Placing Adamu Adamu on moral scale

Written by John Danfulani

We are still recovering from a horrifying dust of shame manufactured by a moral precision guided cruise professionally launched by Mustapha Chaji on the reputation of always pontificating man of double-barrel name Adamu Adamu, a Friday columnist with Daily Trust. The ‘prolific writer’ pretended that Chaji’s cruise was off target; therefore he never suffered any moral damage to his reputation. We think otherwise. The hobbyhorse defective showing in his usual season series further exposed the Pharisee and hidden dictatorial credentials in the Azare-born man. Malam Adamu’s hobbled rejoinder was a manifestation of his unfortunate inability to swallow the bitter pills of criticism he has mastered and become a consultant in administering to people for the past two decades.

Malam Adamu Adamu is a veteran pen warrior of over two decades standing, who has shuttled in and out public and private media outlets, some of them still in circulation and others have since been laid to rest. In his preferred vocation of penning, the old pen-horse is an all-rounder who dabbles in all issues under the sun, irrespective of his Lilliputian status on the matter(s) in focused. Those who make time following the Friday rabble-rouser may recall reading him on multifaceted issues like; Arab-Israeli squabbles, his titanic religious debates with Dr. Gumi, his many-series reaction to Asari Dokubo, upside down inside out, Country where everything goes et al. If one will make time and flip through his entire articles one will most likely stumble on his write-ups disagreeing with medical doctors on how to transplant a heart, or arguing with an astronaut on which jacket to wear while on the moon; issues clearly beyond his intellectual and mental capacities. Throughout afore-listed pieces and many others dating back to his nursery years in the profession, the economist turned newsman has always assumed to be an all knowing genius, holier-than-thou, and infallible. Nobody can remember reading him retracting, correcting or even apologising to anybody throughout his journalistic career, behaving like an Engel among mortals.

We were in Nigeria when St Adamu of Azare jerked His Excellency Adamu Muazu and his government by the neck to suffocation and politically murdered it. He painted Muazu blacker than Lucifer and the worst thing that ever happened in Bauchi state. Many erroneously thought the character annihilator was on his long perceived critical assessment of his state government. Some of us knew, beyond his below-the-belt kicks is the reality; it was the voice of Jacob but the hand of Esau. Divine wisdom was not compulsory to knowing that he was Man Friday holding a gallon of corrosive acid on a character demolishing errand. The saying that you can fool people sometimes but not all times is fully playing in the life of Malam Adamu. The goddesses of deceit must have abandoned him in the middle of the game hence this unexpected but timely exposition from Chaji.

In his long nurtured crass arrogance and journalistic pomposity, Adamu deliberately tried to show that Chaji’s masterpiece was not worth his busy attention in this word ‘in past my attitude even to reasonable rejoinders to my columns had been to accept but ignore’, that his wish-washy and morally barren rebuttals were instigated by pressure from other quarters. Hear him again ‘some of the issues raised don’t make sense at all they were pure fabrications and involved lies’ If big moral questions advanced by Chaji are not worth attracting clarification(s) from a man who has lived his life crusading morality, what else is worth his attention? In his tactless damage control measure, Adamu stumbled down the moral high ground to the valley of legalities by mischievously questioning whether a columnist is legally bound to comment on matters associated with his state of origin. This poser was bluntly rhetorical and he should be the least pretender of not knowing the right answer to his senseless question.

It is morally correct to smell a rat if a self ordained pope of morality decides to pull down his moral gown and replaced it with legal toga. Even on this, he is still ‘ignorantly’ dictatorial because he frowns at Muazu’s denial of existence of corruption in his government, and the enlistment of Limamin Changi Abubakar Rimi of Kano to launder the image of his regime. Ply the same lame of logic, was Muazu not also a heir to the collective pool of legal rights that permits accused persons to make effort of defending self and enlist the services of credible voices to help them out? It is sad that the lethal virus of senile dementia has destroyed Adamu way before the global standard age limit. This is about the first time one is appreciating the full effect of the theory of diminishing returns outside economic parameters.

The Bauchi State writer skews and bumbles on by asserting that he only wrote twice on the government of Muazu, this was balderdash because his ‘terminator’ did not quote the frequencies of his diatribe and image-denting pieces on the former governor. The quintessential or bulls-eye question in Chaji’s logically helmed moral sermon was why was his usual time-tested puritanical eagle eye pretending not to see the evil political typhoon blowing form Bauchi state? After all, his challenger has a precedent set by Adamu himself, who some years ago made self the chief watchdog of political events in Bauchi state. And many, including his traducer ‘Chemical Chaji’ still assumed he is still manning that self acquired post since it has no term limit. If there was no more than meet the eye fraternity between him and Isa, this apostle of global morality would have taken swipes and run series of seasons of commentary against Yuguda when he decided to jumped ship from the party that acted the Good Samaritan when he was ‘persecuted’ by PDP and Muazu. When this show of shame and fair weather character in Isa transpired, he pretended to have run short of ink or had his fingers crushed by his car door which did not permit him handled his pen for a while.

The repercussion of Chaji’s moral upper-cut was still taking its toll when he unnecessarily tried to dodge the point that his muteness was not predicated on his friendship with Malam Isa Yuguda. He attempted a shambolic shenanigan of justifying his silence by referring Chaji to a similar event involving another friend governor of his, who incidentally also has the title Malam, who also had skirmishes with his deputy. Then, where do we place Adamu vis-à-vis the opprobrium that says “show me your friend and I will tell you who you are, bad company corrupts good moral”? Or do birds of the same feathers no longer fly together?

The heading of his supposedly face-saving reply ‘Talking Silly About Bauchi’ confirmed him a belittler and an intolerant character. Can any sensible, humble and gentleman writer cobble a reaction to a write up that merely solicited answer to some questions regarding his long cherished principles in this fashion? It shows his petty mindedness and lack of tolerance to criticism and contrary ideas or views. Then, if thousands of people he made a living throwing the kitchen sink at were to act like him, where would he be today; in the gulag or in the grave?

(Editor’s note: Mohammed Haruna is on a short break.)

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