Dambazau’s Bigotry

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

With people like Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, it is no wonder why the much-touted quest for positive change has remained a mirage. If Dambazau who is the Minister of Interior had ever made any pretentions to being pan-Nigerian, this façade has been exploded by the recent appointments he made in his ministry for Nigerians to comprehensively apprehend who he is: A bigot who is only beholden to the narrow interest of his tribe and religion.

*Abdulrahaman Dambazau

Dambazau attained a top rank of a lieutenant general before he retired from the military. He also served as the chief of army staff. For a person with such a breathtaking military career that was rendered possible by his country, we would have thought that he had developed a broad vision of the nation. After all, it is commonly believed that the military institution is impervious to the fissiparous tendencies in the larger society. And this is why former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Muhammadu Buhari do not brook any objection to the existence of Nigeria as one entity as long as they have a role to play in deciding the fate of the nation.

It is regrettable that Dambazau does not see his being in public office as an opportunity to serve the whole nation. He rather sees it as a means of favouring only those with whom he shares ethnic and religious affiliations. This was why when Dambazau made appointments in his ministry, he only considered those who shared his religious and ethnic ties. Brazenly, Dambazau appointed only northerners as heads of all the paramilitary agencies under his ministry. The agencies are the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), whose new Comptroller-General (CG), Mohammed Babandede, hails from Kano State, where the minister is from and the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) where Ahmed Ja’afaru of Bauchi State is the Controller-General. Before now, Abdullahi Gana from Niger State had been the head of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) while the Controller General of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) was Joseph Anebi from Benue State in the North-central. At the NIS, Dambazau opted for his preferred candidate Mohammed Babandede.