Coming Out of wilderness: One Governor Making Good things Happen in His State
Several years ago, after his
well thought-out campaign pumped him up into the kind of galvanizing governor
Gombe citizens have never had, he has very much led his traditional state of
Gombe Emirate, tucked away in the North-East of Nigeria (roughly, the once
Tangale-Waja Chiefdom) onto the part of limelight and heavenly bliss, dwarfing
every of his contemporaries in that region with his style of governance and
management. And, the people, it seems, like fish to water, becoming used to
evolutionary forward movements and improved standard of living in all facet of
their lives would not want such lifeline discontinued. I am an occasional
visitor to the state and have witnessed the man’s excellent statesmanship. My
most cherished and private memorable impression of Gombe till date, remains, the
last December, 2013, exhibition of charismas lightings; sparkling spectacle so
warm and endearing, only Lagos has come close to similar non bias religion
display of splendour.
Governor, Ibrahim Hassan
Dankwambo (Talban Gombe) was born on the 4th of April 1962 at
Gombe. He graduated from Ahmadu Bello University in 1985 with a degree in
Accounting. He obtained a Master of Science degree in Economics from the
University of Lagos in 1992. He began his career with Coopers & Lybrand in
1985, and worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria from 1988 to 1999. He was then
appointed Accountant General of Gombe State, holding this position until 2005.
He was appointed Accountant - General of the Federation on 20 April 2005. He
held this office until he resigned to start his campaign for election as
Governor of Gombe State in January 2011.
That many years of work
experience played well with many voters such that in that same year, the people
of Gombe spoke, loud and very clear. On the 26th of April, Dankwambo
swept his opponents aside by 596,481 votes, trashing two candidates formerly of
two parties now part of the All Progressive Congress (APC); Alhaji Abubakar
Aliyu of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with 91,781 votes and
Senator (Dr.) Sa’idu Umar Kumo who was then with the All Nigeria People’s Party
(ANPP), with 84,959 votes.
Discerning pundits who have
followed his work since becoming governor and noted his level of success say the
man has achieved this well because his leadership approach resonates with the
people and, because he has been able to address major areas of the people’s
needs, particularly issues of inequality, neglects and uneven distribution of
wealth. He has managed the state fund well and closed the loopholes that has
over the years seen the state’s riches fretted away to enrich other states and
countries, and what more, he has given working, non-working families and small
businesses supportive reliefs; by expanding child and mother care and mandating
prompt payment of all due allowances to all workers as well as encouraging and
supporting small scale businesses to thrive.
He's always been one or two
steps ahead of his contemporaries on all fronts of progressive issues. He has
ran a fantastic, really powerful grass-roots people’s management system that
has made his admirers and supporters passionate and motivated in such ways they
want to see him remain governor for another term, much stronger than they ever have
been seen clamouring for any Gombe son. And some of the major reasons for
such fervent wishes and calls are that he connects with his people so well, in very
personal ways; empathetic in the ways he talks to them about their lives.
He
has succeeded because he came with a roadmap of action; drawing on his
experience in government and the private sector: He had started with plans that
had goals and pathways committed to leaving no citizen or sector behind. For
instance, when elected, he did not rush to constitute his executive council of
commissioners and aids, Instead, he constituted sectors based 12 different Committees
(initially eleven but later made twelve) with membership drawn from experts and
senior citizens of the State. Each committee tasked to review critically,
sectors of the state developmental pathways, ascertain the level of the
different Ministries’ contributions and performances and produce blue-print for
each respective sector and sub-sectors. When the administration got going based
on the agreed ‘Committees blueprint’ and, after a year, he re-invited them to
come and check the Score Card of each sector, particularly to assess
performance and areas of achievements as well as spot gaps for further improvements.
So,
the massive support he enjoys and successes so far recorded in the state
obviously could not have happened in a vacuum. Gombe citizen are intelligent
and articulate enough to know they deserves, like every other citizen in a
democracy, the opportunities and dividends
that comes with the and knowing that such dividends only come through responsible
government that performs its core functions well. So, I believe, strongly that the
people, having languished in the wilderness for so long and now brought back to
the path of progress, surely would know to choose wisely in the determination
and consideration of their political and economic future?’
Policies have
consequences, good policies and management, make good things happen and Governor Dankwambo’s policies on education, security, the state civil service, health, transportation,
tourism, investment and private sector partnership, provision and improvement
on source of water supply channels and management of the state’s natural
resources, speak volumes.
Education
There is no effective
economic development without strong educational system, and because strong
schoolings are the only proven route to tomorrow’s grounded growth, the state
has focused her efforts on producing well-grounded educational system that is
enduring. Since coming to the office of the Governor, Dankwambo has focused on various
strategies to improve Gombe public education; the most imposing of these being that
he made certain that the state placed best hands and most effective teachers in
the state public schools, from primary to the university levels, and properly
trained and equipped them with the tools they needed to teach. This has greatly
improved the students’ learning and academic growth. He also has made it a
priority to reward and encourage high-performing schools as ways to promote
competition, innovation and creativity while encouraging strong parental
involvement. All these have encouraged the growth of these schools throughout
the state, especially where they are now being seen as preferred to private
schools. He
has rebuilt schools to magnificent edifices; as well as establishing fresh
academic institution like State Polytechnic (Bajoga); State College of
Education (Billiri); College of Business and Administrative Studies (Kumo);
Vocational and Technical Institute (Akko); and College of Nursing Studies
(Dukku) etc.
As a result, for the past
three years, grades and status of Gombe students and graduates have improved terrifically,
consistently improving, and catching up on past lost ground with the nation as
a whole, and international peers in particular and, surely, if this can be
continued, Gombe would lead the pack in the near future, when it comes to
overall students results and workplace ‘performance graduates.’
Massive
Investment has gone into Strengthening the Healthcare System
Economic development
requires a well-managed and continually improving healthcare delivery system
that provides quality care at affordable costs. Gombe state has invested well
to have pool of world-class healthcare institutions and practitioners who are pioneering
improved clinical care in the state. However, the state, as is the country
Nigeria, still faces a shortfall in required numbers of healthcare providers as
the number of people in need of care continues to rise, more so with the influx
of displaced persons from neighbouring sister states. To address this growing demand on the healthcare system,
the state has continued to create enabling environment to attract and retain
highly qualified healthcare providers to the state and, working with the
medical, nursing and technical professionals and institutions, the goals has remained
to make the state an ideal place to practice medicine. To this end, he
has built and equipped new hospitals and
other health centres, and refurbishing existing ones. This is in addition to
establishing a College of Nursing, first of its kind, in the entire Sub-Region.
It is hoped that these
remarkable successes would be continued and not truncated and that, the dream
of this administration to improve the system so as to elevate the health and
wellness of the people to an essential height where the state turns a great
health tourist state as well as a state for the indigenes to live healthily,
work and play, would be realised.
Expanding
Options for more investment and Private Sector participation in the economy
In recent times, meeting the
budget implementation has been a challenge in Nigeria, so Gombe State has
continued to explore all opportunities to partner with the private sector to
make necessary improvements and create enabling environment for investors to
come to the state, enabling the private sector in general to thrive. But this
has been very challenging due mainly to the region’s negative insecurity image laundering
by detractors who have failed to focus on the massive investment on security
that has resulted in comparative relative peace and stability and, on the
abundant natural and human resources ready and hungry to be tapped.
It is on record and public knowledge
that Governor Dankwambo has successfully made operational, the 4 star Gombe
International Hotel which was started by previous administration, almost
completed and commissioned but was abandoned due to unpaid liabilities. This
has no doubt reduced high class accommodation shortages in the state and helped
towards attracting potential investors and other classes of visitors.
Gombe therefore remains the
most attractive, secured and largely unexplored business location for
public-private partnerships in the whole of North-East region.
Protecting Gombe
and promoting Safe Communities
Gombe state has
done very well in identifying and implementing innovative strategies and
solutions to better carry out the protection of its citizens. On
resumption of office, the governor stopped the Yan-kalare Syndrome, hitherto
group of political and social miscreants that unleashed terror and havoc on the
State, especially as agents of some shadowy politician. He took them through
self-respecting and responsible reorientation and skills acquisition
programmes, then occupy them in gainful employments. Today, majority of them
serve as state Government staff.
The state has continued to
support, unreservedly, the state and national law enforcement agencies, reduce
frictions between them and the general populace and appropriately dealt with
violators of law and order, be it civilians or law enforcement agents.
Healthy community life and
economic development are of critical importance to Gombe state and so, there
are facilities in place to give law enforcement the necessary logistics they
need to be ready to respond to disasters in any part of the state in an
efficient and timely manner. All these required common-sense approaches, which
the state has done intelligently and efficiently.
The State has continually
invested strategically to Improve Transportation.
The key to the Gombe State’s
success is in building outcome-driven infrastructure investments and being
committed to excellent transportation management. This administration very
early on realized that free-flowing transportation was key to growth in today’s
world of economic competitiveness and improved transportation network has
always been one of the state’s main selling points. The state boasts a
strategic location as a gateway state as well as having good roads that enable
transporters to move people and goods smoothly and efficiently in, out and
through the state.
Certainly, Governor
Dankwambo is revolutionary in the provision of road infrastructures; generally
he has constructed over 36 link roads fully equipped with road markings,
drainages, functional street and traffic lights etc. These include the new
western bypass networks and the many roads remodelled into dual carriage ways.
Gombe State remains the only State Capital in that part of the country, if not
the entire Nigeria, where traffic and street lights stay functional 24/7,
uninterrupted from dusk to dawn and, he is working on the establishment of a
modern Mega Motor Park which un-arguably would rank amongst the best if not the
best in the West African sub-Region. The project is on appreciable level of
completion.
Governor
Dankwambo has re-enforced the ‘Gombe Line’ with bigger, more comfortable
commuter busses, made available new luxury city taxi cabs; and flooded the
State with standard and specialized ‘Keke NAPEP’ tricycles. The priority on transportation investment to improve
mobility has resulted in the state having one of the best transportation
systems in the country. More so, the focus and obsession on improved safety,
connectivity and reliability has helped Gombe transportation services continue
to be safe commuters’ haven.
It has improved
Source of Water and Supply Channel
A state’s economic
development requires dependable water supplies. Governor Dankwambo remains committed to promoting and protecting Gombe’s
water supply through enhanced maintenance and management methods, as well as
developing new storage capacity. Over the past several months, the population
of Gombe has swollen and over some years to come, it is projected to grow
sky-high. The state must prepare for the expected population growth as well as
period of likely droughts that are sure to come. The administration has used
the state resources to assist all the local governments in developing and
improving sources of water and storage system, all in a bid to prepare them for
emergencies and thereby position the state to secure better economic future for
the people. There
have been several commissioned projects and new on-going ones targeting those
parts of the State with most dire water needs like Kwami, Gadam and Bojude etc.
It has Effective
Management of the State’s Natural Resources
Economic development depends
on the sustainable utilization of the state’s rich natural resources. Gombe,
under the governor’s leadership has taken steps in past years to protect the
state’s natural, cultural and historic treasures, and has continued to promote
stewardship to ensure that Gombe retains its pristine environment for future
generations of the indigenes and visiting nature lovers. The state’s agency
responsible for the conservation of the state natural resources has been
mandated to enhance their ecological and economic value, as they drive up
tourism and support jobs around the state.
In
obligation of this state of mind, Dankwambo has embarked on the building of a
global fashioned ‘International Conference Centre’ complete with attached world
class 5 star hotel. This project has reached advance stage of completion.
For the Civil
Servants
Governor Dankwambo re-structured and created new
ministries to cater for the interests of formerly neglected sectors and
sub-sectors. Some of these include; the Metropolitan and Urban Development;
Animal Husbandry and Nomadic Matters etc. Office accommodation used to be a
major headache prior to this administration taking over, including, even in the
Government House. That was then, the story is different today. Yet still, a
massive administrative structure meant to house the Office to the Secretary to
State Government is near completion. And I have had a peek on plans for a
befitting new and grand State Secretariat Complex. On workers’ welfare,
motivations and interest, all salaries the workers confessed, have, and are
always, always been/being promptly paid with virtually no salary arrears owed
to date.
Of course, considering all
of the above, conventional wisdom would dictate that the next governorship
election of 2015, if he chooses to contest, is the People’s Democratic Party
and
Governor Dankwambo’s race to lose, because he
has on ground going for him heaps of concrete and verifiable completed projects
and people oriented developments to point at. Yet, I do not see him resting on
his oars. He has the professional background, intelligence and work experience
to know it is not a done deal.
But, whether you agree with
the above narrative or not, the evidence of his remarkable, marvelous and quiet
years of steady growth and development is out there to be verified and the
people’s support and appreciation has progressively gained ground and
continually gaining favourable foothold in every community. It is incontrovertible,
Gombe has done great under Governor Dankwambo, considering the many man-made
and natural challenges and so, the present administration, under his
leadership, deserves to be honoured with another term.
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