Gombe 2019: Necessities of having Dankwambo/Bayero blend

This piece couldn’t have come at a much better time than now when the race to Gombe Government House 2019 is at its peak. And I am saying this in the light of the prevailing circumstance that dictated the emergence of incumbent Governor Dankwambo as one out of the two State Governors in the North […]

This piece couldn’t have come at a much better time than now when the race to Gombe Government House 2019 is at its peak. And I am saying this in the light of the prevailing circumstance that dictated the emergence of incumbent Governor Dankwambo as one out of the two State Governors in the North that emerged under PDP in 2015 thus defying the APC hurricane and is about to complete his second term.

And if the factor of emergence and positive performance are combined together to form our barometer of measuring a way forward for Gombe in 2019, chances are that a successor could only emerge with the blessing of Dankwambo. The fact remains that Gombe people have not only become highly enlightened but cultured to progressive governance. Suffice to say that the footprints of Governor Dankwambo are there for everyone to see.

Needless to say, even the clarion call on him to contest for Gombe North Senatorial seat was born out of the genuine concern to put the proper peg in a round hole. Governor Dankwambo’s assumption of office on the 29th May 2011 has no doubt changed the entire political landscape of Gombe and has led to series of infrastructural transformations that has today made Gombawa to be singing his praise in chorus.

During his almost eight years tenure, Governor Dankwambo has given Gombe a state-owned university of Science and Technology in Kumo, a state polytechnic at Bajoga, college of education at Billiri and a college of legal and Islamic studies at Nafada. In the Health sector and for the first time, an ultra-modern Snake Bite Treatment and Research centre has been built and commissioned in Kaltungo, a brand new College of Nursing and Midwifery in Dukku, a standard Women and Children Hospital, Idi quarters Gombe and capped it up with a full scale College of Medical Sciences under Gombe State University which qualifies the celebrated Federal Medical Centre Gombe to be upgraded into a Federal Teaching Hospital.

Governor Dankwambo has given hope to the ordinary rural dwellers by constructing chains of several inter town network of roads, e.g the several kilometers long Gona-Tukulma-Taliyawa-Tumu road and multiple bridges; the Billiri-Kamu-Awak- and Dogon ruwa mega bridge; the Dukku-Dokoro-Jamari road and the ongoing 46km Ngalda-Maina-Mahdi-Jolle-Jigawa road, etc. That is aside the hundreds of intra town network of roads constructed in almost all the nooks and crannies of Gombe metropolitan city, in Kaltungo, Kumo, Dukku, Bajoga, Deba, Dadin-Kowa, Liji, Billiri and Nafada.

As part of the famous desire to accomplish the Gombe beautification project, Governor Dankwambo has for the first time, introduced the road traffic lights that has added beauty to quite a number of joints including street lights that are seen in all the major dual carriageways stretching from the Emir’s Palace to Idi quarters, from the Union Bank junction-Madaki-Barunde, Bauchi Park-Pen Resource Academy-GRA, Herwa Gana-New market, Herwa Gana to Bello sabon Kudi street, including the stubborn Gadan (Bridge) Malam Pela.

In situations such as this, here lies in the choice before the people of Gombe of either having to press on Dankwambo to accept their clarion call to continue to serve them in a new capacity as a Senator or allow him to have a preferred rest of mind and miss the opportunity of having a sound representation at the Senate, a mistake that the people of Gombe North would not want to commit.

As for Senator Bayero, the PDP Governorship candidate, it is much easier for Dankwambo to have Bayero as a successor than allow an opposition candidate to succeed him. The import of this was that, Dankwambo stands a better chance of having his legacies being maintained under Bayero than an APC government whose intentions and pronouncements sometimes indicates a willingness to discontinue some of the policies and programs started by him.

Mohammed Ahmed Yidikawu, Gombe.