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Ahmed Gulak |
By Theophilus Ilevbare
Think of been used and dumped, the
case of former adviser on political matters to President Goodluck Jonathan,
Ahmed Gulak, comes to mind. The Barrister’s unguarded statements and unruly behavior
have turned him to a liability capable of causing collateral damage to the
president and his political ambition. He created unnecessary enemies for his
principal. Some staunch loyalists of Mr President have at some point expressed
concern that he might have been a fifth columnist, planted in Jonathan’s
government to play a script of unseen hands.
The former Adamawa state House of
Assembly Speaker, tried in vain to spin his mortifying dismissal from the
presidency as a honourable resignation to pursue apolitical ambition in his
state.
If some of the vile comments
credited to Ahmed Gulak were vituperations from Asari Dokubo, one would
understand but not from a political adviser to the President. His opinion on politics
are taken as the official position of the president on such issues. That was
how weighty his statements were as the president’s mouth piece.
The quest for cheap popularity
and vain glory or over zealousness if you want to be nice to him, has become his
undoing. What now happens to his chest thumping like a schoolboy, a promise to
take a bullet for President Jonathan? Now that he has shot himself in the foot
by consistently talking before thinking, one wonders what will become of his
political career as he leaves the presidency. Hewill return to face a lot of persons
he has hurled insults at and you can be sure they’ll reward him in his own
coin, politically.
Apparently, of all his reckless
and peevish remarks, the one that stands him out is the position he took
onbehalf of President Jonathan in the aftermath of Governor Amaechi’s emergence
as Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) chairman.
“As far as the President is concerned,” said
Gulak,“Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state is the Chairman of the Nigerian
Governor’s Forum and not Governor Amaechi.”
Gulak had made a choice for the president of the federal republic of
Nigeria, a public disclosure, declaring Gov Jang, the loser of a credible
election with only 16 votes, as the winner, while Gov Amaechi, who polled 19, became
the loser. Here was the president endorsing illegality by the unguarded remarks
of his aide.
As Gulak’s irascible disposition
has shown, the baggage Jonathan carries along in some aides like Doyin Okupe,
Labaran Maku, Reno Omokri and Reuben Abati, who see every attack on the
president as an opportunity to “open fire”, often times, bring the office of
the President to disrepute.
Maybe the scales has fallen off
the President’s eyes, maybe he felt Gulak has been manipulating him all the
while.Mr Gulak’s job description revolves around polishing the image of the
president in matters political but he chose instead to abuse anyone that
expresses positive but dissenting opinion.
Some
months back, there was this speculative report in newspapers that Obasanjo had
dumped Jonathan, and that the former president was equally considering quitting
the PDP. Ahmed Gulak, was asked
to speak on behalf of his principal who will all know is Obasanjo’s protégé.
He pulled the
trigger: “I will like to say with all sense of responsibility
that Nigerians should not make God out of Obasanjo. Obasanjo is not God, and it
is only God that gives a person power, it is only God that can say Mr A, you
will be president, and it will come to pass. No human being can play God.”One
would have expected a more circumspect response since the reports were merely
speculative, but not with Gulak.
With
such a vacuous comment, he pitched the President with Obasanjo. Agreed, no
human being can play God but we were witnesses to how Obasanjo almost
single handedly ensured Jonathan progressed politically from deputy governor in
Bayelsa state to President elect.
“Obasanjo
was part of the system from 1976 to 1979, and then from 1999 to 2007. Obasanjo
should play the role of a father figure, to advise and not to keep poke-nosing
into the affairs of the nation, to choose people who should run and who should
not.” That was Gulak as his bellicose
best again, slamming the Ota farmer for purportedly endorsing (according to
unsubstantiated newspaper reports, again) Governors Sule Lamido and
Rotimi Amaechi as presidential and vice-presidential
candidates, respectively, of the PDP in 2015.Truth is, Obasanjo is part
of the leadership crisis in the country today, but such remarks should not come
from Jonathan’s aide.
Of Dr Junaid Mohammed, Gulak
had said he suffers from “diarrhoea of the mouth,” adding that the man “enjoys
sitting in his comfort zone and criticizing.” A case of pot calling kettle
black.
Still smarting from
his heroics of hurling insults, it was time for former Minister of the Federal
Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, an opposition politician, to take his
share of Gulak’ssmear. He described El-Rufai as “the
most disappointing young man in the country.”
Not showing any signs
of slowing down in the business of gathering enemies for his boss, he took on
another role as Special Adviser in Imo as he commented onGov Rochas Okorocha’s reluctance to comply with a
court judgement on the tenure of local government chairmen. He garrulously
reacted: “What Okorocha has done is illegal and unconstitutional, and where
democracy thrives, these are acts that are impeachable. It is just unfortunate
that the members of the Imo State House of Assembly have not taken up the
matter.”
In that swagger –
reminiscent of talented musicians who just hit the spotlight - of an arrogant and
unruly presidential aide, he took a swipe at the National Assembly when a stand-off ensued over Budget 2013. According to
him, “you cannot rule out 2015 because what I always say, and I keep on saying
is that, people should not use their ambition to jettison national issues.” He
said National Assembly members should be blamed for poor budget implementation
through delayed passage of the Appropriation Bill, and even added that the
lawmakers had problem with understanding the budget, because a lot of them were
illiterates. That Gulak was described as a fifth columnist in Jonathan’s
government by a taciturn Senate President, David Mark, was an indication that he
hit the members of the Red chamber below the belt.
Another
aide of the President would have none of this. Mrs Joy Emodi (though, like
Gulak, she has been sacked), Special Adviser to the President on National
Assembly, quickly distanced Mr President from the controversial lawyer turned
politician: “Let me state categorically that the alleged statements neither
reflect the views of the President on the National Assembly, nor the enormous
respect he has for the institution. In other words, those to whom the statements
were credited were on their own, and never spoke the mind of the president.”
Deputy
Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, had delivered the Second Zik Annual Lecture
Series in Awka, Anambra State, where he stressed that 21st Century Nigeria
needed knowledgeable leadership at all levels. He submitted that some parts of
the South-East should always send their very best in the mould of Dr Nnamdi
Azikiwe to the National Assembly (NASS), given the abundance of intellectuals
in the states. Gulak did not waste time in twisting Ekweremadu’s speech: “The
Deputy Senate President said some legislators could barely write their names.
He said so. Go and read it. He said so, I did not say it. So, if most of them
can barely write their names, then how will they understand the intricacies of
budget? I did not say it. It is the Deputy Senate President that said it, and
he really said it.
So it means the National Assembly has a long way to go.” Gulak
in his disingenuity, spinned Ekweremadu’s comment as all NASS members from around
the country are illiterates.
Ekweremadu’s
aide in a swift reply released a statement that summarised Gulak’s tenure as
political adviser to President Jonathan; Gulak is “either oblivious of his job
schedule or lacking the competence to undertake it.”
(Ilevbare is a
public affairs commentator. Engage him on twitter, @tilevbare. He blogs at
http://ilevbare.com.)
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