By Abu Ubaida Ibrahim Kuna
Your Excellency the Governor-Elect,
Permit me to first use the medium to congratulate you for the victory of the March elections, it is indeed a verdict of the good people of Gombe State to this time give you the opportunity to showcase what you have been planing for the State and the people in general.
Your Excellency may wish to know that, the verdict of the mandate, freely given by the good people of Gombe state is fully out. With a total vote count of 364,179 in favour of you and Distinguished Sen. Usman Bayero Nafada of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP coming second with 222,868, you emerged the governor-elect of Gombe state, the oasis of peace in the Northeast region, as well as the Jewel In The Savannah.
With a margin of 141, 311 votes, the people of Gombe State have overwhelmingly decided that you should head the affairs of Gombe State.
Congratulations, Sir. As the former commissioner of Finance under Danjuma Goje administration, you are the first to know about the huge burden placed on your ebullient shoulders, to carry and deliver the destiny of the Gombe State for the next four years to greater heights. We expect no less.
All concerned citizens of Gombe State usually feel proud and count themselves extremely lucky to have had governors who carry with pride, the ‘Je Suis Gombe’ ( I am Gombe) ethos. And they show it in their uncommon commitment that the term is beyond party politics, and that it is a call to higher zeal to build Gombe State as they strive to unite the people of Gombe State.
Gombe people recall with happiness how Governor Danjuma Goje,(2003-2011) worked hard to build the then young state that was basically rural, with infrastructure.
By the time Goje’s tenure came to an end in 2011 and he handed over to the young and dynamic Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, Gombe State saw the firm hands on the plough and knew that yes, ‘espiritus Gombe’ was a deep and ongoing ethos that would be sustainable. In just four years, Dankwambo changed the face of the state, reaching hitherto far flung and cut off portions of Gombe State by integrating them into mainstream modernity with tarred roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, etc.
The strides of Dr. Dankwambo were so loud and so visible to even the deaf and the blind that when the gale of the Buhari ‘Change’ tsunami swept across the entire northern region, people of Gombe State smiled and asked the wind of change not to settle in Gombe. It should pass them by. Therefore, as neighboring North Eastern states were falling like a pack of cards as well as the North West and the North Central to the APC, Gombe State remained the PDP state standing, and Dankwambo was returned to office for another four years for the final governorship tenure.
It was a freely given decision of the Gombe people, who ultimately hold the fate of every politician in their hands.
This time around, people’s power in Gombe State has spoken, that you are their choice. With this onerous responsibility, I would like to use my pen to advise you to eschew all political differences, put your hands on the plough and focus on building Gombe State, like your successors.
Though from Gombe North, Dankwambo opened up Shongom, Yamaltu-Deba by linking them with access roads and bridges in Gombe Central. There was no discrimination, no neglect, it was all about integration and unity in the ethos of ‘Espiritus Gombe’
Your Excellency, you can do no less! To emulate from the previous administrations of Danjuma Goje and Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo in this regard.
As well as uniting and integrating Gombe North, Central and South into one people, indivisible and bound in peace, like Dankwambo did, education, health and youth empowerment should be prioritized, amongst many other sectors.
Party politics should not be allowed to interfere with the abiding good faith in Gombe State, and by treating each and everyone of the people equally, irrespective of religious, tribal or political differences, the peaceful coexistence among the good people of Gombe State would be sustained and the state
would achieve its deeper essence in leaps and bounds.
That was what Dankwambo did as his legacy of politics without bitterness, just to keep Gombe a safer State in the midst of the turbulence in other parts of the North East region.
You know that and every one knows that, your huge electoral success did not come without the youth and women who contributed almost 90% to your victory. Therefore integrating them into your administration is a sine qua non to success.
By selecting and Implementing some of these words of advice will, In Sha Allah, make you a great leader as well as being a part of the history of Gombe State.
Once again, congratulations over your victory. As We look forward to a greater Gombe under your leadership.
Unfeignedly Yours,
Abu-Ubaida Ibrahim Kuna.
Kuna, Media Adviser to Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo, writes from Gombe.
