…I offer my counsel with respect rather than malice. Celebrate, certainly. Appreciate your friends and supporters. Accept goodwill. But there must be a limit. In politics, as in public relations, sometimes the most powerful publicity is knowing when enough is enough.
Fatih Lawal-Garu, a corps member who tracks print media content at the PRNigeria Centre in Abuja, first brought it to my attention. His question was simple, almost innocent: “Sir, who is this Abba Bichi that more than 100 pages of full-colour adverts are celebrating his 45th birthday in the print media?”
He displayed some of the newspapers supplied to the office. I immediately reached for the Daily Trust edition of Friday, 2 October.
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From page two to the back, the newspaper was a birthday festival. Page after page carried congratulatory messages to one man: Abubakar Kabir Abubakar (AKA), also popularly known as Abba Bichi. Politicians, businesspeople, community leaders, associates and youth groups competed for space to celebrate him in glowing language.
Haba!
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I was stunned not only by the sheer scale of the spectacle, but also because, despite the avalanche of tributes, the name had not previously registered with me at the national level in proportion to the extraordinary display before me.
Ironically, my first encounter with Bichi was with the town, not the man. During a road trip from Kano to Katsina to visit my godfather, former Minister of State for Finance, Alhaji Abu Gidado, I was struck by what I saw as I passed through Bichi: an impressive school project, a sports arena, solar-powered streetlights, tarred roads, and rehabilitated medical facilities.
Naturally, I assumed they were government projects. My co-passengers corrected me. They said one individual named Abba Bichi had facilitated many of the interventions. At the time, I could not place the name.
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The birthday edition helped fill the gap. Abubakar Kabir Abubakar was born on 2 October, 1981, in Hagagawa quarters of Bichi, Kano State, into the family of a former state legislator and commissioner. After his early education in Kano, he attended the New York Institute of Technology, where he earned degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies and Energy Management.
Today, Abba Bichi represents Bichi Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). First elected in 2019, he previously chaired the House Committee on Works and currently chairs the influential Committee on Appropriations.
I do not know who paid for each advertisement. It would therefore be unfair to suggest that Abba Bichi personally financed them. They may well have been independently sponsored by friends, political associates, contractors, community groups, businesses and admirers eager to demonstrate affection or loyalty. But that is precisely where the public relations lesson begins.
At the constituency level, his record appears genuinely impressive. Educational interventions, computer laboratories, sporting facilities, student sponsorships and housing projects are hardly the footprints of a legislator content merely to collect salaries and allowances.
Even Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, despite belonging to a different political ideology, has reportedly commended aspects of his representation.
So, let me be clear: the man is not without substance. My concern is entirely different. It is about judgment, moderation and perception. Philanthropy and accountability are not mutually exclusive. Public service and modesty should not be strangers.
The extraordinary number of full-colour birthday advertisements published in a single edition of a national newspaper inevitably raises questions — not necessarily of legality, but of proportion. Advertisements in national newspapers are not cheap. When the number runs into scores upon scores of pages, the cumulative commercial value becomes substantial.
I do not know who paid for each advertisement. It would therefore be unfair to suggest that Abba Bichi personally financed them. They may well have been independently sponsored by friends, political associates, contractors, community groups, businesses and admirers eager to demonstrate affection or loyalty. But that is precisely where the public relations lesson begins.
Nigeria is passing through a difficult economic period. Families are struggling with food prices, school fees, transportation, accommodation and medical bills. In such an environment, political communication cannot be separated from the public mood.
A spectacle that might appear harmless in more prosperous times can easily become provocative when citizens are tightening their belts. This becomes even more sensitive because Abba Bichi chairs the House Committee on Appropriations — one of the most consequential committees in the National Assembly for allocating and scrutinising public resources.
When celebration becomes extravagant, it can overshadow the very achievements it seeks to promote. His constituency interventions should prompt public discussion of those projects — not pages of birthday advertisements. Therefore, good performance should speak loudly enough to be heard without being drowned out by congratulatory messages.
No one suggests that public funds financed the birthday advertisements. That is not my argument. My point is about optics. A public figure occupying such a sensitive position must recognise that perception often travels faster than explanation.
His admirers may have intended the advertisements as expressions of affection. Yet, after dozens upon dozens of pages, admiration begins to resemble extravagance. Could somebody not have said: “Thank you, but this is enough”?
Indeed, imagine if some of the money spent on those advertisements had instead been pooled into scholarships for indigent students, medical interventions for vulnerable families, boreholes, skills programmes or another community project to commemorate his 45th birthday. The publicity value might even have been greater — and certainly more enduring.
This is one of the lessons politicians frequently underestimate: image is not only what you deliberately create; it is also what you permit around yourself. In public relations, overexposure can sometimes be as damaging as invisibility.
When celebration becomes extravagant, it can overshadow the very achievements it seeks to promote. His constituency interventions should prompt public discussion of those projects — not pages of birthday advertisements. Therefore, good performance should speak loudly enough to be heard without being drowned out by congratulatory messages.
At 45, Abba Bichi remains relatively young, especially for a politician who has already occupied influential positions in the National Assembly. If his constituency record is as strong as his supporters claim, he has every reason to let his work advertise him.
So, I offer my counsel with respect rather than malice. Celebrate, certainly. Appreciate your friends and supporters. Accept goodwill. But there must be a limit. In politics, as in public relations, sometimes the most powerful publicity is knowing when enough is enough.
Yushau A. Shuaib is the author of the award-winning project “AI in Crisis Communication in Nigeria” and “NIPSS: MNIPR Versus MNIPR” [email protected]
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