The last time I checked, I understood that the former two-term governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Sule Lamido used to be one of the political students of the late Northern political sage, Mallam Aminu Kano.
Late Aminu Kano it was who led the Northern Element Pepoles Union (NEPU) in the first Republic and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in the Second Republic. As a matter of fact, Aminu Kano was not only the leader and defender of Talakawa (common men and women), but also an epitome of honesty both in public and private.
It was under Aminu Kano that late Abubakar Rimi who governed Kano state (from where Jigasa state was cerved out) cut his political tooth: and from where Sule Lamido also cut his. That means that while late Rimi was the direct political son to Aminu Kano, Lamido was political son to late Rimi. Aminu Kano could therefore be termed the political grand father of Sule Lamido.
Indeed, down the line, the catch word has been socialism as a political identity, though there was a slight modification from Aminu Kano’s democratic humanism. It became so practical that the ‘father’ was never found to have touched a cent of the public fund when he was serving, either within the political circle or in government.
Of course, that is the socialist mould: they are supposed to be the direct anathema to capitalists. The two are supposed to be at poles apart. That while capitalists amass wealth, even the ones that may not be of immediate use to them, socialists distribute wealth, even the one that are supposed to be their personal possessions.
That is why one was shocked beyond speech when the news hit the town that Sule Lamido, of all people was involved in alleged corruption or diversion of public funds or money laundering or other dirty game, whatever you call it, when he was in office as governor. More disturbing is the information that he even brought his two children up under such disposition.
One of the counts in the charge brought to court by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) against the supposedly clean Sule Lamido reads, “That you Alhaji Sule Lamido (while being the Governor of Jigawa State, Nigeria), Aminu Sule Lamido, Mustapha Sule Lamido, Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited and Speeds International Limited between 15th October and 18th December, 2008 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did convert an aggregate sum of N124, 649, 915 (One Hundred and Twenty Four Million, Six Hundred and Forty Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred and Fifteen Naira) paid by Dantata & Sawoe Limited into the account of Speeds International Limited domiciled with an old generation Bank at Kano which fund you reasonably ought to have known to be proceeds of an unlawful act of Alhaji Sule Lamido who was a Public Officer within the meaning of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers as prescribed under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 ( as amended ) to wit; engaging in private business by a public officer, using the said company in which he is a director and a shareholder, and to whose account he is a signatory; with the aim of concealing the illicit origin of the said sum and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 14 (A) of the Money Laundering Act, 2004.”
As a matter of fact, Sule Lamido’s trouble began in 2012 when one of his sons, Aminu was arrested by Operatives of the EFCC at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano for failing to declare a sum of forty thousand United States Dollars ($40,000).
He was prosecuted and convicted with 50 percent of the undeclared sum forfeited to the Federal Government.
But the enquiries into the source of the funds led investigators into the closely guarded web of corruption and money laundering involving members of the former first family of Jigawa State and their cronies.
The failure of Sule Lamido to come out of office clean, has brought a different perception into the minds of the lovers of progressive politicking, that it is being used by some people as a façade to get into power.
Even if at the end of the day he is found not guilty of the offences he is being charged and for which he and his two sons have been thrown into detention in prison, there would still be vestiges of doubt in the minds of those who have come to regard him as a model for the type of cleanness they have yearned for in the nation’s politics. That his children are neck-deep in it is a different source of shame and embarrassment to the youth of this country.
This is clearly unforgivable. [myad]
