POORLITICS: HOW DID AN IGBO MAN HELP TO STOP THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN YOBE STATE?

This is Sam Agha Egwu's experience in helping to end the political crisis in Yobe State and how he passionately preached peace between warring politicians. Hear him:

PEACE IS ALWAYS WORTH THE PRICE, BECAUSE PEACE IS ALWAYS CHEAPER THAN CONFLICT – Bukar Abba Ibrahim in his book Poorlitics.

By Agha Egwu

On October 1, 2018, the rather controversial book Poorlitics will go on world-wide internet release on the birthday of Bukar Abba Ibrahim, the subject and author of the book and also on Nigeria's Independence day. For details on how to get the book, check the Publisher's website on www.bassbooks.co.uk

Last week, the internet was buzzing with the controversies in the book. I got calls and texts about how the book and myself were being maligned or praised as the co-author.

As a younger man I ran Summer Schools in British Universities. We played a game called Chinese whispers: if you put a line of people together, whisper something into the ear of the first, who whispers to the second, and so on. By the time you get to the last person, the first message is not only garbled up, but will have a nasty twist.

People urged me to reply and clear the air, but what I was involved in at the time made the facebook palava rather tame: I was helping to save Yobe State from a major political crisis.

The former Governor, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, and the present Governor Geidam were running for the same Senate seat and Yobe was split. Bukar normally sends much of his salary to help his constituents who might be in need. Every month he receives a long list and he starts paying to help. This is Poorlitics!!

Many of his people did not want to lose this charitable giver. On the other hand Geidam’s supporters wanted Bukar to go. Bukar was worried that his constituents would lose the huge largesse. In the book Poorlitics, he said that Senators were being paid too much, but he accepts it because he gives it to his people.

I met Bukar in 2006 as the head of a British University team that came to help develop the new Yobe State University. I watched his simplicity and amazing connection with local people, how he could stop in a village, sit on a mat with the poorest and share food with them, then give them some help.

I had never seen any Governor like that, and in my work for British Universities, I had been to most Nigerian States. I was even more fascinated because the EFCC under the efficient, no-nonsense Nuhu Ribadu, declared him and Yaradua as the only two Governors that were free of corruption during the Obasanjo era.

I started writing about it five years ago. He did not pay me. It was my initiative because I wanted to let other Nigerians know there was a Nigerian politician like him and it became our joint venture. I came to realise that other great progressive leaders like Zik, Awo and Aminu Kano had a similar approach. That was when we gave it the name Poorlitics, the politics of the poor, of mass mobilization. If you give to the people with sincerity, they will give back to you, many times over.

To my surprise, a delegation of Yobe people called on me last week, to bring peace to their State, because of my long friendship with Bukar and the book “Poorlitics” we wrote. Eventually, I found myself in the Yobe Government House surrounded by dignitaries and community elders from Yobe.

It was a surreal moment. I was the only Igbo man and Christian in the centre of Fulani and Kanuri Muslims. Some people think we should be enemies. They did not think of that. They simply saw me as a friend of Yobe people and trusted me to act in the interest of their State. They appointed me to be their Spokesman to help bring peace to their State. This was truly profound.

I used Bukar's principles of Poorlitics to achieve the objective. They all reconciled. They hailed Bukar the grandfather of Yobe politics and Geidam, the father of Yobe politics.

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