His spokesman Yakubu Adamu confirmed the report last night. Gidado reportedly conveyed his decision to resign from his position through a letter dated May 16.
In the letter, which was made public yesterday, Gidado told Governor Mohammed Abubakar that: “Indeed, along the way in the early days of this administration, I did reiterate my commitment to serve for a single term and, ordinarily, I should have remained up to the end of the tenure, but, with the currently dampened spirit and waning zeal as it relates to my official engagements, my continued stay will not be fair and truthful to you as my brother and leader, the system we are serving and, above all, to my conscience before the Almighty Allah.
“In this regard, I feel sure that, Your Excellency will readily recollect the most recent one-on-one discussion we had, precisely, on Thursday, April 19th, 2018, in your office, where, among other issues, I expressed to you my contemplation to ‘step aside’, if need be, in order to free my conscience.
“Despite all sir, I regret to say that, it has become necessary to yield to that inner calling, and may this development be in accordance with the blessed will and guidance of Allah (SWT), Ameen.”
Close sources, however, disclosed that the deputy governor resigned because of “irreconcilable differences” with Governor Abubakar.
A source close to the former deputy governor said Engr. Gidado and Gov. Abubakar had been “strange bed fellows” right from the onset of the administration in 2015.
“Deputy Governor Gidado and Governor Abubakar actually parted ways not more than a year after they were sworn-in because their perspective about governance is different,” the source said.
“Gidado who felt side-lined in the scheme of things had wanted to leave long ago but for the interventions of some First Class emirs in the state, including the emirs of Bauchi and that of Jama’are,” the source said.
He alleged that Governor Abubakar always took decisions without recourse to other members of the state executive council, including the deputy governor.
Another source said Gidado’s travails were compounded by the politics of 2019.
“The truth is that Governor Abubakar wants a second term but he has lost grip of Bauchi South because of his fight with Speaker Yakubu Dogara and other politicians, he has to look elsewhere. Gidado is from Jama’are Local Government but the people of Katagum, that is Azare, have assured him of bulk votes in the event he picks his deputy from there,” he said.
But sources close to Governor Abubakar said Gidado left without cogent reasons. “He was never sidelined by the governor; he is just too ambitious,” one of them said.
He, however, admitted that Gidado had issues with his boss right from the beginning.
“Remember that Gidado also contested for the governorship; it was after Abubakar won the ticket that he picked him as deputy and since their inauguration, he tends to behave as if he is the governor whenever the governor is out of town.
“Sometimes he would switch off his phones and remained inaccessible to even the governor and on many occasions, he would not even attend state functions.
“In the last one year, he stopped participating in governance and it was even contemplated that he should be sacked if not for the intervention of some people,” he said.
Our reporter contacted Governor Abubakar’s Press Secretary, Abubakar El-Sadique on telephone who promised to call back whenever he got details but did not at the time of filing this report.
Gidado is the third senior government functionary in Bauchi to have resigned recently.
