By Adesina Soyooye
For the second time in months, Salihu Tanko Yakassai, has had a brush with his Principal, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State. His offence: Seeing evil Hearing evil. And speaking against evil.
He should have remained blind, deaf and dumb. He did not.
The Governor, Saturday morning, sacked him with immediate effect, over his stinging criticism of the APC Government and President Muhammadu Buhari.
On the heels of the abduction of the 317 female students from a Zamfara State Secondary school, Friday, February 26, Yakassai had taken to the social media, slamming the APC and Buhari for failing Nigerians. He asked them to resign from office if they couldn’t arrest the spate of insecurity in the country.
Lamenting, he wrote:Â “Clearly we, as APC Government, at all levels, have failed Nigerians in the number 1 duty we were elected to do which is to secure lives and properties.
“Not a single day goes by without some insecurity in this land. This is a shame. Deal with terrorists decisively or resign.
“Each time another tragedy happens, we lament, condemn, create a hashtag, the govt pretends to do something, no concrete steps to prevent re-occurence, and then, we repeat the process. To what end? Where are those saddled with the responsibility?
“Just last week, it was #freekagaraboys, today we have a new hashtag, #RescueJangebeGirls; who knows tomorrow what hashtag we will come up with? Perhaps, one for ourselves when we get caught up in one of these daring attacks. This is sad and heartbreaking; I feel helpless and hopeless.”
A big mistake. In Nigeria, you don’t stay in Government and publicly criticise same Government.
In reaction, his obviously embarrassed boss sacked him on Saturday.
Announcing his sack, with immediate effect, the state Commissioner for Information, said the Governor ordered Yakassai’s sack for not being able to differentiate between his personal opinion and official duties. Apparently, Yajassai was expected to see no evil, and hear no evil. He was not expected to criticise Buhari or the APC. It is an unwritten policy
This magazine gathered that the Governor sacked him to also save his own neck. An insider at the Kano Government House told us that: “Abuja expected the Governor to sack his aide on Friday. But he delayed till Saturday. Why?”
The source, also, said that Ganduje ought to have known that Yakassai is a loose canon. He disclosed that Abuja was also not happy with the Governor for recalling the same aide after suspending him from office, for publicly supporting the #EndSARS protesters.
However, in the instant case, Ganduje has gone beyond a suspension, and sacked him with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, the sacked aide has been in the custody of security agents for same offence. His father confirmed the development.
