Dankwambo and the price of paradigm shift

Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo had just inaugurated twelve committees to unravel for him the problems militating against optimum performance in all key sectors of the state’s economy to enable his administration fully meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people. He had charged the committees to establish for him, gaps in bequeathed legacies of his […]

Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo had just inaugurated twelve committees to unravel for him the problems militating against optimum performance in all key sectors of the state’s economy to enable his administration fully meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people. He had charged the committees to establish for him, gaps in bequeathed legacies of his predecessor, Danjuma Goje, now a Senator.
I noted then, that this develop-ment was significant not only for Gombe State but for the country as it showed the appropriate manner in which a transition from one administration to another was best achieved, mainly because this step would avail Dankwambo of a specific base line platform on which further development of Gombe State can be anchored.
It is slightly a little over the middle of a four-year tenure and a formal return visit to Gombe State is a necessity. You cannot miss the hundreds of houses on the many approaches to the state capital, from Bauchi, Kano/Jigawa, Borno, and Adamawa, the bordering states. You cannot miss the impressive network of dualized roads in the Gombe metropolis, particularly the bypasses that now nullify the once only Tunfure-Biu Road as the access and exit. And if you do, like I did, venture into some of the local Governments, you would be more fascinated by the impact made. Kumo, Billiri, and Kaltungo fall in the route that I constantly travel, to get home to Yola, and these Local Government Headquarters leave me with a bitter taste in the mouth, because they have since overtaken my hometown, Numan once a shining star compared to them, as if while Gombe galloped on, Adamawa sat still and even degenerated. (I am not being critical of Adamawa). I am only truly being factual about Gombe State, where clearly, State-sponsored development stands proven beyond doubt, and begs for commendation of the agents of the change, regardless of who we pinpoint them to be.
When I wrote at the beginning Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo tenure’s, I noted then that for him, it was “easy to fall into one of two temptations. One is to attempt to embolden the dividing line between the two tenures by seeing gaps left by Danjuma Goje as defects, and in the process become preoccupied with predecessor-undoing as happened between Kwankwaso 1 and Ibrahim Shekarau. The way to look is up and forward (I cautioned). The other temptation is to approach the governance of the State in the manner of Military Governors, rampage across as a conquering emperor. Doing so would cause the loss of advantage that could be easily gained from a well experienced and dedicated civil service which has enabled Danjuma Goje to sustain peace and stability in the state, especially in the area of suppressing sectarian upheavals”, which to my mind gave Gombe State the development lead it secured prior to 2011. Travelling through Gombe and noting albeit, superficially, evidence that Dankwambo has added to Gombe State’s advancement with a giant leap, I am tempted to claim that the Governor heeded my advice, but I doubt that he read my then, complimentary, yet admonishing column. I even more, doubt, that he would read this one.
But Gombe State under Dankwambo, has moved a hell of a notch higher. At the Commissioning of the Gombe studios of African Independent Television, I noticed that Dankwambo had turned up with the same crowd of public officers that had served his predecessor Danjuma Goje, and was certain that this must have accounted for the sustenance of all round progress that I have firmly established in the different critical sectors of development in Gombe State. I had found that like Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Dankwambo had maintained his predecessor’s crowd, and I suppose for the same rationale that they were indigenes and decidedly, stakeholders to what ever any leadership ought to achieve. Retained and utilized public servants must have guaranteed the effective continuity one finds in Gombe in the reticulation of water to communities from the Dadin Kowa Waterworks commissioned by Danjuma Goje as continuity, and the discernible milestones in other sectors, specifically education and health.
I drove up the 54 kilometre Kanawa-Kuri-Jaurogotel “highway” – a Federal road and was told the state government handled the construction on behalf of the Federal Government because it was critical to the evacuation of farm produce through also some 116 newly constructed rural feeder roads. When I wrote in 2011, I observed then that Gombe State “as Dankwambo knows very well is agro-commerce based. It is the one sector where if impact is made, the effect on all other sectors would be profound”. Evidently this is the case as there has emerged, a vibrant organized private sector in Gombe State in the area of commercial infrastructure such as corporate real estate, ultra modern hotels, distribution business chains, and thriving produce commerce in Kodong vegetable market, and the grain markets of Lariski and Gombe town itself.
In 2012, Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo took Gombe State to the capital market, floating a development bond of 20 billion naira. The market swallowed up the bond in confidence, owing to the apparent promise of good corporate governance demonstrated by the Governor in the painstaking due process followed preparatory to the flotation. More also was the attribute of prudence, accountability, and probity that Governor Dankwambo demonstrated early in the tenure, even at the risk of falling out with predecessor Danjuma Goje, earlier believed to be Dankwambo’s mentor.
The repayment period of 7 years also fell largely within the term that barring unforeseen political circumstances, Dankwambo would be in charge to manage the bond, deliver matching deve-lopment, be held accountable and justify the burden the citizenry would necessarily bear. It is evident that the public confidence was justifiably reposed, as development has indeed come to Gombe State.
Obviously this style of governance did not permit profligacy and waste. A rather non political technocrat, Governor Dankwambo has apparently not lent himself to the subsisting political culture of largesse transfer of public funds, and expectedly, a common hue and cry in Gombe I find, is that Dankwambo is tight fisted and has not permitted the flagrant patronage and profligacy common in our democracy. As 2015 approaches Dankwambo is going to, and does come face to face with criticism from adversaries and disgruntled politicians, playing to the galleries about there being no funds in the State system. Gullible citizens would fall victim to the treacherous enchantment of these self seeking politicians, but try as they might, there is no taking it away – the people are beneficiaries of stable salaries and emoluments, an array of infrastructure that is clearly functional and fulfilling.
Undoubtedly, Gombe State has recorded impressive development and a paradigm shift these past three years that strengthen faith in emerging leadership and fiscal federalism. One hopes the people are mindful of that in 2015.