Former Commissioner for Information in Borno state, Inuwa Bwala in this interview with DailyPost reveals the story of an alleged plot to denigrate Ali Modu Sheriff, by linking him with Boko Haram. Maina Maina sent in exercept:
You have rarely spoken since your unceremonious exit as Commissioner recently. How is life outside office?
Laughs…As you may be aware, I have been in and out of political office since 2001 .Getting into or leaving office is not a new thing to me. Above this, I have an attitude to public office by always getting prepared to leave the moment I get appointed into it. I foresaw my sack long before it came, and was prepared for it. It may sound denigrating the way it was announced, as if I committed one heinous offence, but those who knew what was going on will agree with me that the word ‘sack’ was even mild, as they could have used harsher words to announce my exit. I have since put that behind me and I am pursuing other endeavors. As you can see, I look even fresher than when I was in office and I give God the glory.
When you handed over, you were reported to have said you nursed no ill wills, but recently you were involved in altercations with officials of the state government, what went wrong?
I have restrained myself from doing certain things or saying some things. Even though, I think I have been sufficiently provoked, I know it is a great disservice to this country and to Borno state for some of us to continue keeping quiet when we know we ought to be spilling the beans, so to say. I know enough about the state, the government and individual characters in government to write volumes and at the appropriate time. Some of us will answer our names for certain things that went wrong under our watchful eyes. They talk about a newspaper I founded, alleging that I have been using it to expose certain things. The question is not about using my medium to reveal issues, I think we should be talking about whether the things reported were true or not. I will not deny NationalTRAIL as my own newspaper and I do not need anybody to tell me its editorial direction. Those who own newspapers and do not use it to advance their interests either do not know what they wanted or under estimate the powers of the media. If the paper is in a position to obtain reports that are in overbidding public interest when reported, so be it.
What is happening between your two former bosses, Ali Modu Sheriff and Kashim Shettima?
I don’t think you have the space to capture the full story, but in a nutshell, I think Governor Shettima is being ungrateful, and most uncharitable to his mentor and political godfather, Ali Modu Sheriff. In his seeming desperation for a second term, he felt he needed to build his political machinery, and in doing so, he has to poach from Sheriff. In poaching, he feels his benefactor must first test the dust. He surrounded himself with cheer mongers who urged him on to fight his boss and the rest is now history.Some of us have tried making peace between them in the past, but like the pig, Shettima goes back to the mud and attempts to undo his boss. From the start, he always made us understand that having left Government, Sheriff was on his own, and those of us who served under him do not owe him any further loyalty or service. He gave me the impression that with the resources available to Government, we can join forces against Ali Sheriff and push him into political oblivion. At every point, Kashim Shettima was planning to rubbish his benefactor. He started lavishing money on people, forgetting that politics transcends money.I cannot remember one incident at which sheriff showed signs of fighting back.
What specific things did Shettima do that showed he was fighting his boss?
From the early days of Governor Shettima’s administration, there have been plans to destroy Sheriff. This is evident from Shettima’s romance with people who are believed to have one axe or the other to grind Sheriff in his government. He recruited habitual mischief makers to man strategic interests in Government. I can give you two instances that affect me directly and you will understand what I am saying. Governor Shettima personally called me and told me that I should never defend Ali Sheriff in the media any time he was attacked, especially on allegations linking him with Boko Haram. He mentioned it that he expected me to rather coordinate media propaganda, defending his own positions, outside the normal schedules and N10 million was provided initially for some time and later stopped when I showed signs of reluctance. Several attempts have been made to convince me that I will be better off if I join the forces against Sheriff. Unfortunately, the only issue they said we would use against Sheriff was to orchestrate his alleged connection with Boko Haram. But then, I knew, just like everyone of us in Government knew that Sheriff had nothing to do with Boko Haram. I find it conflicting for the Governor to say Boko Haram started more than 25 years ago, long before Sheriff became governor, only to go behind and push us to link the man as the initiator of the Boko Haram. In a rather curious development, provisions for funds were made for the office of the S A Media in the 2014 budget to the tune of N200 million, ostensibly for this job that I refused to allow my Ministry’s votes to be charged for. I am aware of two senior Military Officers working in Maiduguri whom I was to work with in trying to implicate Sheriff, by the plans. I will not mention their names, but the Army authorities know them. They were to provide a security alibi, under which we were to anchor the campaigns against Sheriff. With the funds available now outside the statutory convention where the S A Media now withdraws directly without any legal vote and with me effectively out of the way, the stage seems set to continue with that plan. I was not surprised when I started seeing some advertorials with contents similar to what we were to use. From all indications, the plans to denigrate Senator Ali Modu Sheriff by linking him with Boko Haram is still on.
What is your advice on this ongoing blame game about Boko Haram?
Like I said earlier, I think there is a deliberate ploy to divert attention from the real issues at stake and from the real culprits in the Boko Haram saga. By always trying to point fingers, even when we know such may not be true, we are unnecessarily denigrating those who worked to address the issue. Look at this document, read through, it is a security report on the matter and itcompletely exonerates Sheriff from the blames. He is more a victim than a sponsor. His own blood brother was killed, not less than ten of his very close associates including the gubernatorialcandidate he produced and his likely successor have been killed. I think The Army needs to insulate its personnel from being compromised, as the two officers I told you about are being compromised. On our part, as stakeholders we must stop politicizing this very delicate matter. I am sure the moves to batter Ali Sheriff have more to do with politics than with finding solutions to the problem.
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