News.Band Editorial
This author once overheard two young fellows discussing the state of affairs in the country with the possibility of “japa” for greener pastures, either in Europe or America.
One of the two said that he will never consider “japa” because Nigeria is a land of opportunities. According to him, “The only place to make it and make it big without stress is Nigeria”.
In fact, he added that the sort of opportunities available in Nigeria cannot be envisaged in any other place in the world.
If there is anyone who will readily agree with him, it is the former Zamfara State Governor, Ambassador Bello Matawalle, whose story can only be described as “grass to grace”.
So who is Bello Matawalle? He is a motor mechanic with very little education if that will be described as education, who rose to become a governor of a state in Nigeria!
At least that is what the document he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says. This is the trade test result of former Governor Matawalle produced below :
As seen in the document, Matawalle indicated that his major trade is “AUTO MECHANICS”. Little wonder he scored F9 in both English and Mathematics, but the shocker is yet to come.
In what he called his Senior Secondary Certificate of Education (SSCE) in his resume, Matawalle further indicated that he started Primary school at the age of 12. Whoa!
That’s correct because according to Matawalle’s vocational training center’s external and internal results, he was born in 1962.
This was confirmed in his resume, a copy of which is produced below, indicating that he enrolled in Township Primary School, Maradun, in 1974 at the age of 12 and left the school at the age of 18.
Other mysteries captured in his resume included the fact that he became a clerical officer at Old Sokoto State Ministry of Health, someone who scored high marks only in Islamic Religious Knowledge, Hausa, and Social Studies! With F9 in English and Mathematics?
But the worst is yet to come…
Between 1990 and 1993, he was a “CLASSROOM TEACHER” in four Government Girls’ Secondary Schools in Rabah, Talata Mafara, Kotorkoshi, and Moriki respectively.
With which qualification? one dares ask. With the Senior Secondary Certificate of Education indicated above? Little wonder the education sector, especially in the northern parts of the country remains a huge joke!
“And upon on top of that” (apologies to Chief Zebrudaya Okoroigwe Nwogbo Alias 4:30), he has the prefix “Dr.” appended to his name on his Twitter handle!
Eight years after secondary school, Matawalle “hammered”. He struck a job at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Abuja, between 1993 and 1996, but with which certificate? one dares ask again. What a turnaround!
However, Matawalle’s story has just begun.
It could easily be observed that according to his resume, his “WORKING EXPERIENCE” ended in 1996. Whatever happened after that is anyone’s guess. But credible information could be gleaned from his Wikipedia account.
Matawalle joined politics and his first shot in politics was on June 8, 1998, when he ran for and won a House of Assembly seat and briefly served in the State House of Assembly during the era of General Sani Abacha, the late Nigerian Military Head of State.
He, thereafter, left the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, joining the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) which had as members the former Minister of Water Resources and National Chairman of the party, Ibrahim Gusau, former pro tem National Chairman of the party, Atiku Abubakar, Attahiru Bafarawa, Adamu Aliero, Ibrahim Saminu Turaki, Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, et al.
After the death of Sani Abacha, however, Abdulsalami Abubakar, his successor, dissolved the political parties and announced that elections would hold in 1999.
He would later serve as a state commissioner from 1999 to 2003 in the Ahmad Sani Yerima administration in the Fourth Republic with his deplorable certificate.
He later, for the first time, won an elected office in 2003 as a member of the House of Representatives for Bakura/Maradun and retained the office until 2015, first as a member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) before switching to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011.
Four years after losing his Bakura/Maradun Constituency seat in 2015, Matawalle became the 2019 PDP gubernatorial nominee and won the office after a Supreme Court ruling disqualified the original winner, still parading the “useless” SSCE certificate.
In 2021, he defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) after a defection rally in Gusau alongside most Zamfara State elected officials.
He lost his re-election bid on March 18, 2023, and immediately became a guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Against all evident odds, Matawalle, whose story can only be described as Nigerian magic of “grass to grace”, of a motor mechanic with very little education, to the governor of a state, is currently a ministerial nominee of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Who dares say that Nigeria, a land of wonderful and miraculous opportunities, is indeed not a “land flowing with milk and honey” for the privileged few?
In the words of Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, the former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), “the vultures are gathering.”
Credits: News.band
