President-Elect Buhari, Be Wary of Yuguda

Yuguda who was one of the founding members of the PDP in Bauchi State backed the present National Chairman of the party, Ahmadu Mu’azu for governorship and struck an agreement with the governor that he will succeed him at the end of eight years. In the meantime, Yuguda became a minister in the Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration for six years.However, when it became time for Mu’azu to honour his own end of the agreement, he reneged on it and frustrated Yuguda’s ambitions, and instead making his Secretary to the State Government, Nadada Umar the candidate. Yuguda moved to ANPP and the combined force of the popularity of the ANPP presidential candidate then and now president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari and the sympathy Bauchi people had for him over his treatment by Mu’azu, he coasted to victory.

But before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’, Yuguda had gone back into the PDP, even ingratiating himself with the family of late President Umaru Yar’adua to the point that he married the president’s daughter in what was clearly a political alliance being forged. At a point, he was named as one of those that the then First Lady, Turai Yar’adua wanted to succeed her husband when it seemed inevitable that he was going to pass away, the other person being another presidential son-in-law, the outgoing governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema.

One would have thought that this alone would have put him in the bad books of then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan when he became president, having been relegated by Turai Yar’adua and the cabal that held the late president hostage. But again, Yuguda showed his adroitness in the manner he became close to President Jonathan, first delivering the state to him during the PDP primaries and backing his decisions such as supporting the ‘election’ of Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

Even though the PDP lost at the federal level and in Bauchi State with Yuguda missing in his attempt to ‘retire’ to the Senate, it will be foolhardy for anyone to write him off politically. It will not be surprising if he weaves his way into the good graces of the APC at the federal level; after all, rumours are rife that the governor-elect of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar was propped up by him, despite the fact that he is in APC.

But why should the president-elect be wary of Yuguda?

For starters, despite the fact that he has been in government as minister and governor for a combined 14 years, one is hard-pressed to point to any tangible achievement of his. His eight years as the Bauchi State governor was a failure as he was unable to build on the foundations laid by his predecessor, especially in terms of infrastructural development. Instead, the citizens of the state were left poorer than when he came into office. simply put, Yuguda has nothing to offer and has been selling Nigerians a dummy for far too long, and Nigeria cannot afford this anymore.

Even worse, his tenure has been filled with allegations of financial impropriety – from inflated contracts such as the construction of the Bauchi International Airport to excessive withdrawals from state government accounts of up to N1billion daily at a time, so much that the state has been unable to pay salaries for a few months now.

Persons like Yuguda ought to be on the list of politically exposed persons to be investigated and tried for corruption, and knowing how serious the president-elect is about corruption, associating with Yuguda will tarnish his pristine image.

Lastly, as a man who values loyalty highly, president-elect Buhari should be very wary of Yuguda who has no idea what the word ‘loyalty’ means. There is no greater evidence of that more than how he shifts his allegiances from party to party, and from person to person – as long as it served his interests. A man with such shifting loyalty cannot be trusted.

We do hope that the President-elect is listening.