Thefirst thing that came to my mind as the news of Senator Sa’idu Kumo’s
exit from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was broken to me last
Monday was a gigantic primary school located in Kumo, his hometown,
which I was privileged to visit recently.
The curriculum of the school, as I found
out, places a lot of emphasis on vocational education. As I later found
out, such schools dot many parts of Gombe State.
They were built by the
incumbent governor of the state, Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, and they
are an integral part of the governor’s policy of catching them young; to
prepare the leaders of tomorrow for the challenges of an increasingly
unpredictable world, so that they could fend for themselves and play
positive roles in the development of the global society.
As a leader with uncommon focus that he
has since proved to be and in his desire for a holistic Gombe, Governor
Dankwambo has gone a step further to establish key tertiary
institutions, with the icing on the cake being the Gombe State
University of Science and Technology, also located in Senator Sa’idu’s
hometown, Gombe.
The governor has initiated, constructed and completed
all the structures in the university, and the National Universities
Commission has given its approval for the ivory tower to take
off.
Dankwambo did this to bring education to the doorsteps of the
young, so that they would not latch on to the excuse of distance. The
university is a sight to behold, and travellers to Gombe from Yola could
not mistake the institution that is primed to produce effective global
leaders for tomorrow.
It is, therefore, not surprising that in
stating his reasons for exiting PDP, Senator Kumo ensured he did not
call to question the governor’s unprecedented achievements.
This is a
man I personally held in a high esteem, and who served as Dankwambo’s
campaign coordinator for the 2015 gubernatorial election. Why then is he
suddenly ditching the PDP and his erstwhile friend? I could not believe
my ears when I heard the former senator saying he was leaving the PDP
because the governor doesn’t like him.
I listened over and over again to
hear whether one of the reasons has to do with some disappointment in
Dankwambo’s performance in office. But there was none of such. And the
governor’s supporters have a right to feel that is an endorsement by
Kumo of Dankwambo’s unprecedented achievements in office.
Without doubt, this is a scandal. To
think that someone of the stature of Senator Kumo is ditching a
political party because, in his words, the governor of his home state
doesn’t like him is preposterous. Of course, by now Nigerians are used
to hearing of some politicians ditching their political parties on
flimsy grounds, most often for personal aggrandizement.
One recalls a
commissioner in the neighbouring state in December 2016, also ditching
the APC and his principal because he was not involved in deciding who
becomes the caretaker chairman of his home local government. Such cheap
politics has since become the stock in trade of some of our politicians
However, even though there are people who
have always harboured doubts about Senator Kumo, arguing that he is
given to crass opportunism, I couldn’t believe he would descend so low.
This is a man I thought I was right to credit with lots of
sophistication.
Even with arguments that he opportunistically ditched
then General Muhammadu Buhari, his then party’s presidential
standard-bearer to take up a small appointment with the late President
Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration, I still thought Nigeria’s realistic
chance for redemption was with people like Senator Kumo.
As a newsman, I
tried to find out whether truly Governor Dankwambo doesn’t like Senator
Kumo, as the latter claims, but as the information commissioner of
Gombe State rightly pointed out, you cannot appoint someone to the
sensitive position of your campaign coordinator unless you hold him in
the highest esteem.
The level of trust must also be complete. Governors
are voted into power to serve the people. Posterity will remember only
them, and not their friends, if they allow personal friendships to push
them to failure. Fact is, they can only govern effectively with little
or no distraction. There is no way anything meaningful could be achieved
when a friend or godfather begins to see himself as alternate governor.
Such disposition brings about squabbles.
Now, what is next for Senator Kumo?
According to him, he is going to take some rest before deciding his
political future. Is he going to decamp to the APC, to get a better
chance of succeeding Dankwambo as governor? If he does, will he get the
support of President Muhammadu Buhari, whose exit from the ANPP in 2010
Senator Kumo described as “a good riddance to bad rubbish?” Whatever he
ends up deciding, the fact remains that his exit from PDP will not do
him any good.
Well, no human system is ever perfect. It
is possible Governor Dankwambo has made some mistakes. But what Senator
Kumo ought to discern is whether those mistakes were of the head or of
the heart. Reconciliation would have been the key.
This would help for a
better Gombe, which would help the government in its achievements.
Talking about achievements, Dankwambo has left a mark in Kumo, the
senator’s hometown, and other towns and villages of Gombe.
This is a
governor who doesn’t owe the state’s civil servants or pensioners. The
secret is credible and accountable governance, and the ability to
seriously manage scarce resources through an exquisite act of
prioritisation.
Courtesy of Dankwambo, Gombe has gone far ahead of its
peers in development. What the state needs in 2019 is a focused leader
who is going to build on those shining legacies for the continuous
development of the people.
SUN