RE: Abba Anwar and the Anywhere Belle Face Syndrome: The Business of Cash-and-Carry Criticism Against Sen. Barau
By Abba Anwar
I didn’t think of making a rebuttal to a piece authored by one Abdulrazak Usman PhD on my recent article on His Excellency Deputy Senate President, Barau I Jibrin, PhD, CFR, but seeing the prestigious PhD attached to the name I decided to put pen on paper thinking the writer could be one with a semblance of good faculty of reasoning.
One of the things I enjoy the most in my life is public debate of this type. I won’t challenge Mr Usman to tell me where was he when I wrote dozens, if not hundreds of write-ups supporting, amplifying, coordinating and strengthening Senator Barau’s programmes, projects and policies in his own right in the past?
Mr PhD understands the language very well, that time I was ASSESSING DSP’s programmes (genuine and near genuine) and projects (the good, the bad and the ugly). And this time around I’m REASSESSING same interventions but with different style and pattern. While assessing his interventions I relied solely and heavily on information coming out from his office and sometimes directly from him.
But now during REASSESSMENT period I decided to go there physically and see with my naked eyes (with koro-koro eyes) what has been said for years. As a PhD holder you should know the difference between primary source and secondary source. I guess you know that.
It sounds interesting when, in your first paragraph you said, “The temptation to assume that a piece written by Abba Anwar, titled “Reassessment of DSP Barau’s Projects in Kano North: One Building, Three Names,” was motivated by patriotic zeal and a genuine desire to speak for his community is understandable. However, the events of October 18, 2026, provide a compelling reason to question that assumption.”
Your submission that, “… the events of October 18, 2026, provide a compelling reason to question that assumption,” is clearly defeatist and a show of academic ineptitude. If you think I wrote ill about DSP you really missed the road. In my professional years I don’t write ill to people just like that. Even when I was the Chief Press Secretary to the former Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, nowhere in my six years in that position, where one could fault me of spitting bad things about Ganduje’s political opponents. Not in my record, at all. Yes as a human being there could be some faultlines, but not in spitting bad things to people.
All the praises you identified as coming out from my earlier articles about the DSP are correct. I said all those good and encouraging things about him. But that was when I was ASSESSING the interventions of the Distinguished Senator. And now I’m REASSESSING same interventions.
For your information Mr PhD knowing everything about the budget, approvals, releases and application of funds to all the projects credited to our dear Senator, as a lobbyist in his own right, are there as public properties with the relevant ministries, departments and agencies. Even you, can access them all. Apply Freedom of Information Act you will get them all.
Under what you call “The October 18 Turning Point” in your piece, you said, “On October 18, 2026, Anwar published a rejoinder to a Weekend Trust report concerning a deep-pocketed member of the House of Representatives from Kano.
In the process of defending the lawmaker, he took the opportunity to disparage serving legislators from Kano State through innuendos that now appear to provide context for his latest attack on the Deputy President of the Senate.”
Contextualizing the two different issues together shows how shallow you could always be. It explains what you are suffering from, poverty of ideas and sound argument. What has my rejoinder to Daily Trust got to do with REASSESSMENT of DSP’s interventions? Is Hon Abubakar Kabir Bichi a Senator or is he contesting for Senatorial seat?
If you are indirectly inviting me to also assess and reassess Hon Bichi’s interventions and compare with that of the Distinguished Senator, I can do that as well. I can do compare and contrast analysis, if you so wish. Just indicate your interest Mr PhD.
For your information Oga PhD Senator Barau is my elder brother. When he was member House of Representatives, from 1999 to 2003, my elder brother Dr Auwalu Anwar, was Special Adviser Political to the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, late Ghali Umar Na’Abba. Anwar and Barau worked closely. So my REASSESSMENT is only aimed at telling the Senator to please sit up in preparation for the Day of Judgement. I want him to meet His Lord SALIN ALIN (peacefully). No more no less.
Mr PhD’s comparison of Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi road project and Kano-Zaria-Kaduna-Abuja road project shows how shallow is
Mr PhD’s argument.
While you fail to acknowledge the distance of the roads under scrutiny, you also fail to understand the politics involved in Kano-Zaria-Kaduna-Abuja road project. And even at that Kano-Zaria-Kaduna-Abuja road is faster than Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi road project. While Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi road is 90.65km Kano-Zaria-Kaduna-Abuja road.
To lament over your shallow analysis I present a sample of some road projects, including that of Kano-Zaria-Kaduna- Abuja road project, so as to wrestle down your uninformed analysis and comparison.
1. Abuja-Kaduna Section of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway – 81KM IN 13 MONTHS. Location is Tunga Maje (FCT) to Jere (Kaduna).
Started in September 2025. And completed in October 24, 2026. It was virtually commissioned by President Bola Tinubu at Ranchers Bees Stadium, Kaduna during APC campaign flag-off. It was described by Minister of Works Dave Umahi as fastest road completion in Nigeria’s history.
This now contrasts even more sharply with Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi road, 81km in 13 months vs 90.65km in 5 years and still at 40%. So what are we saying?
2. Second Section of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway. The stretch from Jere to Zaria, Kaduna state. It is Lot 2 of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano corridor. The length completed is 144km.
The status of the work as at October 2026 was given by Minister Umahi who said on Saturday, October 24, 2026 during the commissioning of Lot 1, “Work was progressing on the second section of the highway, covering 164 kilometres and valued at N505 billion, with more than 144 kilometres completed. Assuring that, “… the remaining 20 kilometres would be completed by the end of November.”
The project was originally awarded in 2017/2018 under Buhari administration but was stalled. It was re-awarded/accelerated in September 2024 under Tinubu with concrete technology. So it has taken less than 2 years of active work under the current method to reach 144km. You think this could be possible without persistent and genuine lobbying?
Why not Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi road where we have Number 5 Citizen, who should be our Chief Lobbyist?
If the Federal Government can do 144km out of 164km in less than 2 years on the same Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano corridor at N505bn, why can’t 90.65km Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi be done in 5 years despite N56bn extra? What are we lacking? Who tries all the time to tell people that he owns the project? Or at best, the project is part of his constituency project?
3. Section I of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway – 47.47KM IN 2 YEARS 7 MONTHS. Location is Victoria Island to Eleko, Lagos state. It was started March 2024. The first 30km commissioned May 31, 2025 as full 47.47km constructed and declared ready for commissioning October 2026. The project features are far more complex than Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi road project. It has 6-lane concrete dual carriageway with flyovers, overpasses, CCTV, designed through 10-meter deep refuse and swamp with major redesign around Dangote Refinery.
The question still remains if 47km can be built through Atlantic Ocean swamp in under 3 years, why is 90.65km Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi flat savanna road abandoned at 40% after 5 years? What are we really lacking in this part of the planet? Mr PhD I’m asking.
So my argument still remains, while Federal Government completed 81km Abuja-Kaduna highway in 13 months, and 144km of second section in less than 2 years, and 47km of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway with ocean bridges in 2 years, Kano North’s 90.65km Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi road, flagged off in 2021, is still crawling at 40% in 2026 despite receiving N19 Billion in 2025 and N37 Billion in 2026, who gets mouth to utter a word in this context?
I see gaps in all other arguments of Mr PhD concerning other projects. My advice is, let this PhD man go and see by himself all the projects he also cited. Let him go and do his Reassessment for all the cited and not cited projects.
Series of write-ups and radio programmes are on their way in a bit-by-bit style. This, no doubt about it. As I have all the budgetary provisions of all the projects under scrutiny, approvals and releases documents, I’m sure I will do justice to all and sundry. Mine is only to call attention and not to curse attention. To call the attention of those responsible to make adjustments and correct what can be corrected.
If it is true that I was sponsored this time around, then who was sponsoring me to write all the good things about the Distinguished Senator when I was ASSESSING his achievements? And where were the newly recruited noisemakers, when nobody could talk positive about him, in my style of writing articles, my elder brother DSP, for fear of being attacked? Who? Tell me only one person. Without being immodest, let my reader know this plain truth, since from Senator Barau’s elective positions, from 1999 to date, no one wrote as many articles as I did supporting his achievements, interventions and political direction. Where were the PhDs, lousy and lazy academics and half-baked writers?
Under what Mr PhD called “A WORD OF CAUTION TO ANWAR” he made reference to my recent encounter with the Media Team of the Kebbi State Governor, when I blamed them of not professionally showcasing the great feats achieved by His Excellency the Governor of Kebbi State, Dr Nasir Idris, Kauran Gwandu.
Mr PhD said, “At this juncture, one is compelled to advise Anwar to desist from the path popularly described in Nigeria as the “anywhere belle face” syndrome.
With each passing day, his writings increasingly expose what appear to be serious deficiencies in intellectual rigour, credibility, and an unrestrained appetite for financial inducement.
This explains why his articles are often characterised by contradictions, ad hominem attacks, and disjointed conjectures rather than coherent arguments grounded in verifiable facts.
An example beyond the present controversy is his article titled “Kebbi: The Performing State Nobody Sees,” which attracted a response from Ibrahim A. Jombali, Special Adviser on Public Enlightenment and Orientation to the Governor of Kebbi State. Jombali’s rejoinder, titled “Kebbi Is Not Invisible: A Rejoinder to Abba Anwar’s Media Visibility Theorem,” pointed out the contradictions in Anwar’s argument.”
If what he said is not diversionary and defeatist in its latent and manifest, he should have presented my rejoinder to them again. I won’t say a word here let me leave everything to my readers to go and read my encounter with Kebbi guys.
I first wrote this article, “The Kauran Gwandu Model: How a Teacher is Outperforming Other Governors Across Nigeria.”
My second article titled “Kebbi: The Performing State Nobody Sees,” attracted their rejoinder, that was what Mr PhD was referring to, titled “Kebbi Is Not Invisible: A Rejoinder To Abba Anwar’s Media Visibility Theorem.”
After their rejoinder I also wrote this, “RE: Kebbi Is Not Invisible: A Rejoinder To Abba Anwar’s Media Visibility Theorem.”(1). So I’m still waiting for them to write another rejoinder.
My reader should go and search for all the above articles and see what happened. I won’t utter a word here.
The same way I’m waiting for the Kebbi Jombali and co after my rejoinder to them, I’m also waiting for Mr PhD here in Kano.
And Mr PhD for your information, after finishing with the elite circle, I mean after all the encounters in English, I will translate everything into Hausa and recycle same for our grassroot audience.