‘Absentee governor’ or absent mind: A rejoinder

This holds true in everyday life at both the individual and professional levels. It holds true in journalism as well as other professions. In journalism, in particular, knowledge and understanding as bases for analysis and argument are very important. Because the journalist must understand his or her subject to inform and educate others, every journalism […]

This holds true in everyday life at both the individual and professional levels. It holds true in journalism as well as other professions.

In journalism, in particular, knowledge and understanding as bases for analysis and argument are very important. Because the journalist must understand his or her subject to inform and educate others, every journalism school always harps on journalists checking and cross-checking their facts.  Unfortunately, not all reporters or journalists are guided by these imperatives today.

I find this to be true at least in the case of a reporter of the Nigerian Newsworld magazine. In various posts to his magazine recently, the reporter appears to confuse his position with that of the columnist, going about opinionating rather than reporting.

His description of the Yobe State governor as an ‘Absentee Governor’ in a recent edition particularly elevates his ignorance to a craft; he is now out in the ring.

Interestingly, Bamidele Babalola had lived in Yobe State before Gaidam came to power. He must have been aware, therefore, of how things were during the pre-Gaidam era and what obtains in the State today under the leadership of the governor.

In his ‘Absentee Governor’ piece, Mr. Bamidele picked quarrels with Governor Gaidam’s trip to Saudi Arabia to perform the Umrah or lesser Hajj. He was also angry that the governor travelled to Abuja to attend the National Economic Council meeting. He was angrier that the governor was in Katsina on condolence visit. In his warped analogy, all these trips, undertaken after Gaidam had won last April’s election, showed that “the governor did not find it fit to settle down for the business for which the masses (sic) voted him (to power)”.

But this is a classic case of ignorance and of not trying to verify a story. Bamidele was ignorant of the fact that a Muslim blessed by the Almighty God with a particular form of blessing (in Gaidam’s case being elected governor) can offer a special gratitude to the Almighty in any number of recommended ways, including performing the lesser Hajj.

Bamidele is also wildly ignorant that being a state chief executive comes with a lot of obligations, one of which is fusing into the national mainstream and working with others to advance the cause of the Nigerian State. The National Economic Council meeting, for which the governor went to Abuja, is a case in point.

But the Newsworld reporter went a step further. He argued that because Governor Gaidam embarked on these three trips, Yobe went to bed ‘snoring’ and suffering as a result. In all honesty, how can these trips which were clearly purposeful and undertaken in the light of day be any problem?

The problem, in my view, is the reporter himself, a man blind to the facts and consumed by his own ignorance.

Otherwise, even Gaidam’s political opponents admit to the good work he is doing in Yobe State today. That today’s Yobe is throbbing with vitality and generally feels better are facts that the people of the State attest to.

Over the last two years, Governor Gaidam has built more roads across Yobe State than those built over the previous 18 years since the State was created. Travelers to Maiduguri, who pass through Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, marvel at the massive transformation that had taken place over a relatively short period of time – dual carriage ways, clean Township roads, solar-powered street lights, and massive housing estates given away on owner-occupier basis at 65 percent discount, among others.

Yobe’s health sector continues to get better with free medical services for pregnant women and children and accident victims within the first 72 hours of their admission in hospital. Recently, too, hundreds of millions of naira were spent to procure and install State-of-the-art equipment in the major hospitals in the State.

Although Mr. Bamidele has claimed that Yobe State has the lowest school enrolment rate in the North without citing any authorities or making attributions, the statistics point to the opposite. The Universal Basic Education Commission and other relevant bodies say that the enrolment rate in Yobe State has improved significantly. Yobe is also one of very few States in the country that continues to commit 26 percent of its annual budget to the education sector.

It is Governor Gaidam’s massive investment in the education sector – including spending nearly two billion naira recently to upgrade secondary schools six of which being female schools – that saw the enrollment rate in the State improve.

Higher education also fares better in Yobe. Recently, the Vice Chancellor of Gombe State University, Professor Abdullahi Mahdi, who has spent over 40 years in the academia, said that the Yobe State University, called Bukar Abba Ibrahim University, Damaturu is the ‘fastest growing’ University in the North because of the massive support it receives from the Gaidam administration.

These and many other social services provided by the Gaidam administration continue to give confidence to the people of the State that the promise of a new, better Yobe is attainable after all.

It is little wonder that during the last election, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam won with a margin never seen before in the history of the State. Only a governor who is popular with his people, whose policies are truly transformative, could poll as well.

Bego wrote from Government House Damaturu