On how re-election bids should be
Nguru people say this was the largest ever assembly of people to mark or witness an event in the town’s long history. That the campaign organization was able to pull off a successful outing at Nguru last Saturday was the result not just of good organisation but of the facts and realities in Yobe’s political […]
Nguru people say this was the largest ever assembly of people to mark or witness an event in the town’s long history. That the campaign organization was able to pull off a successful outing at Nguru last Saturday was the result not just of good organisation but of the facts and realities in Yobe’s political life today. It is not only about the provision of social services, although there is a surfeit of them to talk about. For example, the administration has opened up the state not just to itself but to the rest of the world through massive construction of road networks – township roads, rural access roads, highways, etc – that are helping to shape a new economic future.
Gaidam has also fundamentally addressed Yobe’s water supply problems, although there is still work to be done since it is not possible to make water available to 2.6 million people all at once. There has also been remarkable progress in housing development, education and agriculture. But while all these are important, there is something more fundamental at the core of the Gaidam praxis that appears to impress the crowd all the time and that radiates beyond the highest expectation of even his campaign organisation. It is the Gaidam persona – humble and considerate. While these endear the governor to the people, what appears to hold constant all across Yobe State is this common belief that Gaidam is a ‘man of his words’.
Scores of people in the communities and towns so far visited by the Gaidam campaign team are reported to have asked for one additional service or another. This is an indication that the electorate still has confidence and want to feel, some more, the impact of an administration known to be devoted to its people. Not surprisingly, many of the requests were for access roads, improved water supply and equipping or upgrading of schools. To date, the Gaidam administration, for instance, is said to have built and/or renovated over a thousand kilometers of road. And, naturally, the more people see roads constructed close to them, the closer they want it to come to their homes.
The momentum that the Gaidam Campaign continues to generate appears to relate to what many see as the disarray in the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Yobe State. With three very serious litigations against the PDP gubernatorial candidate currently before the Federal High Court, one of which borders on certificate forgery, it is anyone’s guess what becomes of the party in Yobe State. What holds true in Yobe PDP today is that the party is steeply divided, its members deeply disoriented and some of the most informed among them currently reviewing their attachment to the party. This perhaps explains why in all the areas so far visited by the Gaidam Campaign, many people crossed over to the ruling All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) from the PDP and other parties. Media reports say that the people who leave the PDP cite the dissension within the party and Governor Gaidam’s performance as the reasons for their action.
The bitterness and violence that trailed the PDP gubernatorial primaries in Yobe State also continues to feed the sense of disorientation within the party. To date, there are hundreds of thousands of supporters of Alhaji Adamu Maina Waziri who contested the PDP primaries with Alhaji Usman Albishir who have vowed not to look in the direction of Albishir because they still can not understand why the primary election was violent when three others preceding it from 1999 to 2007 had never seen anything like that.
It is common knowledge, especially in Yobe Zone B, that scores of these people who felt that matters have taken a turn for the worst in Yobe PDP, have openly expressed their readiness to support Governor Gaidam if only to ensure the continuity of the social renewal programmes of his administration.
The concern among these people is not only that their leader, Adamu Waziri could not clinch the PDP ticket. It goes beyond that. With questions raised regarding the authenticity of Albishir’s secondary school certificate, there is fear that he may not even be the candidate to fly the party’s flag and so rather than wait for the worst to happen, they had better come in the open and make their mind known as a form of protest.
As the Gaidam Campaign continues to traverse Yobe, the unity of purpose within the ruling ANPP is also giving to it an added boost. Wherever he went, Governor Gaidam is always together with the former governor of the state and now senator, Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim, all Yobe members of National Assembly from the ANPP, the entire members of the State Assembly as well as the party leadership in the State. So, as elections draw near, it appears that Governor Gaidam and the ANPP in Yobe State are having many things working for them, the party is setting an example of how a re-election campaign should be.
Jaba writes from Sabon Gari Quarters, Gashua Yobe State.