This and many more similar incidents bring to fore the need for credible and representative leadership in Gombe State. The way things stand now, everything seem to revolve around the PDP leadership in the state.

I was in Gombe last week in full solidarity and support for Ibrahim Dankwambo. I have never been to a political campaign rally in my life. When we arrived Dadin-kowa by 2:30pm, we went round Garin Sarki, Hinna. What angered me was the vanishing mega-farm of the famous Vegfru, a farm that hitherto was feeding the entire country with tomatoes, mango, water melon etc. What is actually wrong with our leaders one will be forced to ask.

When we visited Hinna, I noticed some solar street lights all the way from the Dandin Kowa Bridge to Gwani junction. Inside the town I noticed some others being fixed at that time. I tried to ask whose initiative it was to have this very important town enjoy brightness at night. I was informed that it was Hon. Shuaibu Galadima. I could not believe it that this young man could come up with such a laudable initiative after spending only four years in the House of Representatives. This is one way we can all contribute in our own small way to the development of our areas.

During the rally of Yamaltu I enjoyed the speech of the state PDP chairman Jack Gumpi. Our father, Hassan Santana, as usual with brief words  of wisdom, made the entire rally look sober with his words on the need for reconciliation and for the PDP to close ranks in Yamaltu Deba.

My quarrel with the Dadinkowa rally is that from the emir’s palace to the rally ground, speakers after speakers I never heard of, infact just anyone, is talking about what the people of Dadinkowa want from the government of Dankwambo. If my small knowledge of political campaigns is anything to go by, a candidate visits a particular community, the political leaders or representatives of the people will come with their demand list, read it out to the hearing of everyone what the community expects from the candidate in exchange for their votes. Usually these demands are given in a form of a written document and at the first point of arrival, in which case here is the emir’s palace. The political campaign team will collect the demand list but only acknowledge receipt but without specific statement. Normally, there is a break for the host to offer reception or lunch at an appropriate venue or at the residence of the most senior politician or cabinet member in that area. It is during this period that the campaign team and the candidate will look at the demands of that community and compare with what they already wanted to offer. Because the campaign team is expected to carry out thorough research and intelligence gathering so as to know the problems of the community, they usually come prepared with solutions.

After comparing the two documents the team must find a confluence, then summarize them and hand them over to the candidate. The candidate must discuss these demands again separately with his running mate for him to also understand and concur.

So at the campaign rally later on, the candidate will read out these promises as a response to the demand  of the community as handed over to him earlier. The wisdom, according to convention, of why the demand cannot be addressed where it was presented is because those at that venue are only the privileged ones and they do not   represent the size of the larger community.

I was surprised that the Dadinkowa rally did not say anything about the problem of the community; no one talked about it. The chairman of the local government spoke, the deputy speaker of the State Assembly from Yamaltu East spoke, the State Assembly aspirant from YamaltuWest spoke too. Yet none of them asked Dankwambo what he wants to do for them. This in short was the climax of the event for me because obviously the electorate and their leaders have very little clue about how they can influence the political process to work for them. This ignorance has got to stop.

Gara-Gombe wrote from Herwa Gana Quarters, Gombe. [email protected].