About ten years ago, young and aspiring lawyers would have heard the name Aminu Gamawa, a lawyer of northern extraction who was cutting his teeth in academia and establishing himself as a soon-to-be star in policy development. Many of those around him saw him as an anti-corruption advocate with a penchant for honesty, truth, and facts.
Today, all those honors and accolades have been dropped by Dr. Aminu Gamawa into the bin for cheap Naira. Dr. Gamawa, a once highly sought-after young legal luminary, has now sold his character, dignity, and integrity for loyalty to the purse of Bauchi State.
I was ashamed of him when I read his rather watery and dodgy response to Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, defending allegations against his boss, Bala Mohammed. The Aminu Gamawa of ten years ago would never have taken such a position. That man, then a fan of anti-corruption czars, took the ideals of puritanical decency seriously. Today, he is slaving to his boss and forgetting the credo he once stood for. It is a shame.
Indeed, I perfectly understand that Bala Mohammed is his boss, and it is only fair that he would stand by him. But again, I ask does he not have an iota of shame?
In his shameful treatise, Aminu Gamawa talked about his party winning elections, he forgets that his boss did not win the 2023 gubernatorial election in Gamawa? He has not asked himself that perhaps it is because of people like him who were not adding value to people lives that his boss could not win in Gamawa? By the way, I must put it on record that the APC won the House of Representatives seat and the State Assembly and only one State Assembly seat for PDD in Gamawa.
Coming back home, the flood disaster of 2024 that devastated the Gamawa Local Government is a pointer to the kind of leadership and representation people like Aminu Gamawa offer in Bala Mohammed’s Government in Bauchi State. As a son of this constituency did you even visit to commiserate with the people? What about palliatives and other measures to resettle and cushion the effect of that monumental disaster? At least the Minister and members House of Representatives visited and offered various kinds of relief.
We remember vividly all those pictures of dilapidated classrooms in Bauchi State you used to show us on Facebook, depicting the rot that you said the state had become. Are they not there anymore? Has anything changed since then?
There is also the issue of the grazing reserve allocation to Tiamin Rice which cannot just be defended. Firstly, the rice mill is located in Bauchi almost 250km away as if there is no available land in Bauchi South? What kind of business sense is this? Is it because we don’t have a voice in your Government because of people like you?
Tiamin Rice will never use this land for the intended purpose; you and I know that the certificate would likely be used for other purposes.
As a right-thinking lawyer shouldn’t these cases of land grab and its security implications for Gamawa, considering the farmers-herders clashes all over the country not be of concern to you? But Dr. Aminu Gamawa has lost his sense of shame and moral clarity. Dr. Aminu Gamawa must remember where he is coming from. He must remember that this political office, which he has chosen to stain his garment with, will come to an end very soon; but the dirt and impurities that he has soiled himself with will never leave him.
He has become an object of shame to those who know his history of decency.
Dr. Aminu Gamawa, in his response to Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, talked about the Governor’s transformational leadership. I am still looking for what Dr. Gamawa is referring to as transformational in Bauchi State. Just take a census of primary school teachers in any Local Government in the state. Or is it the lack of infrastructure across the length and breadth of Bauchi?
In fact, it smacks of irresponsibility and the height of disrespect that Aminu Gamawa would pen a shambolic response to Ambassador Tuggar, who is not his equal in any measure. His position as a mere Chief of Staff to a Governor has so gotten into his head that he has forgotten where he is. Where was he in 2007 when Ambassador Tuggar was a Member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives.
Again, I must remind Aminu Gamawa that this cheap role he has taken on is transient. The best he may get out of it is easy money. But he will pay the price by having no integrity or honor to fall back on when Bala Mohammed’s tenure comes to an end.
Ibrahim Adamu Gamawa is the Special Assistant to Hon. Adamu Gamawa Member representing Gamawa Federal Constituency at the National Assembly.
