Re: Keffi in political swings
My first disagreement with the piece was on the issue of creation of Nasarawa State where the reporter Hir Joseph got his facts wrong. As far as I am concerned, former Nasarawa State Governor Aliyu Akwe Doma never led the struggle for the creation of Nasarawa state. I happened to be among the Nigeria Standard […]
My first disagreement with the piece was on the issue of creation of Nasarawa State where the reporter Hir Joseph got his facts wrong. As far as I am concerned, former Nasarawa State Governor Aliyu Akwe Doma never led the struggle for the creation of Nasarawa state.
I happened to be among the Nigeria Standard Newspaper reporters then who covered all activities of committee on state and local government creation set-up by late General Sani Abacha when they visited Plateau state for assessment. And I can vividly recollect that Aliyu Akwe Doma did not feature at all during public hearing convened by the committee to receive defenses on the earlier submissions made to the committee on the need for creation of Nasarawa out Plateau which was held at old Plateau House of Assembly complex.
Those who featured prominently, apart from Alhaji Umaru Sulaiman Azores, who served in the committee, were Alhaji Ari Gwaska who put a defense in favour of Lafia as capital of the proposed state, and late Sarkin Nasarawa Alhaji Ramalan Abubakar who defended Akwanga as capital among others. The number one person however which the credit for the creation of Nasarawa state ought to go to is the Emir of Lafia Alhaji Isa Mustapha Agwai, not Aliyu Akwe Doma. Those of us that were privy to how the struggle went, by virtue of our profession, knew the kind of efforts the Emir of Lafia put to ensure the dream of Nasarawa state came true.
One other area which I totally disagreed with is the selection of Keffi as the only town in Nasarawa state that possesses a deciding factor for winning a governorship election. I think Mr Hir also got his facts wrong here. If election is a game of number, I do not see any reason that one can adduce to qualify Keffi the way Mr Hir did saying: ‘Where it gives support, elections are won; and where it withdraws same, former benefactors loss.’ Without any fear of contradictions, it is only Lafia that can aptly fit such a description taking into consideration the total number of registered voters in Lafia local government which stands at 248,508 against that of Keffi which is only 81,233.
On issue of 4, 100 members of CPC who allegedly returned to PDP in Keffi, they were at best rented just to put up the show, considering the enormity of humiliations which the PDP faced in 2011.
Still I do not believe that Engr Wada Yahaya is about the only visible CPC politician in Keffi, Dr Hasan Lawal is an active member of CPC and is still visible in affairs of CPC not only at the state level but nationally. There are also General Ahmad Abdullahi Aboki and the current chairman of the state Universal Primary Education Board, Alhaji Abdulkarim Abdullahi, among others. All these people were not only active but influential members of the CPC in Keff till date.
True, Nasarawa state under Al-makura faces some serious challenges of funds to take care of social needs of 2.5 million people in the state. Against this backdrop, it therefore became incumbent on all of us, including Mr Hir, to imbibe the spirit of appreciating the efforts of Al-makura’s government.
Rayyanu Bala, Lafia. rayanubala@ yahoo.com