Thread by @DemolaRewaju

I feel I should say a quick word about my support for Alhaji Sule Lamido.

First of, I don’t arrive at decisions like this lightly and since 2015 - ever before meeting him, I’ve had my eyes on him politically.

And then I looked at the political landscape and also at my PDP.

I believe strongly that PDP lost its soul at some point under Obasanjo and moved far away from what the founding fathers intended.

Out of power, I felt it was a good time to reset and looking at all the founding fathers, only Lamido in my eyes could restore the founding values.

Looking into the polity, I felt PDP needed to strongly divide Buhari’s base - and of all the men in the PDP at that time, only Sule Lamido it seemed to me could break it.

He had a solid record of performance in Jigawa from all the records I saw but it was in 2017 I saw it myself

@Papadonkee had met him in January 2017 I think and had been invited to Kano to take a tour of Jigawa.

Knowing I adored the man, he invited me to tag along - and so in the first week of January 2017, we took the tour for an entire day and I tweeted a lot about it.

What impressed me on the tour were two things - his strong sense of history (he built a pavilion in honour of Aminu Kano and built 9 houses in honour of the G9 founding fathers of PDP, including Bola Ige House).

Secondly, his projects reflected nationhood - a rarity anywhere.

Nationhood in terms of the names of various places - from the Bola Ige House to the Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital to the Yakubu Gowon NYSC camp: it was clear Lamido didn’t govern Jigawa as a state only, but as a sort of ‘universal city’ where all of Nigeria was honoured.

After the tour, we met the man and since PapaD had met with him before the tour, this meeting was supposed to be for just thirty minutes - but they forgot it was my first time meeting a man I had ‘known’ for so long - we ended up spending very close to three hours engaging.

After the meeting, I continued to root loudly for Lamido until someone else whom I now regard as my brother - @jijitar04 sent a message asking if I even knew the man personally, and I said I’d met him before.

My brother then brought me into deep association with Lamido and son.

From then on, I had access to the man and I never took advantage of it - but every time I reached out, he always responded.

Which again is his style as confirmed by another brother - Sanusi Lawal Kazaure (SLK) whom I met on the journey.

Lamido’s Number as Gov. was everywhere.

SLK as a law graduate had sent him a text that they would not make it to law school over an issue - Lamido called him immediately and SLK doubted the voice until he was instructed to expect a call from a Commissioner who then called him.

Amazingly, Lamido kept asking for updates

SLK is today a Lawyer.

Another story I recall is one meeting I attended earlier this year at the PDP HQ in Abuja. One of my brothers, Engr. Ibrahim Said saw me and informed me that Lamido was in town. So I decided to pay him a visit and I asked @emmaikumeh to tag along.

Both Emma and I wear beards and Baba made fun of it a bit then we went into his office and engaged for over two hours - one thing about Lamido: he loves to engage intellectually, especially if you can joust with him but not rudely.

Visitors came, he made them wait outside.

When we finally came out, over a dozen dignified guests were waiting and they wondered who this young guy was that Lamido had kept them waiting for - they actually started collecting my phone number.

The gist however has a more mindblowing second part where I didn’t even feature

Emma went with a senator to Lamido’s campaign office and chatted me up about where he was. So I said if Lamido comes out, remind him of who you are and mention me.

As Lamido came out with the senator, he saw Emma and asked something like

“Where is your bearded partner Demola?”

I’m not a sentimental person but I’ve come to realise that at the heart of outstanding Political Leadership is Empathy and a deep sense of value attached to treating people right or doing right by them.

From that alone stems every performance you see on the outside.

I’ve seen great leaders but only two in Nigeria have I seen who have a solid core of beliefs from which flow the projects they do.

Mimiko in Ondo had a concept built around Women Empowerment/Mother and Child and Lamido in Jigawa had restoring the dignity of Jigawa indigenes.

Lamido says

“Every Human is born with a measure of dignity but circumstances sometimes contrive to deprive him of it. It is then the duty of a political leader to restore this dignity.”

For me, it encapsulates all I ever want to do in politics or want to support others to do.

On the day Lamido was sworn in as Governor of Jigawa, he declared free education for the girl-child, pushed it into law within two months and appointed Prof. Ruqayyah Rufai as Commissioner for Education to cement and implement. (This woman later became Minister of Education).

Now, Lamido had an EFCC case against him and I enquired deeply about the details.

Corruption though isn’t for me the dealbreaker as many usually react to it - I see corruption as endemic and I know From History that all the greatest leaders in Nigeria had issues regarding it.

But I’m writing this now to explain that in all this, I took a very selfish decision to support Lamido - it wasn’t about him or whether he would win or who would win: it was about me and how I want to be seen in my generation.

It was about the kind of antecedent I’m building.

With all humility and according to what you people usually wash me with, I’m one of the best on this side of the polity - and I had to turn down 3 offers to be the spokesperson of 3 presidential campaigns.

I was being selfish - I want to be known to have worked with this Lamido.

Because you see (and I swear I say this with all humility), I feel I’m in a place now where whoever emerges from #PDPConventionPHC today will work with us.

So I wasn’t focused on aligning with “the winning candidate”, no: I wanted to align with the values I want to be known with

Notice the names I’ve mentioned - all my brothers from now and forever, the friendships forged - this was selfish but not for immediate gain, more for the future.

And I share this so that people who follow me can see how I think and why I stand where I stand.

@chosensomto - the first day you watched Lamido on TV and called me and said “Now I know why you support this man - you and him think exactly the same way!”; I felt fulfilled.

I was happy you could see the connect between what I preach and the person I chose to support.

Someone said “did you miscalculate by supporting Lamido?”

And I laughed and replied “Lamido is still in the race - and I am exactly where my future needs me to be.”

I hope he understood what I meant but I hope everyone reading this understands it even more clearly:

Money will come - if you can work for it.
Power will come - if you can grow into it.
Fame will come - if you have money and power.

The most important thing is recognition of where you need to be at every point in your life and to never be a step behind or ahead of your time.

Foundations are Conclusions.

The moment you lay a foundation, you’ve decided what kind of building you can put on it - bungalow, mansion, highrise, skyscraper or a hut.

What we are doing now is laying a foundation for our future - building relationships, building reputation.

And I understand some are most eager to be friends of power or to be on the winning side or the paying side - I respect that too honestly and I respect them.

Our paths are just different sometimes and I’m in absolute love with where mine is taking me.

So long a talk...🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

Can’t fail to thank those who stood with us - many of you called to ask permission before joining other aspirants, and not like you owe me anything o or that we were paying.

Loyalty is the Reward of Loyalty and as you’ve been to me, I’ll be to you and may others be to you also.