Let The Governor Have His Voice

By Abel Leonard

Sule in history and all over the world are adventurous people which has a version of the biblical name used  for Solomon, meaning man of peace. They are usually tough hearted, strong-willed, dogged, brave and revered men. They hold the substance of self discipline and are never allowed by their hearts and minds to let an evil go free before their very eyes. 

More trivially, this Sule’s audacity is slashed by the twist of an added ‘A’ Sule  style and manner of conduct are un Sure on the surface and are strange to many in a land where self-discipline and strong wills are scarce. But the man knows where he is going and I can trace his footpath. It is the style of, if you like, killing you softy will his silence.
However, in a way we are unfair to the individuality of a man who seeks his own voice in the mid of a roar. Left to his content of character and strong mind, engineer Abdulahi Sule should not have been elected by Nasarawa people as governor. His person does not go with the arrogance of bully politicians we know and admire who bulldoze into office by means of their selfish desires. 

Governor Sule, is certainly troubled by the growing unease or impatient with the way he takes things and carries this troubled state and the way all of us think uncomfortable with his disposition to the emerging trends, form the probes to the darkness to frustrating civil service workers and the lack of human capital development of the people in the state. 

In his usual self and in all this, the governor is exercising his right to be different as a person and a leader and, I think, to make a different government from past governments that is slow but steady based on his convictions and beliefs. The right to be different is one right humans are inalienably entitled to but which is not in any case the governor  has a style of his own and should be commended for giving newness to the spoils of personal ruggedness to the  polity of the state. 

In the first place are his calm self, modesty and humility, which few appreciate in a world of material value. As Group Managing Director of Dangote and other international companies and that he has controlled, now the governor of Nasarawa state elected in 20019 by the people of the state.
 Sule mostly s  bring to bear the importance of relationship as he still find time to visit his friends and colleagues which led to his friends building and completing projects in the state at their own costs. The governor has a numbing silence which troubles the sinful and sends them on the prowl on their own without the brandish of a governor warning. 

Sule’s style of silence has sent accounting officers of the 13 local government areas of the state to be on the run, has also allowed the state assembly to carry out their constitutional right to suspend two of his Senior Special Advisers, also led to the relieve of duty of the former secretary to the state government and is putting many others on their toes, especially as the probes and indictments rise. It is a style that is working and I think it is the style that will send few to madness. 

In case a governor did  not shout. Governors  never do. The employ of a media assistant or communications adviser is to ensure that the talking is done by the person responsible. When the governor is to talk he will, at the right time and place. The silence of the power-wielding is enough reason for anyone to sit up to work, without the necessarily scares.
Already he is discovering his voice in the speeches he presented so far in his typical northern, serious but shriek accent. His mind through the speeches is enough to tell the concerned what he is up to or where he is going. Already, those who like predicting leaders now know the stuff of the man drafted into an office he never expected holding many years before he got in to it. 

But the governor’s problem is in those around him and the chief Press Secretary, Ibrahim Inuwa  Adra is in for it first before anyone for the importance of his office and for the presumed confidence of the governor, and on the governor’s trust, that of all of us, in him Great governors or politicians are always pulled down by those around them. Great people can be pulled down easily today before any time by an atom or information badly conceived and given, because, remember, this is an information age. 

This Ibrahim Adra has done well so far since resuming his office as the chief press secretary of the governor on the 2nd of july 2020 in giving handouts about post executive council weekly meetings and previews to governor’s actions. But that is not, without prejudice to his assigned role, all that is his duties. Part of it is to also manage information for the governor and advise him on how or what he should or should not say and where, so that the government does not blunder now and regrets later. 

The only but serious disappointment so far which may not be Ibrahim Adra fault or the governor is the unemployment rate in the state and the catastrophes of the pensioner’s money from the local government council. Nasarawa people much as they expect the governor to take necessary actions on the mistakes did not put too much thought on employment and empowering the people of the state but much was done in infrastructural development.  

Not long afterwards the other release came in a cool stance a committee was set up by the governor to investigate the alleged 6 billion naira fraud in the local government council recently. 
A man is taken and respected for his words. When he makes them, the man dies by his words. A government of men led by a man can be anything but must not lose its honour or credibility and must be guided by the stuff of the man bearing its head good or bad. 

An apology, a public one, at whatever level, is not a shame if something genuine calls for it. But most apologies can mess a leader’s image. Its frequency can make or mar the reputation of a government and the governor heading it. The credibility of the governor and his government depends on his reputation to stand firm by his decisions and cabinet resolutions on state matters.

The government and the governor, given the circumstance, cannot afford more of indecisions. They are not healthy to the state at a time when the preoccupation of the past has a way of jumping on the present and the suture of this prematurity.

In order to make the right decision to avoid the mistakes of a leader, the governor needs to be this slow and to be himself in his own way. It is still early. We owe him both patience and fair comment. We should wait until that time if he will ask for a second term or we will ask for one for reasons of his stewardship, not his person or his interest.