By Edward John Auta
If SOKAPU has ever been under a cabal, it was the Jonathan Asake-led cabal that micro-managed SOKAPU as its private estate and dragged it to the position of disrepute that everyone is working hard to salvage today.
But to respond to the distractions and confusion that Binniyat’s interview is intended to bring, it is important to set some of the records in Mr Binniyat’s interview straight.
To start with, Leadership is about teamwork. It is about having a vision and assembling and working with the right team that will drive it to fruition.
So, what should the delegates look at in choosing the next set of leaders of the union?
Contrary to Luka Binniyat’s position, there’s no position that is more important than the other. The vision of the founders and framers of SOKAPU and its constitution is undoubtedly to have a team of patriotic, united, visionary, qualitative and committed comrades across ethnic divides that will organise, mobilise, and unite the diverse people of the zone against the oppressive, exploitative, and marginalising tendencies of our neighbours (up north), and to pressure government at all levels to bring development to the region and her people.
Achieving these noble objectives, therefore, will require careful selection of the EXCO, planning, and teamwork. It will require having a group that will speak with one voice and work with and for each other. A group that comprises imperfect men and women that can complement each other’s weaknesses. Unfortunately, it was this simple but all-important condition that was absent in the Asake-led CEC, as it was run mainly by the president and one or two others to the exclusion of the rest, hence the monumental disappointment their tenure turned out to be. Mr Binniyat’s stance, therefore, that the most important office is that of the President or even setting some criteria may be stemming from the background of their time in office, but the new SOKAPU we hope for shouldn’t be one that is built on such faulty premises of one man showmanship. Never!
His proposition that the new President must be resident in Kaduna is also flawed. SOKAPU is not the only socio-cultural organization in Nigeria, and we have many, such as the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, who have had presidents even living outside Nigeria. In an ever globalising world, where technology has made information dissemination fluid and the need for physical contact less and less, the argument that the President or any other EXCO for that matter must be resident in Kaduna is flawed.
More so, the new leadership of SOKAPU should be one that is intellectually and system-driven. It should be one that NOTHING should stop because the president is not on seat, is sick, or indisposed. This can only happen when we have a collection of EXCO that are team players and not strong and powerful individuals.
Similarly, pressure groups are not run like formal government or private organisations that require day-to-day reporting to office. Suggesting that certain officers must be available all-time presupposes full-time employment and not the part-time engagement that a pressure group offers. What is obtainable is that pressure groups operate secretariats with full-time staff employed to manage the secretariat, correspondences, and other day-to-day needs of the office. It should be noted that there are even countries whose parliaments sit on the need basis, with the leadership and members coming from different parts to serve the nation. There are already such calls for the same in Nigeria, and SOKAPU has been a leading example of the same over the years, with a proven record of success.
Notwithstanding, a cursory look at the records of the two leading candidates for the office of the president of the Union, it is clear that both of them do not reside in Kaduna Town. And while one lives in Zaria with his family and works in Yobe, the other lives and does his business in Abuja and the Southwest, but only owns a property in Kaduna Town, where he stays any time he’s around. Going by Binniyat’s proposition, therefore, the two are not suitable for the position of the president and, thus, expose the weaknesses in his argument.
On the criteria of non-government employment status of the candidates, Binniyat’s argument is also very weak. SOKAPU should not be reduced to a militant organisation whose job is to confront the government. Rather, it should be seen as a vehicle for the aggregation of our collective needs and the constructive engagement with the government and other relevant stakeholders to get them over the line.
Our dear and esteemed delegates must, therefore, open their eyes to the realities of where we are coming from and where we are going. The combative and one man show that has characterised the immediate past leadership and dragged the union to its lowest ebb in history must be avoided at all costs. They owe the Southern Kaduna people a choice that will lay a very strong foundation for collaboration with government, security, and development partners, and ultimately restore the trust and confidence of the people in the union.
In this regard, I will add that the delegates owe us a Samuel Achi as the next President of SOKAPU.
~ Edward John Auta, a Historian and Public Affairs Analyst, writes from Narom Village, Zonkwa, Ward, Zango, Kaduna State.
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