Ahmed Yahaya – Joe
It is no longer news that Hadiza Bala Usman has been thrown under the bus. Her suspension as the helm’s woman at NPA is to allow investigation into allegations against her be carried out unfettered.
What however is at play is perhaps more complex and multidimensional. My take is that her supervising minister, Rotimi Ameachi is fighting a political proxy war against her political mentor, Nasir el Rufai. The role of the Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemisola Saraki in the saga remains unclear. That notwithstanding the alleged crime scene is replete with 2023 fingerprints.
Born in 1976, she represents a generational paradigm shift. If there is ever a prominent lady from the core North to play a future political role in Nigeria, it is Hadiza. The stakes are therefore high.
She contested and lost the Mutazu/Musawa Federal Constituency seat in 2011 under the banner of the now rested CPC;
“Her great grandfather, Abdullahi Bayero (father to her paternal grandmother), was the 10th Emir of Kano from 1926 to 1953, her paternal grand father was the Durbin Katsina and her grand uncle was Usman Nagogo, the Emir of Katsina.”
All her working career since her graduation in 2000, she has been under the tutelage of Governor El-rufai, first at BPE subsequently at FCT and eventually becoming his Chief of Staff in 2015 before her present assignment at his behest.
The other mentee of the governor at the federal level is Zainab Ahmed, the current Finance Minister.
Perhaps out of political expediency, Hadiza has distanced herself from the BringBackOurGirls advocacy she co-founded during the twilight of the Jonathan era.
Her radicalism is therefore not as indepth as that of her late father, the indomitable Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman. Understandably.
While some say her official clash with Atiku Abubakar’s INTELS was patriotic, others claim it was opportunistic. Whatever it is, in Nigeria there is always one way or the other collateral damage.
Hadiza, a scion of the Sullubawa is used to stepping through political minefields.
The father of her two boys Tanimu Kurfi, Economic Adviser to President Umar Yar’adua and a prominent member of the then inner circle was a political victim of her mentor that played a crucial propaganda role that helped in facilitating Jonathan being Acting President, when Nasir openly put it, “There was no cabal, we created the myth in the media to neutralize Turai.”
See details in page 272 of Power, Politics & Power: A Front-row Account of Nigeria Under the Late President Yar’adua (2011) by Olusegun Adeniyi
I hope Amaechi would survive the Arewa blowback.
Film just dey start.
