Yuguda, the Bauchi State governor,deserves to be on Guinness Book of Recordfor being the first known governor in theentire world to dismiss a civil servant oversharing a post on Facebook. This ingloriousrecord was set yesterday, Monday 19November, when Abbas who was until thenon suspension formally received atermination letter from the office of theHead of Service. The letter read thus:TERMINATION OF APPOINTMENTI am directed to refer to the civil servicecommission's letter No. CSC/PRO/S/001/ T.Vdated 1st November 2012 to convey thecommission's approval of your suspensionand termination of appointment fromBauchi State Service with effect from 10thOctober, 2012 as your service is no longerrequired, please.SignedIbrahim shehuFor: Head of Service.The letter was expected given thevindictive nature of the regime, which,surprisingly, came to power partly as aresult of the Yuguda's tales of victimizationin the hands of his bosom friend andpredecessor, Muazu. But it didn't takemuch time before the world came to knowwho is more quickly given to vendettabetween the two.From the content of the letter, it appearsthat the government is trying to avoidcontroversy. Thus it failed to provide anyreason for the termination other than themere expression of discretion to keep or fireAbbas. It is however questionable whetherunder our civil service rules a terminationcan be slammed at any civil servantwithout resort to due process.Instead, he was gagged and kept underpolice detention for ten days before he wasgranted a bail by the court. The filing of hiscase before the court was itself dubious asit violated every letter and spirit of thepenal code regarding defamation. It was,therefore, easy for the Nigerian BarAssociation to throw spanners into thecharges and the case was summarilyterminated. Having failed in the courts, theadministration is resorting to impunity andarbitrariness. Neither in court nor beforethe committee he appeared did anyonerequested Abbas to provide any evidenceto support the allegations on the post hecopied from another page and shared. Inlaw, such evidence provides a completedefense in any case of defamation.Bauchi State government is a public bodythat can be challenged before theappropriate court of law if it violates therules that govern its operations. Theattorneys of Abbas should explore thepossibility of appeal. Doing so will greatlyleap the cause of justice.The irony is that I have never seen wherethe government denied the allegations ofcorruption labelled against the governor inthe Facebook post as the happenings arecommon knowledge in Bauchi. Neither didit challenge Abbas to provide any evidence.The world, however, will one day know whois telling the truth: Facebook or Yuguda.We are not in a hurry.I will still reiterate the advice I once gave tomy brother Yuguda. He should shuninjustice and vendetta. They arecharacteristics of a weak leader thancannot tolerate criticism. One expects thata person that will victimize someone for asimple Facebook posting will be strongenough to face Boko Haram. But Yugudasimply walked away from its threat to killhim and literally abandoned Bauchi for ahideout in Abuja. This is very much unlikeFulani. I hope he listens this time. It is justtwo years left before everything becomeshistory. Many before have come to Bauchiand left.As for Abbas, I will advise him to remainpatient and steadfast. He should follow hiscase to its logical conclusion. As he does so,I hope the public will support him byexpressing its sympathy andencouragement.Dr Aliyu Tilde