Pauline Tallen Again

Pauline Tallen. Source:https://dailypost.ng

After my daughter was born, I would lift her, bounce her and joke that she will achieve what Pauline Tallen could not achieve. That was my wish for my daughter. Just about two weeks after my daughter was born, Tallen’s name appeared again in the ministerial list submitted to the National Assembly by President Mohammadu Buhari. I freaked; it seemed Tallen was not done lifting the hurdle and, it may end up becoming too high for my daughter. 

Pauline Tallen is unarguably the most politically prosperous woman in the political past and present in Plateau State, where she hells from and, perhaps, the whole of northern Nigeria, in recent times. She seems to be the phoenix of Nigeria politics that will always rise from her ashes to start a new life. Even among men, there are only a few with this political stamina in contemporary Nigerian politics.  

After an obscure political life at the grass-roots, Tallen became a junior minister in the Ministry of Science and Technology, during the Obasanjo Administration, lasting up till 2007, when Jonah Jang became the Governor of Plateau State and made her his Deputy. It is one of a few such cases across the length and breadth of the country.  As the end of the Jang’s first tenure neared, though, the duo fell apart, with Jang accusing her of being dangerously ambitious. She moved to a rival political party and contested against him in the 2011 Plateau State Gubernatorial Elections. She lost. She, however, made a huge imprint by defeating her ex-boss in Jos North, a locality where Plateau’s political energy is most spent.

Tallen spent the four years that followed in quietness, plausibly waiting for the right moment. With the onset of the Buhari Administration, she found that moment. She was often seen in the delegation of First Lady, Aisha Buhari. 

While Nigerians waited for the promises of President Buhari to mature, the younger, politically naïve First Lady shocked Nigerians by openly criticizing her husband for failing to include, in his cabinet, Nigerians who actually worked for his election. The President in his frustration condemned his wife’s comment and claimed that, “she belonged in the kitchen, the sitting room and the ‘other room’.” For Nigerians who see below the surface, there was a strong feeling that political veterans like Tallen actually pushed the First Lady to openly criticize her spouse and were actually turning the administration’s door knob so they can get in. 

It did not take long before President Buhari submitted Tallen’s name to be screened for a diplomatic role in his government. It was ill-timed, happening when her husband was hospitalized.  She told newsmen that her only option was to give up the role, since it required her to travel abroad. She made it clear that, should her husband get well, she would take any position President Buhari was willing to offer her, even if it were the position with the modesty of a street cleaner. She ended up with a double heartbreak: missing the job and losing her husband. 

By the time she finished mourning her husband, her metaphorical street-cleaner job came when she was made a member of the governing board of Nigerian AIDS Control Agency, in addition to her membership in the ruling party’s board of trustees.  

During the 2019 General Elections, Tallen returned home, contesting and losing the senatorial seat of Plateau-South constituency to Ignatius Longjan, her successor as Deputy Governor. Unbowed, she went to Abuja to meet with her powerful political friends, resulting in her name appearing in the new ministerial list of the Buhari Administration.  

Critics aren’t pleased. They criticised the administration in Abuja for nepotism, preferring to give cabinet positions to friends rather than resting its decision on merit. They claim she is part of the dirty history of the last two decades of Nigeria’s political journey and that it is indicative of the ineptitude and hypocrisy of the Buhari Administration, which promises accelerated prosperity to Nigerians. President Buhari had, after being sworn for his second tenure of four years, regretted working with people he had “hardly known” during his first tenure. This is an indication that Tallen is someone he had known and proof, critics say, of his government’s nepotism and incompetence. 

In part, the success of Tallen’s adaptation rests on her use of political parties like bread wraps, often thrown away after the bread has been eaten.

We congratulate Tallen on her new role and hope that, rather than just sitting in the boat and enjoying the cruise, she will be seen tirelessly carrying the oar and pushing the boat ahead.

In the Eyes of Dr. Nura Alkali

How ironic that, today, it is the Fulani who lack leaders to guide them and pursue their interests through legal ways. Please, do’n’t mention “Miyetti Allah”, which is a cattle-breeders’ association. I have never owned a cow in my life, and I don’t intend to, meaning I have no business with Miyetti Allah. (“Mi Yetti Allah” means “I thank God” in Fulfulde. I’m referring to the group here, not the literal meaning).

Miyetti Allah claims to represent the Cattle Fulani who live as nomads. That is their opinion. In my opinion, it is the blind leading the blind. Only the blind will insist on living a 17th century life in 2018. 50 years ago, humans conquered space to land on the moon. Others decoded DNA, which advanced the science of animal breeding to levels never before imagined in history. But we still have people pursuing an impossible nomadic lifestyle to raise cattle.

Please, when you travel from Bauchi to Yola, look on both sides of the road during your journey. All you will see are farmlands up to the horizon. The few vacant spots are the rocky hills around the Gombe-Adamawa border, and between Dindima and Kangere, near Bauchi. Farmers avoid them because plants won’t grow there, meaning cattle too cannot graze. And no doubt, beyond the horizon are villages and more farmlands.

Keep in mind that Adamawa and Bauchi are among Nigeria’s largest states. Toro LGA in Bauchi State (6,932 Sq. Km) is larger than each SE state except Enugu (7,161 Sq. Km). The whole of Ebonyi State (5,533 Sq. Km) – which welcomes the proposed cattle ranches – boasts of only 80% of the land area of Toro LGA. And Ebonyi is now in the news for a deadly fight over farmlands with a community in neighbouring Cross-River State. So, is a cattle ranch more viable in Toro or in Ebonyi?
It is northern states that have land for cattle ranches, which by their nature, have enough grass and water all year round – thus removing the need for a herdsman from Jigawa or Sokoto journeying to Ebonyi and Delta states in the dry season in search of pasture. So, why a cattle ranch in Ebonyi, unless Igbos also want to raise cattle? This is what I’m talking about. Beside being blind, Miyetti Allah also thrives on conflicts.

In any case, Town Fulanis like me are in limbo. “Tabital Pulaaku” is solely about Fulani culture, unlike “Afenifere” and “Eze Ndi Igbo” that champion Yoruba and Igbo causes. For the Fulanis, neither the Sultan of Sokoto (who heads JNI) nor the Lamido of Adamawa (who heads Tabital Pulaaku) is an overall Fulani leader; nor indeed, any group.

Sadly, a group of riff-raffs called Miyetti Allah are now mistaken as Fulani leaders.

 

Dr. Nura Alkali is of Fulani ethnicity and a physician at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Kaduna State, Nigeria.           

Niches in the Things We Do

We should have niches in the things we do

My patriotism has a boundary. When I bought a DSTV decoder, it wasn’t because I needed one as such. It was rather because local radios and television channels were failing me. While the program standards were crashing, I stayed on, hoping they would pick up, some day. But rather than pick up, standards continued to crash until I started doubting if there would be a turn in the positive direction at all. 

By what we are writing here, we don’t mean to disrespect anybody. What we are writing is just meant to bring attention to a room for perfection that has come to our notice.  We want our city to grow, building an excellent culture of high standards, thereby making us confident and helping to wade off derision and scorn.

This morning, there was no electricity to power my Multi-Choice decoder. Hence, I turned to a battery-powered FM radio receiver, listening to a comedy show, Comedy Kings, on local radio. The guys anchoring the show are highly talented. But as it is often said, more heads are better than one, and a few trees cannot make a forest. On the Comedy Kings, I still see a constant problem: the absence of niches. 

The disregard for the need for niches is costing us a lot, including a rush to foreign channels and the money we lose to the foreigners who own the foreign channels. A niche is something that is a most, if your brand must compete and stand out. So, what is a niche? A niche is the quality of distinction or uniqueness in what you do, be it music, comedy, movie-making, broadcasting, etc. 

I will try to give an example of how a comedian can create a niche for himself. Since the mimicry of accents is one way comedians create humour in Nigeria, I will like to use that as an example. So, one way you can create a little niche for yourself as a comedian is by mimicking the weird accent of someone important a big tribe. A lot of comedians build their humour in this way. However, most are not consistent. He mimics Hausas now. The next minute, he mimics Igbos. In one show he mimicks a dozen accents. It means that he is unaware there is the need for him to be consistent. It the end, it would mean that he has no niche. A second way one can create a niche is by specializing on a subject. He could, for instance, specialize on discussing issues of corruption and nothing else. Such a comedian should be interested in issues of corruption to build an extensive knowledge on the topic. Eventually, he not only builds himself but the society at large.  

When the first radio station was established in Jos, it had to cover everything: news, music, educational programs, agricultural programs, etc. it was the only radio station at the time. Now, that radio stations in the city are growing in their numbers, it is expected that they begin to carve out niches for themselves. Sadly, each time a new station comes up, it replicates almost exactly the programs of the pioneer station. As we see on international channels, TVs and radio stations create niches to stand out, be they CNN, BBC, BET, SKYPORTS, etc. Hence, there should be religious, agricultural, tribal, musical, news TV and radio channels, just to name a few.  

It is important to note that creating niches is not something huge and unrealistic that should scare people. It is as simple as it sounds. All it involves is observing successful brands and watching to understand what they relied on while carving out niches.  Creating a niche is a basic consideration in everything of high standard that humans do. It shouldn’t be different here in Jos. The only other option is to stagger in chaos, failing to take benefit of our full potential in the things we do.