‘PDP won Gombe LG elections’
Contrary to the claim by the main opposition parties in Gombe State that the growing popularity of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo among the people of the state has been blown out of proportion, the Senior Special Assistant, Media Affairs to the Governor, Alhaji Mansur Lawal, has disclosed that Dankwambo’s influence is the manifestation of the hard work and commitment he has brought into governance in the last two years.
Describing Dankwambo as an unrepentant stickler for due process, transparency and effective management of resources, the Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Alhaji Buba Shanu, said Dankwambo’s professional competence is a principal factor that drives him to achieve, noting that though he is yet to declare his intention to run for a second term despite the huge support and calls by prominent citizens from the state that he should run in 2015.
Debunking claims that the governor was high-handed in the way he handled the local government elections in the state, Shanu said the so-called leaders of the opposition parties were merely finding faults where there was none..
Specifically speaking on the election, Shanu, said: “Where was that coming from? The question you should ask is: Did the opposition parties campaign for the election in the first place. For the avoidance of doubt, it is on record thatthe opposition contested only the two out of the eleven local government areas, Gombe and Kwami.
“In spite of his popularity, Governor Dankwambo did not take chances. He went round the whole local government areas canvassing votes for the party’s candidates and it was not surprising that the party won. Even the opposition acknowledged that the election was free, fair and credible. Now, they are singing a new tune because of the merger talks between some parties. Because of his performance, nine local government areas did not field candidates and PDP candidates were returned unopposed. Even after the election, there was no formal petition from any quarters and no court case was instituted by anybody.
“One thing I can assure you is that Gombe is a place where differing views are allowed to flow. The opposition is always assured of a level-playing field and they should be free to participate in politics without necessarily dragging the name of the governor into this.”
Speaking on Dankwambo’s achievements, Mansur said: “Roads are the United Nations’ requirement for indices of reaching out to development even if you want to provide health services to a community, the community needs to be accessed; if you want to provide education, erect a school or establish any school related infrastructure, that community must be accessed even if they have to use bicycles or motorcycles at least they need what you can call a track to reach the target area.
“If you are talking about agricultural operations, if you have your farm located way into the bushes you need to open up access for these farmers to take in inputs for the development of their farmlands and you need access roads for them to bring out their produce to the markets. If you want to convey services of any type you need corridors, and for maintenance purpose, even if you are tracking through the bush, NNPC pipelines that traversed all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, you need tracks for maintenance and so on. It is still another form of road.
“We are talking about providing corridors and opening access. It can be an earth road, it can be a bush track. We only develop the asphalt type of conventional roads to make them durable, accessible, maintainable and reliable. With specific reference to Gombe, I must tell you that we realise that Gombe needed to be interlinked with our various communities and settlements from where we take produce. Our people here are mostly agrarian in nature. Greater majority also are traders who need access to markets. Some of the roads the governor has ordered to be developed, based on the report of our 11 sector based committees, are mainly to open up our vast agricultural potential areas so that activities can be enhanced.
“With Governor Dankwambo’s vision on revenue generation, we are opening them up to access markets from which we get people coming from neighbouring states and as far as from neighbouring countries who come to trade in our several international markets. Our Governor believes strongly that if we can improve on this, we will have saved Gombe not less than 40 to 50 per cent of its revenue base.”
“Gombe is at the threshold of a kind of renewal of efforts and commitment. The governor is a thoroughbred professional. When he came in, what he did was to take stock of where we were yesterday, where we are today and where we would like to be in the future. And that is why all the ministries have been very active in meeting targets set by the governor.”
“In Gombe town alone, apart from other local government areas, over 60 townships roads have been completed. And some are still under construction. In the area of education, over 35 primary and post primary institutions were reconstructed, provided with state of the art equipment to facilitate teaching and learning. Over 2000 professional teachers were employed in the state by the governor to boost learning. There is the establishment of College of Education, Biliri, State Polytechnic in Bajoga and School of Nursing and Midwifery in Dukku, to mention just a few. Scholarships have been enhanced for the students from the states studying in different institutions of learning across the country.
“The state government also went into collaboration with the University of Maiduguri where over 2000 students from the state are reciveing remedial classes.
“The governor is popularly known to have rehabilitated youths who were previously into political thuggery and all forms of vices. Today, these youths have been trained in the areas of road marshals, health assistants in their wards and members of security committees in their wards.
“In the area of commerce, the governor went into collaborations with the Bank of Industry where N3 billion was made available as loans to traders and local manufacturers to boost their businesses. Similar achievements were also recorded in the areas of health, agriculture, water supply and several other areas which made it possible for the people to appreciate the change that has been brought to the state by the governor. These are the things that have set him apart from the rest. How, therefore, can anyone imply that such a person will be out to rig election when his people are solidly behind him? Let the opposition play politics with decency and that is if there is any opposition in the first place.”
