Bala/Ganduje and the Cowardly Counter of a Comic
As a blood pressure patient, I have special love for the comics, because they often help me laugh to low blood pressure. So whenever I meet them, or something comical comes my way, I use it to the fullest, sometimes to an overdose.
Pursuant to my article captioned, BASHIR’S BURIAL: AGAIN GANDUJE’S GOVERNMENT GOOFED, a rejoinder emerged from one Mahmoud Sani Adam, a freelance journalist from Abuja, captioned, “Bala at it again”.
The author accused Bala Ibrahim of hatred for Ganduje and professional incompetence. I posted the article on my Facebook page and circulated same on my blog. The intention is to give it as much publicity as was given to my article. And I allowed it to run overnight .
Indeed it attracted a lot of responses, some of which came to me as private inbox. Some of the suggestions coincided with my initial instinct, that the writer does not deserve the glorification of a response, but on a second thought, and out of professional respect to a “claimed” colleague, alongside the comments of two people particularly, I had a change of mind.
One of the comments asked in Hausa, “Wannan kuma waye shi a journalism?, or, who is this one in journalism? And the other one said, “Can I say the writer is contracted as a consultant by KNSG to respond; and so it’s a case of ‘tit-for-tat’?
The first person is oblivious of the author of the article, while the second believes in his existence and even gave him the title of a consultant that was engaged by the government to manage the image of Governor Ganduje, which he believes I was also engaged by someone to damage.
I felt challenged by the comments of the two, that’s why I picked them out of the many comments that seem more like a referendum on Ganduje’s Government and the competence, or lack of it, of his image makers. Different comments came: the good, the bad and the unpalatable.
Mahmud Sani Adam said Bala Ibrahim is a Media consultant and former staff of the BBC Hausa, which means he knows him. But when I carried out a search on Google for freelance journalists, Mahmud Sani Adam, as presented by the one who signed the rejoinder, the result came out negative. The only name close to that is Sani Adam, who is said to be a journalist based in Maiduguri, Nigeria.
So it’s either Mahmud Sani Adam is lying about his name and location of response, or he is the creation of the poor promoters of Governor Ganduje. In which case he is the lover of Ganduje that is non existent. A clear case of incompetent and cowardly counter by someone that is not proud of his identity.
In journalism, the use of pen name is allowed, but in the use of journalism to market or defend a person or a product, using pen name is akin to the show of scepticism, with regards the quality of the product or the credibility of the person. If you believe in something or someone, you would be proud to identify yourself with it or him. You would want to show your face or use your name in support of the person or product. Anything to the contrary is deceit to the principal or producer of the product. And it’s an act of cowardice.
The logical explanation that could be deduced is that Ganduje is being hated by identified and verifiable people like Bala Ibrahim, and being loved by fake and unverifiable people like Mahmud Sani Adam. An advanced interpretation can also come to say that the combination of Governor Ganduje and his promoters are so poor that they sit on a common denominator-incompetence.
I don’t want to believe the governor is short of competent marketers and promoters, because at least I know one of his image makers that I think is professionally polished enough not to go for such a gaffe. But I don’t know why he refused to rise to the occasion by ‘chesting’ out. Doesn’t he believe in the governor enough or is he also amongst the ghost lovers?
On Bashir’s burial, ghost Mahmud said and I quote, “After all, as I learnt, the governor is out of town for quite some times now. If Bala cares to find out, a delegation of the state government has been there during the funeral rites…”
It may interest Mahmud the ghost to know that Bala Ibrahim was at the burial of late Bashir Othman Tofa in person. He witnessed almost everything, including the permissible brief visit at the palace of the deceased. What Bala didn’t see was the position of the said government delegation at the funeral. They were visibly absent, and any one that said something different is acting as a condemnable comic.
I really want to see the elongation of this discourse, particularly now that Kano is going into the critical phase of choosing the next person that would pilot the affairs of the state.
There are many issues to bring forward in order to assess the performance or non performance of the Governor and the Government, including the pathetic plight of the state’s pensioners, who seem to be on an unprovoked punishment in the hands of Governor Ganduje.
Share your views on the piece with OnlineNews in the comments section below.
