Gombe and serial betrayers
Gombe State is among the few states where the military interregnum did not last long. This is because barely three years after it was carved out from Bauchi State, Nigeria returned to presidential democracy. In the governorship election in 1999, it was Alhaji Abubakar Hashidu that won and therefore became the state first democratically-elected governor of the state.
But, because the euphoria of the state’s creation was very high, Governor Hashidu seemed to have been overwhelmed by the challenges confronting the state. He struggled for the right strategies to adopt in developing the state.
Consequently, the people decided to by-pass him in the 2003 governorship poll, when he stood on the same All Peoples Party (APP) to seek a second term mandate.
That led to the electorate casting massive block of votes to elect a visionary young and gifted leader, Alhaji Danjuma Mohammed Goje, as governor in the 2003 general elections. By the time Goje was elected as governor, there was nothing to suggest that he was either overwhelmed or confused as to how to pilot the affairs of the young state.
Of course, before his election as governor, Goje was armed with rich political and private sector experience. Having served in the Bauchi State House of Assembly as well as, in the Federal Ministry of Power and Steel as the Minister of State, he was clear-headed about what direction the executive should take to address the plights of the people.
But, most importantly, being a graduate of Political Science from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the governor went down to churn out impactful policies and programmes. In a short space of time, Gombe State started hugging national headlines on account of the prodigious developmental strides of Governor Goje.
Elected precisely three years after the United Nations declared the Millennium Development Goals, Goje, whose initials also spell MDG (Mohammed Danjuma Goje), embarked on aggressive expansion of access to quality healthcare and education, even as he moved to ensure the maximisation of Gombe State’s agricultural potentials.
As governor, Goje pursued very ambitious programmes and projects that lifted Gombe State from obscurity to star-status in the comity of Nigeria’s 36 states. Through these life changing projects in Healthcare, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Education, Poverty Reduction and Environmental protection, not many remembered that Gombe State was among the latest six states created by the military regime
of General Sani Abacha in 1996.
Today, the Gombe State University, Pantami International Stadium, and Gombe State Airport stand prominently as part of the Lionhearted courage of Goje’s administration. Apart from the state university, the Goje administration expanded the access of women and the girl-child to formal education, just as the government gave fillip to the cause of adult education, which led to the leap-frogging of literacy in the state. He passionately influenced the setting up of the College of Horticulture at Dadin Kowa in Yamaltu Deba Local Government.
It’s obvious Gombe State is heterogeneous society with predominantly native Muslim and Christian faithful and a sprinkling of traditionalists in Southern parts of the state.
As such, to strike a sort of religious balance, the Gombe Central Mosque and Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) Centre were built. Indeed, throughout Goje’s tenure as governor, there wasn’t any religious crisis or protest of discrimination unlike what has become the order of the day currently. In recognition of his drive for peaceful coexistence among different religions in the state, Goje was the only Muslim governor decorated with a ‘Peace Award’ by CAN youth wing in Abuja at an event attended by prominent Christian leaders including; Gen. Yakubu Gowon rtd, late Solomon Lar, Pastor William Kumuyi, Bishop John Onaiyekan among many others.
Although this piece was not motivated by the need to enumerate the achievements of the Goje administration in Gombe State, it is important to note that the state witnessed improvement in security and urban sanitation. That the state enjoyed relative peace and experienced improved access to safe drinking water could be traced to Goje’s background as one-time Secretary of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos.
This author was challenged to reflect on the political evolution of Gombe State up until this present moment of petty recriminations. Coming over from Bauchi State, where persons from the present area that constitute Gombe State played in the background, Goje’s efforts at grooming a pool of emergent leaders was superlative.
A significant feature of that policy of raising future leaders could be seen in the emergence of the current governor, Inuwa Yahaya as the Gombe State chief executive. Upon Goje’s electoral triumph against Hashidu in 2003, Inuwa was among the crop of inexperienced young hands the governor recruited into the state cabinet.
And, being intentional in his determination to provide an assemblage of experienced politicians from which Gombe people could tap for various leadership positions, Governor Goje retained Inuwa as his Finance Commissioner for the two-terms he served the state as governor.
However, perhaps eager to migrate to the high office of governor, Inuwa abridged his years of tutelage to contest the governorship ticket of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011. As a journalist, this writer could recall that based on the towering popularity of Governor Goje in the state, many contestants had lined up for the PDP ticket.
Of course, being Goje’s Finance Commissioner, Inuwa had jumped into the bandwagon, believing that the sound financial management and superb project conception and implementation of the Goje administration would redound to his electoral advantage.
However, just as wishes are not horses, that vaulting ambition to take the place of his principal crashed, as the former Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, dusted all the contenders to clinch the PDP governorship ticket. Dankwambo eventually won the main election.
Inuwa Yahaya could not benefit from that masterstroke of continuity, because of all the plethora of contestants for the PDP governorship ticket, it was only him and Usman Bayero Nafada that approached the court to challenge what was evidently a transparent primary.
Until today, most of the losers at the primaries against Dankwambo are angry with Goje in the mistaken belief that he favoured him to clinched the ticket. But, miserably and despite shepherding him along in the mucky waters of politics, and ensuring that he won the 2011 governorship election, Dankwambo left a dagger at the back of his benefactor through his promulgated anti-Goje’s actions and inaction. What a payback!
However, as a father who is committed to a better future for his children, Goje overlooked Inuwa’s tantrums against him after the loss of the PDP ticket in 2011. That was why as the 2015 general elections approached, the former governor carried Inuwa on his back again to join the newly-minted All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tapping on Goje’s experience and rich fund of political goodwill, APC leaders had mounted pressures on the former governor to join them in the arduous task of confronting the ruling PDP to deliver the party. However, APC won at the Presidential election, but lost the governorship. The reason is not farfetched.
At the home front, Goje charitably acceded to Inuwa’s desperation to become governor. Pushing aside the strong reservations of well-meaning leaders and influential traditional rulers, Goje forgot Inuwa’s rebellious tantrums in 2011 and supported him for the APC governorship ticket at the expense of the then House of Representatives’ Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Bayero Nafada. But, Senator Goje was severely cautioned against supporting Inuwa, because according to them supporting Inuwa would not earn him any reciprocal regard.
Nonetheless, what Goje could not do, the Gombe voters did: They turned their backs on Inuwa and re-elected Dankwambo for a second term. That Dankwambo survived what was later known as Buhari Tsunami in the North could be traced to a combination of factors, chiefly, because he was paired against a very unpopular candidate on the APC platform. Incredibly, Inuwa lost in the same state that Buhari’s got massive votes.
Yet, seeing Inuwa’s repeated failures as a dent on his political clout, in 2019, Goje again supported his governorship aspiration. The former governor took Inuwa around the 11 Local Government Areas of the state, pleading with the people to elect him as governor.