by the outgoing government, so much that many Nigerians were hoodwinked to think that the government enemies were made up of certain group belonging to other religious, ethnic or regional and class blocs. Indeed, when the issue of missing money from the account of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was first mooted out by Sanusi Lamido, I was one of those who believed that there was element of truth in the allegation. My point of recourse was the fact that Sanusi Lamido had, before then, proved to be a gentleman who was committed to clean business of running the Nigerian financial resources: if you take a look at how he sanitized the banking sector and other financial institutions, you may understand my mood then. Indeed, if President Jonathan had been on the same page with my thought and he was honest about pursuing the truth, he probably would have allowed Sanusi Lamido to carry on with investigation or asked an independent body to do the investigation. But, because, as always, the forces that were in charge were so powerful, they led the President to throw the baby away with the bath tube.
Often times when you are on the side of the truth, especially in this kind of country, you are branded as ‘opposition’ and get treated with a lot of scorns. But, like the Bible says: “Truth will always set you free.”
While it is not too late for President Jonathan to render public apology to the present Emir of Kano who he so derided, downgraded and disgraced out of office as CBN governor and to appropriately punish whoever was or were behind this national shame, the same would also be said of the falsehood that was woven around the secondary school certificate of General Buhari, all in the name of politics.
The Nigeria Army, which Buhari served for years and rose through the ranks to become a Major-General, owes him public apology for not just embarrassing him, but driving the integrity of the force into the political mud, forgetting that power, on this earth is ephemeral and transient.
No one would have imagined that the men and women in uniform could have descended so low, obviously for the pot of porridge. Too bad this happened in Nigeria of our time. [myad]
As the 2015 elections approached, PDP spin doctors had good reasons to place Benue State firmly under the grip of the biggest party in Africa.
Based on the fact that ethnicity is a serious issue in Benue politics, they counted on the staying power of David Mark, the career Senator to deliver the Idoma votes as he has always done since 1999. The Senate President was in this year’s election complemented by the powerful Minister of Interior, Abba Morro, who does no wrong in the eyes of the PDP and the presidency – not even when a horde of young men and women looking for jobs die under his watch – the Idoma vote was guaranteed. On the Tiv side, there was Gabriel Suswam, arguably the closest friend to President Goodluck Jonathan among the PDP governors. The party also counted on the goodwill of Dr. Nicholas Akise Ada, appointed as Minister of State just before the elections. A lot of hope was also placed on Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, former Senate President, Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher – former Minister and former Ambassador and former everything else. Also to be counted was Prof. Daniel Saror, former Vice Chancellor of ABU Zaria and a two time Senator. It was a parade of stars and heavy weights on the PDP side.
Religion is hardly an issue in the politics of Benue. It became an issue this year because the PDP wanted it to be. Benue is predominantly a Christian State, just like any of the states in the South East or South /South. PDP strategists tried their best to make political capital out of religion in this year’s election by portraying the All Progressives Congress as a party of Muslims who brought Boko Haram to Islamise Nigeria. This campaign was intensified with the emergence of General Buhari as the Presidential candidate of the APC and the pervasive clashes between sedentary farmers and Fulani cattlemen in the state. This added fuel to the campaign by PDP propagandist that the APC was waging a modern day Jihad against the Christian community in the state.
The odds were thus stacked against the opposition APC. Benue is rural, poverty ravaged, underindustrialised state with the only industry being the government. The government holds the bread and the knife and those who take the risk of challenging it must be ready to face the heat. The PDP governments, both at the Federal and State levels were quite aware of this and maximized the use of the carrot and stick.
The Benue State government decided to squeeze the opposition further by rubbing salt into the injury. At the local government elections of 2012, the government openly rigged the vote in its own favour. In the show of shame, the opposition did not win even a Councillorship seat in any of the 23 Local Councils in the state.
Consequently, members of the opposition had to survive in a system where all the three tiers of government were sharpened against them – the Federal, the State and the Local. The result was suffocating poverty and lack of stomach infrastructure for opposition members. Notable figures in their camp like Young Alhaji, the gubernatorial running mate of the ACN in the 2007 elections, Prof David Iyornem, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, Prof Daniel Saror, Hon Mzenda Iho, former Speaker Benue House of Assembly, Hon Aboho, member House of Representatives and many others could not stand the squeeze and fled to the ruling PDP.
On the face of it, the opposition was finished in Benue. Perhaps the lone man standing was Senator George Akume, former governor of the State and Minority Leader of the ACN and later APC in the Senate. In a system of bread and butter politics, the man could do very little to spread patronage around his followers and ensure loyalty to him and the cause he represented.
But PDP leaders in the state made two fundamental mistakes and things turned out the way they least expected:
One, they became pompous, reckless and power drunk. A leading figure of the party in the state is reported to have boasted that his mission to the state is to squeeze the people like a drunkard does with an empty can of beer and throw them into the dust bin. He was widely quoted in beer parlours and other rumour mills in the state.
Did the PDP government in the state hear this particular rumour which gained so much currency? If they did, there was nothing done to refute the claim that the premeditated policy of the state government was to impoverish and punish her citizens. Instead, as at the time of election, the state government had accumulated an unpaid salary bill of N15 billion. Another unpaid bill of N15 billion was owed pensioners. In a state where almost every body depends on government stipends for survival, the squeeze was getting deadly. This act of cruelty – believed to be deliberate – caused much anger against the government and the PDP.
Secondly, the PDP underestimated the political resolve and skills of Senator George Akume. It was a costly miscalculation. The man gave the PDP a bloody nose. It was on his shoulders that the APC sprang a surprise and carried the day in Benue. [myad]
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Maikasuwa, Vehicle That Drives National Assembly, By Ibrahim Biu
The National Assembly has come to be known as one of the strongest pillars of our democracy. This arm of government’s role became much more appreciated when a President took ill and constitutional crisis loomed. The senate stepped in and saved the country’s democratic process.
Nigerians expressed huge appreciation but to the legislators alone. Little was mentioned of supporting staff who play indispensable roles in the National Assembly to keep the democratic wheels turning.
The whole lot falls on the Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA) who is charged with providing effective bureaucracy for the lawmakers.
Since 1999, the assembly has had various Clerks which rolled over to the current Clerk, Alhaji Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa. Like the Senate President and other Principal Officers, Maikasuwa has played a very crucial role in stabilizing and even repositioning the out-going seventh National Assembly. It has even been argued that for obvious reasons and for being a civil servant, Salisu and his team were indeed the unseen hand or force that made it possible for the
lawmakers to successfully carryout their assignments properly and scored a high marks in discharging their responsibilities.
The CNA has used his wide administrative experience and exposure as well as contacts to provide a conducive environment for the lawmakers to do their work very well. Salisu’s administrative ingenuity coupled with his style of operations has succeeded in sorting out many knotty issues faced in the assembly in the past four years.
A critical look at the score card of this silent achiever shows the CNA’s efforts at boosting the morale of workers through improved welfare packages, transportation and housing facilities, enthroning the culture of transparency, due process and the rule of law in the assembly’s management, apart from insisting on merit and accountability as well as providing conducive atmosphere for workers to do the best.
As narrated by an insider recently, the proactive stance of the Maikasuwa’s team since it came on board has brought him closer it to both staff, the lawmakers as well as their leaders to an extent that service delivery and others are now smoothly done in a manner that compares to what obtains in developed democracies. It must be noted here that one of the issues which got prominent attention of Salisu has to do with the welfare of workers as recently admitted by most of the workers. The Maikasuwa’s-led team did not spare any minute in ensuring that justice and fair play prevailed in this issue. The way and manner workers issue were given priority attention in the schemes of things had gladden people’s heart.
It is not surprising that most of the projects initiated by the Maikasuwa team like transportation for workers and office furniture etc, have been successfully accomplished due to the support
and interest shown by the Senate President, Senator David Mark and his Principal Officers. Some of these projects also include office extensions, ICT appliances, and some mouth-watering incentives for the workers. The National assembly Staff housing project has also left the
drawing board and is being pursued apart from refresher course organized for the training and re-training of workers. His open-door policy, transparency, rule of law, merit and compliance with due process has put him as an innovative CNA in the history of the assembly.
The reasons for the success so far recorded by the incumbent CNA are not far-fetched. To begin with, he is a tested administrator having served meticulously in various positions of responsibility in the country’s bureaucracy. He came in with a vast experience having which
he garnered in the sensitive offices he held before he transferred his services to the NASS.
Another advantage the CNA has is the fact that he has worked closely with some of his predecessors directly in their offices. Salisu is also a patient leader or is it silent achiever who believes in striking when the iron hot in order to achieve desired objective. But more than any other issue, Salisu has guts to do what many of his predecessors could not attempt to do while in office.
Outside the National Assembly, Maikasuwa is a non-political and a completely detribalized leader. Maikasuwa’s current grassroots appeal stemmed from the humanitarian services he has been rendering to the people where orphans, youths, widows and many other groups of people
are assisted giving them hope and reason to live. His friends cut across political divides and from all tribes. [myad]