Now that Yan Kalere has become a past phenomenon in Gombe

No sooner had he been called to the podium to deliver his maiden speech did the governor declare that the days of political thuggery in the State was over. Promising a new order in the state, he admonished youths in the state to embrace peace and commit themselves to the policy that he would be […]

No sooner had he been called to the podium to deliver his maiden speech did the governor declare that the days of political thuggery in the State was over. Promising a new order in the state, he admonished youths in the state to embrace peace and commit themselves to the policy that he would be introducing to not only salvage them but give them a new lease of life.

That since the advent of democracy, political thuggery has hounded the nation and made most youths susceptible is to hit the nail to the wall. So entrenched was thuggery, especially in the North, that at a point it became the basic yardstick to measure the ‘political strength and acceptability’ of most politicians.

Two states in the North where thuggery was elevated, as some would say, to become almost like an institutional apparatus of state as they assumed and exhibited powers that were hitherto only associated with security outfits, were Borno and Gombe States. While ‘ECOMOG’  ran  Borno State berserk with the support and encouragement of the then governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, in Gombe State, the Yankalari group, made sure that their fear was the beginning of wisdom as they became  law onto themselves.

Needless to say that the havoc that has been wrecked into the system has today led to the tense security situation in the country with the Boko Haram menace taking over the entire North, with billions of naira worth of properties destroyed as human lives on daily basis continue to be wasted.

And so, when penultimate week Governor Dankwambo, through his  ‘Talba Youths Re-orientation and Rehabilitation Programme’ graduated over 2000 former ‘yan kalare’ thugs into ward, traffic and environmental marshals. With a plan to further rehabilitate another group of 2000 youths in no distant time, the scheme it must be said has exposed the inactivity of most governments as clearly it revealed that perhaps the solution to the youthful decadence in the country may not be unconnected with the continued docile and carefree attitude of leaders, especially from the North.

Give it to the Governor Dankwambo. He has joined the list of impressive governors after just a year in office and with a much more lesser revenue and federal allocation profile, his rating by the media in recent time as the foremost performing governor in the North East region, has continued to be endorsed by individuals, organizations and groups, the rehabilitation programme. Suffice it to say seems to be an exemplary and practical solution as to how poverty, unemployment, youths restiveness and thuggery could be drastically reduced, if not eliminated.

A former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, known for his hardstand on governance, while rating the style of governance of the Dankwambo said , ‘’ Dankwambo is one of the Northern governors that is educated, experienced and prepared for top-level leadership. He would do well and build upon Goje’s significant investments in infrastructure in the State.”

El-Rufai who described the budget of Gombe State under Dankwambo as well structured, says the budget in all ramification is not only realistic but accurately configured to match with estimates as it reflects the potentialities of the state.

“Next to Lagos and Kaduna, Gombe State has the most detailed and well- structured budgets amongst the states we have reviewed. This is commendable, but not surprising since all three governors are educated and experienced public servants. The Gombe budget for 2012 is 93.5billion – an increase of about 15 percent from the 2011 budget of 79.4 billion.

“The government diligently ensures that all recurrent revenue is spent on recurrent expenditures and the same for capital receipts and expenditures. Impressively, most of the 2012 projections were derived based on the actual expenditures for 2011 and not based on the unrealistic 2011 approved estimates. The Dankwambo administration is paying attention to how the monies are actually spent rather than concentrating on increasing the figures indiscriminately from previous year’s base. These are realistic budgeting practices,” el–Rufai posited.

Also worthy of mention, is the huge infrastructural investment that the Governor has continued to put up in the state following the adoption of the committee set up to map out the state’s developmental programme. From education, roads, health, rural and community development to youth empowerment, the efforts of the Dankwambo administration has come to be recognized as one that will continue to be legendary.

For instance, elder statesman, Dr Yusuf Maitama Sule, Danmasanin Kano, at the commissioning of a road project as part of events to mark May 29 Democracy Day celebration in the State, described Dankwambo as the present day Sardauna and immediately asked other governors especially of Northern extraction to emulate Dankwambo, saying if the developmental strides in Gombe State is replicated amongst governors in the North, he was optimistic that the region would be pulled out from the socio-economic challenges that has entrenched poverty in the region over the years.

At several fora, the predominant poverty in the North has been attributed to the non-commitment of the region’s governors in rapidly embarking on concrete developmental policies for the empowerment of their states, which the governors on their part have always debunked, saying they could not be totally held responsible for the region’s fortunes.

However, if facts are sacred and truth must be told, it must be stated that for there to be a change in order, there must be meaningful implementation of set policies, fully backed up with courage and political will to change the tide. The transient nature of power suggest that the control over machineries of power will not be permanent and hence must be deployed to the resuscitate and revamp not just economies but also the standard of living of the citizenry. To say that in this regard, the Dankwambo administration like the precedence set in the Niger Delta through the granting of amnesty and eventual empowerment of militants has indeed set the tone for the Northern governors to emulate and resolve to uplift their states. The scary poverty situation and security challenges of the time suggest that all hands must be on deck to tame this evil. The Gombe Governor must thus be lauded.

Umar Hassan, Gombe State.