Everyone who has been following the recent episodes of Omoyele Sowore’s crusade for good governance must have come across the outcome of his inquest into the Gombe state government under Governor Inuwa Yahaya. To borrow a little Americanism, Sowore has cast his lens on Gombe, and what met his gaze were maggots; big, giant financial maggots sucking the blood of the people of Gombe state.
From the revelations now made public, everyone can now see that the problem with Gombe under Inuwa Yahaya is straightforward.
The problem is the abandonment of already provided government infrastructure, and this unequivocally amounts to the abandonment of governance. To put it in a clearer perspective, Sowore’s revelations have shown that previous governments of Gombe did their modest best to provide critical infrastructure including human capital for the people of the state, nicknamed the Jewel in the Savannah. And guess what? Those past administrations were mostly of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Now, while Sowore has rightly shown Nigerians that Governor Yahaya is responsible for the rot in Gombe, I want to state emphatically here that the PDP, knowingly or unknowingly, also facilitated this misrule. Did I hear you say how? Come with me down memory lane, after which I’m sure you’ll understand the role of PDP in Inuwa’s mess.
First, the election that brought Inuwa Yahaya in 2019. It’s a known fact that most of the PDP stakeholders were forced to either leave the party or work against its governorship flagbearer, Senator Bayero Nafada, and this was due to the shoddy manner of the primary election conducted which produced a Nafada who had just returned to the party from the APC.
The election was, to say the least, embarrassing, coming from the then ruling PDP in the state, especially since it allowed APC to turn the state which is traditionally a PDP stronghold over to the APC with even Dankwambo, an outgoing governor at the time, losing his senatorial bid in the process.
Fast forward to 2023, and the story turned on its head. By this time, the APC had itself been weakened by the tussle for control between Yahaya and the strongman of Gombe politics, Danjuma Goje. Although Goje did not leave the APC on grounds of principle, his relationship with Yahaya had become so fractured that everyone knew he could as well turn his back against the APC retaining the governorship seat in Gombe. It was so bad that the government Goje formed did not only stop betraying him, it went as far as working feverishly to make sure he did not return to the Senate. Goje is still senator today because his goodwill and political capital made it easy for him to overwhelm the internal and external forces hell-bent on stripping him of his political powers, to win his election even without campaigning for a single day, making him the only surviving APC senator in 2023.
Indeed, the results from the 2023 elections confirmed that the Goje factor was still bankable, as the APC lost almost all the parliamentary and presidential elections to the PDP. Specifically, PDP reclaimed two senatorial seats with Gombe North going to former Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo and Gombe South to Anthony Siyako Yaro. Only Gombe Central was retained by Goje of the APC despite not going out to campaign. Indeed, that is further evidence of Goje’s political acceptance in the state.
For the House of Representatives, PDP swept five out of the six seats: Ali Isa (Balanga/Billiri), Inuwa Garba (Yamaltu/Deba), Yaya Bauchi Tongo (Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye), El-Rasheed Abdullahi (Dukku/Nafada) and Obed Shehu (Kaltungo/Shongom), leaving only Usman Bello Kumo (Akko) for the APC.
With that trend, one would have thought it was the perfect moment for PDP to finish the job and return Gombe fully to the party that understands its people and had consistently delivered. Sadly, the PDP had other ideas, and how costly that decision has proven since.
But, how did the PDP fail to see what’s clearly in front of them? Well, I can’t say for certain now, whether it was a costly error of judgment or plain internal sabotage, but PDP’s choice of flagbearer in the 2023 governorship election was, in fact, what returned Yahaya to Gombe Government House. It remains baffling how the party handed its guber ticket to someone who can best be described as a political wayfarer, a man whose destabilising tendencies are legendary. Do you now see why I said it was the PDP that handed power back to Yahaya? This is an incumbent governor who lost his own ward in the parliamentary and presidential elections despite his exalted position as Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and Chairman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council for the North-east. What more evidence does anyone need to know that had PDP presented a saleable candidate, da Inuwa Yahaya ya riga rana faduwa?
Well, 2027 presents another golden opportunity for the PDP. It presents a chance to correct the mistakes of 2023 by fielding a befitting gubernatorial candidate. Someone who has the party at heart. Someone who has friends across all political blocs and who has fought to ensure the PDP’s relevance never dims. Someone who will not cross-carpet to the so-called coalition at the first chance despite flying the flag of the party in 2023. Yes, the PDP must now look beyond its own survival to the survival of Gombe state.
And as someone who has followed political developments in our dear state since the return of democracy in 1999, I can say without any iota of doubt that that candidate is Abdulkadir Hamma Saleh! Hamsal, as he’s fondly called, ticks all the boxes: a loyal party man who is committed to the party’s survival, never formed an internal cabal within the party despite the glaring evidence of how the party had treated him, and who has continued to remain faithful and dogged in ensuring that the PDP remains afloat.
It’s on record, that Hamsal sacrificed his aspiration to be in the Senate in 2019 to the party leader, Senator Dankwambo, and it’s known that if it was the wayfarer that bought form of Senate, it could have been a total showdown with the leader.
Across Gombe, Hamsal is the only politician whose acceptance cuts through party lines. He is that viable option who can sit with any politician in Gombe state, regardless of political affiliation, and forge alliances for the good of the state and it’s hard working people.
Thankfully, he has, in his characteristic stoicness, resisted all entreaties to abandon ship and join the coalition camp in the ADC for desperation, the one PDP wrongly handed its ticket to in 2023, left the APC after he lost to Yahaya and he now moved to coalition with even his associates criticising Dankwambo. But Hamsal even when there was glaring discomforts in the PDP, he never insulted anybody.
Hamsal is, for everyone in Gombe politics, that golden marshmallow that melts hearts, the one poised to champion progress, growth and sustainable development. He is the one man I am confident can reverse Yahaya’s misrule, which has dragged Gombe into the media limelight for all the wrong reasons.
So, as we inch towards 2027, the choice is, once again, PDP’s. Would they do as before by fielding fair weather friends or stand with a proven name? I believe the the party must be properly guided to understand the full ramifications of this choice. The PDP needs to know that this choice, though domiciled within the party, must be settled for the people of Gombe who have been harried, harangued and harassed by today’s misrule and who now yearn for the return of the party that has been tailor-fit for their progress. All eyes will be on the PDP to see whether it will take the side of the people or open its torso to the ruling APC to open fire upon, knowing full well the implications of doing so. As always, only time will tell.
Sani writes from Jekadafari, Gombe state