Gombe: Between autocracy and democracy
It’s forsaken to have discovered that after general acceptance and a long practice of democracy as the best form of government in Nigeria, our behaviors and political alacrities are still tending towards a birdbrain on the understanding of what democracy is all about. The ways and manners those who had opportunity and found themselves […]
It’s forsaken to have discovered that after general acceptance and a long practice of democracy as the best form of government in Nigeria, our behaviors and political alacrities are still tending towards a birdbrain on the understanding of what democracy is all about. The ways and manners those who had opportunity and found themselves on the seat of power practically debase the system, necessitate a thorough gauging of their mental and clairvoyant capabilities and of those who seek public offices if not, in near time to come democracy could be the most despised system of governance in Nigeria.
Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe State has not only anathematized democracy to both the opposition and those who are close to power, but confused them with the meaning of democracy with autocracy.
Recently, at a Sallah ceremony when he received members of his cabinet who paid him Sallah homage, Dankwambo was quoted to have told the gathering that he directed the state commissioner of police to arrest anybody caught pasting posters of politicians in any part of the state and prosecute him or her in court. He reportedly said, he also asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to equally caution politicians against pasting posters on public buildings in the state.
Since that pronouncements, there have been cacophonous and discordant tunes against that strange declaration which was viewed by many as the groovy political way of suppressing the oppositions within the All Progressives Congress (APC) who have been aligning themselves to wrestle power from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state ahead of the 2019. And the 2019 general election seems to be a big fight for the PDP whose members, totally dissatisfied with Dankwambo’s style of governance have been decamping to the APC in droves. I am surprised they allowed him stayed till this time, well that is for another day. It was believed that the governor’s statement and annoyance were not unconnected to the ‘Happy Sallah’ posters of one of APC’s chieftains in the state, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga (Sarkin Fulanin Gombe) pasted all the nooks and crannies of the state during the Sallah celebration.
But what Dankwambo failed to understand is Gombe State is not his personal estate, but belongs to all of us and therefore we share equal right and freedom of association and political affiliation and those who he wants to frustrate their political ambition by hooks or crooks, have been using their hard-earned resources to bring succor to the people of the state Dankwambo has impoverished due to his misrule for the past six years.
It’s a fact that Gombe State has been facing an acute water scarcity in all its environs where commercial water tankers and local water vendors for the first time after the expiration of Goje’s tenure been the ones taking over the duties of supplying residents with water to drink. To cushion the biting effect of water shortage in the state, Sarkin Fulani has for over two years now dedicated water drilling rigs that have been digging boreholes and all the 11 local government areas of the state. This is alongside provision of hundreds of employments he secured to the teeming youths, JAMB, NECO and WEAC forms to the indigenes of the state by the Sarkin Fulani Foundation. And virtually all the bigwigs in the APC have been visibly doing one thing or the other to improve the living conditions of the people of Gombe State, a gesture which Dankwambo could not do when he was Accountant General of the Federation the way these ones who are out of government are doing.
While prominent sons an daughters of the state like Faruk Bamusa, Habu Muazu, Barrister Idris Umar, Senator Sa’idu Alkali, Lazaros Yoriyo, Aliyu Modibbo among others felt discomfort by the way Dankwambo manage the affairs of government and defected to the opposition APC in the state in order to rescue the situation, it is certain that those still hanging around the governor are just there in order to maintain their financial obligations pending the right time for them to throw in the towel and join other forces in the APC.
In Gombe State today, for over six years of the Dankwambo’s administration, none of the major projects that runs into billions is completed and commissioned even when most of them were considered immaterial because they failed to address the yearnings and aspiration of the common man. You can’t built a multibillion naira Conference Centre in a state that lacks adequate drinking water, you can’t establish tertiary institutions in a place where you failed to financially maintain a university that was sincerely built by your predecessor; you don’t need school of journalism, agriculture, accounting, sport if the state-owned university is fully functioning because all of these could be independent courses in the various faculties of the university. What a gross misplacement of priority and abuse of public trust!
In the face of these happenings, the governor has recently employed some elements promoting him on a social media at higher pay, a situation many believes could not be unconnected with Dankwambo’s next political ambition. His unprecedented visitations to Tafsir venues during the just concluded Ramadan and colossal and strange donations at such places he visited, the Durbars, the presentation of SUV gifts to the emirs and other events had raised so many questions on what could be his motive, because throughout his six years in power so far, Dankwambo used to travel out to Lesser Hajj during such festive periods. Presumably, the money spent if properly channeled could have reduced the suffering of the people of the state rather than the new opposition intimidating posture he has adopted.
We think the next government in Gombe state should be prepared to not just probe many of the questionable dealings Dankwambo did, but recover those certain to have been misappropriated, if it is to be taken seriously.
Power is transient and 2019 is fast approaching and hell or high water, the good people of Gombe State will vote for their choice.
Sale Gombe writes from Gombe.