Gauging Gov.Yahaya’s Missteps on Goje
At the critical cusp of Africa’s most knife-edged presidential transition, some sub-national chief executives are choreographing surprisingly naïve plots to consolidate their perceived power. Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State is one example.
It is then not surprising that a clearly miffed All Progressives Congress’ NCW - recently moved swiftly to rein in the needless contrived conflict the governor is conjuring both covertly and overtly - targeting Senator Danjuma Goje. The party obviously saw these political missteps as an excessive flight of fancy.
About a week ago, APC decisively nullified the so-called expulsion of former Governor Goje, currently a serving senator representing Gombe Central, over his alleged involvement in anti-party activities. Goje was purportedly expelled by his Kashere Ward of the ruling party in Gombe State. Not surprisingly, the so-called expulsion choreographed by Governor Yahaya was later affirmed by the state executive of the party. Governor Yahaya served as Commissioner of Finance for eight years under Goje’s administration.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, issued a statement on behalf of the party in Abuja, titled, “Expulsion of Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje set aside - remains a bonafide member of APC.”
He said: “The attention of the National Headquarters of All Progressives Congress has been drawn to media reports of the purported expulsion of His Excellency, Senator Mohammad Danjuma Goje by the Gombe State Executive Committee of our party.
“The party has directed that the said expulsion, and all related actions in the matter, be and are hereby, set aside pending further review and decision of the party’s National Working Committee on the matter. Therefore, Senator Goje is, and remains, a bonafide member of the Gombe State chapter of our party.”
The APC had correctly read the governor’s puzzling shenanigans as endangering the state which had been traditionally a Peoples’ Democratic Party enclave. Statistical analysis of the last general elections shows that the state was almost slipping back to PDP grip.
It could be recalled that during the February 25 election, Governor Yahaya shockingly lost his polling unit, ward, local government, senatorial district and indeed the entire state to PDP. In the governorship election many political observers believe the governor deployed huge resources at his disposal to win the election unlike in the presidential election where the APC failed. Yahaya’s victory however is being challenged in court.
Instructively, the Governor Yahaya’s prime target Senator Goje remains the key pillar keeping the party from being swept out by the PDP sweeping tide. It is this circumspect statesman and pillar of APC political strength in Gombe State, Senator Goje, that Governor Yahaya, early in the month applauded the state APC for allegedly expelling him on the trumped-up charges of anti-party activity.
It could be recalled that addressing newsmen at the Sani Abacha International Airport, Lawanti, Gombe, after a three-week break for lesser hajj, Governor Yahaya said he was in tune with happenings in the state, while away in Saudi Arabia. He said: “I am a member of APC. Whatever the party has done, I support.” If Yahaya’s alleged anti-Senator Goje plots were
initially seen as speculative, the governor himself killed off any niggling doubts as to his intent.
Many political stakeholders in Gombe recall that Governor Yahaya’s successful governorship aspiration was given critical fillip and substance by the focused influence of Senator Goje’s towering clout. They readily recall that Governor Yahaya emerged through a transparent process under Goje’s able leadership during the APC’s 2018 gubernatorial primary elections, despite the arrays of prominent and strong contenders like; Faruk Bamusa, Muhammed Jibrin Barde, Sen. Idris Umar, Dasuki Jalo Waziri, Hon. Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, Habu Mu’azau among others.
In effect, tracking back, what determined the gubernatorial outcome and gave Yahaya the throne in 2019 general election despite PDP’s power of incumbency coupled with their financial war chest, was the ability of party leader, Senator Goje not only to nimbly appease towering chieftains who lost to Yahaya in the gubernatorial primary election but also ensuring none defected from the APC to PDP.
Goje also successfully courted folks like Jamil Isyaku Gwamna, Bala Bello Tinka, and Abubakar BD among others to join the APC’s train then. Goje is seen as the pivot and remains rallying point of APC in Gombe State. He represents the foundational base of APC’s 2019 triumph in the state.
It could also be recalled that when Goje took over Gombe State in 2003 from Hashidu of ANPP, he returned the state fully to PDP. When he joined APC, he also led the party to win all the NASS seats and returned the state to fully APC.
Instructively, during the February 25 2023 election, only Goje won a senate seat for APC out of the three Gombe State senate seats. In House of Representatives, APC won just one House of Representatives seat and this was mainly influenced by Goj’es towering popularity as they shared the same federal constituency and local government.
Governor Yahaya’s sole focus was on retaining his gubernatorial throne which he did by the skin of his teeth. Even this tenuous victory is being challenged in court. Losing his own polling unit, ward, and local government clearly signalled that the supremacy conflict he is pushing with
Senator Goje could cost APC a lot. Even the APC presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu lost the state woefully to the opposition PDP.
Many political observers correctly believe that a naive challenge to Senator Goje’s authority or influence in the state he made considerable sacrifices as one of the key founding fathers by any young upstarts will naturally end in futility. It would also appear that in a season of partisan frenzy, fair assessment of matters, personalities and contexts in the political space has indeed become a strenuous undertaking. Like the patient vulture, the PDP waits and plots its own counter punch.
For the anxious Gombe folks who wait in the wings, its indeed morning yet on creation day.
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 of 2003, Goje defeated Alhaji Abubakar Hashidu, who was elected in 1999 as the first democratically-elected governor of the state on the platform of All Peoples Party (APP).
It is on record that before he was massively voted for in 2003 as governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Goje had a rich political resume and private sector experience. He served in the Bauchi State House of Assembly as well as, in the Federal Ministry of Power and Steel as the Minister of State.
So, with that level of experience and political maturity, Goje knew how to make things happen in the development of Gombe State. Of course, being a graduate of Political Science from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, he did not waste time but formulated impactful policies and programmes.
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. The heterogeneous nature of Gombe State showed a markedly native Muslim and Christian population and a sprinkling of traditionalists in Southern parts of the state.
It was therefore in a bid 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.
It was in recognition of his drive for peaceful coexistence among different religions in the state that Goje became the only Muslim governor to be honoured 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.
Under Goje’s watch, Gombe State experienced improvement in security and urban sanitation, even as the state enjoyed relative peace and improved access to safe drinking water.
On the political front, Gombe State, which suffered marginalisation before it was carved out from Bauchi State, benefitted immensely from Goje’s efforts at grooming a pool of emergent leaders. Thus, a significant feature of that policy of raising future leaders saw the emergence of the current governor, Inuwa Yahaya as the Gombe State chief executive.
Immediately, Goje took the mantle of leadership from Hashidu in 2003, he recruited some young people, including Inuwa, into the state cabinet with the intention of raising a body of experienced politicians for the state to fall back on for leadership recruitment. That could explain why Goje retained Inuwa as his Finance Commissioner for the two-terms he served the state as governor.
That background enabled Inuwa to start dreaming big about becoming governor. He left the cabinet to contest unsuccessfully for the PDP governorship ticket in 2015, losing to the former Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who eventually won the gubernatorial election.
Although Inuwa Yahaya and Usman Bayero Nafada challenged the governorship primary that threw up Dankwambo, most of the losers at the primaries remained angry with Goje in the belief that he favoured Dankwambo to clinched the ticket.
In spite of the fact that Goje brought Dankwambo into politics like many others, Dankwambo brought about some anti-Goje policies and even abandoned initiatives of his predecessor. What a payback!
Nonetheless, as a father committed to a better future for his children, Goje overlooked Inuwa’s outbursts against him after he lost the PDP ticket in 2011 and carried him on his back to APC, where contested the governorship against Dankwambo.
However, Inuwa failed, because while APC won at the Presidential election, it lost the governorship. Though it was not Goje’s fault, Inuwa’s loss raised some question marks about the APC governorship candidate in the election.
Yet, pushing aside the strong reservations of well-meaning leaders and influential traditional rulers, Goje overlooked Inuwa’s rebellion 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 leave sands in his mouth. Regrettably, Inuwa lost in the same state that Buhari’s got massive votes.
It was after seeing Inuwa’s repeated electoral losses as a dent on his political clout that Goje campaigned vigorously for him in the 2019 governorship, taking him around the 11 Local Government Areas of the state as he begged voters to elect Inuwa as governor for his sake.
But, not long after Inuwa won and became governor, he forgot what Goje went through to make him succeed. He descended on his benefactor and former principal, Senator Goje.