How did Gombe State miss its path of achieving greatness? It started well in 1996 and moving at a very fast speed until 2019, when it diverted from the path by ‘electing’ the sleeping type to govern the once progressing state on a fast lane.
Observers and analysts of the ongoing political permutation and sidelining of other components in Gombe State continue to wonder what exactly is amiss for the punches systematically released and targeted at the other components of the state thereby denying them the right to developmental strides and inclusiveness in a government, they painstakingly labored to install?
So far, from the body language of Governor Inuwa Yahaya there is a determination to insinuate hate, create disunity and cohesion in the state’s political space by murdering truth and reality for pecuniary interest, against other existing players on the corridor and off the power line.
Talking on his second term Executive Council members (Commissioners), the governor not considering the need to do the needful and applying soothing balm to other stakeholders in the Gombe State Project, he selfishly, myopically and sentimentally favored his senatorial district of Gombe North with nine of the 17 commissionership positions and awarded the balance of eight to the other two senatorial districts for equal sharing, supposedly, against provision of Section 14(4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and natural justice of inclusiveness and right of belonging.
Traditionally, ideally and within the dictates of the law, each of the 17 local governments is to be represented in the state executive council for sense of belonging. But, to Inuwa Yahaya, that sounds an insult to his reasoning already beclouded by sentiments and hate.
Not done, of all the 17 Commissioners, only but one is a Christian despite the numerical strength of the Christian community that control over 35percent of the total population in the state, an action that signifies hate and religious discrimination deserving a challenge with decorum for posterity.
The action of Governor Inuwa to say the least, lacks sincerity of purpose, elementary tolerance in leadership and blinded by myopic sentiment in a wild goose chase, particularly as an alleged spent horse that has developed hatred against other components of the state, that is creating fear against his 2027 tall senatorial ambition which necessitated his deployment of all manner of indecency and working un-tiredly against the interest of the majority with marginalization, blackmail and denial of accessibility to accrued benefits as the cheapest tool at his disposal and exhibiting crude greed and insanity by the monger and his collaborators within and in diaspora.
There is no gainsaying to the glaring fact that the Inuwa Yahaya brand of governance in Gombe State is piloted by clueless and inept actions which has created a worsening poverty, disunity and unemployment rate ravaging the land.
Instead of piloting a purposeful and an all inclusive brand of administration, he chose to hypocritically deploy unrefined marginalization spiced with trumpeted blackmail against other notable players with supersonic brains, versed in the rudiments of politics, patriotic, laborious and blessed with courage and determination to develop Gombe State as a bond and in tandem with the wish of the majority.
The actions of the governor are creating unnecessary widespread of public despair and loss of confidence in the political permutation and the downright cluelessness and crass incompetence combined that creates ripples and danger signals to the polity based on how he in 2019 deployed all manner of shenanigans to thwart the efforts of the former governor for the very misadventure he crafted for himself and now unleashing in governance.
Surprisingly, but shamelessly, some of those players swimming in the turbulent water with Inuwa and throwing stones and juvenile challenges at the commendable efforts of past governors and other players within and in opposition, in connivance with irrelevant political toddlers on the corridor of power who played the satanic role to chase away the immediate past, supposedly for personal interest, are now in another destructive mission against other components of the state not minding the repercussion of their actions against unity and cohesion.
The style of hate and deceit on display and tissues of lies traded are enough to put the state on fire for the gains of the architect.
We have perused through several deceitful publications of achievements by aides who labor tirelessly and in-vain to launder the already battered image of Gombe State Government with their imagination that lack coherent facts.
In times of revealing facts, those aides should know that it is on record, in the history of Gombe State, no State Governor ever recorded high rating of underdevelopment close to what Governor Inuwa Yahaya is achieved on the saddle despite an inherited healthy treasury and robust civil service.
To strengthen the records, some of those Gombe township roads constructed by the Inuwa Yahaya led government are substandard and fast becoming death traps before their stipulated life spans necessitating a rescue from the good Samaritans of the state for the needed safety.
For any doubting or confused mind and no matter how polluted with parochial sentiments, the government has committed its few developmental strides in favor of only the state capital supposedly for deceit and ego building while other components of the state are left to rot.
As part of his policy of under developing the state, he hurriedly handed over Gombe State University of Science and Technology, Akko to a Malaysian Consortium while the state desperately needs the tertiary institution at least for its educational advancement and that of other states.
The excuse offered in support of the deal was flimsy and baseless that cannot convince a decent mind.
Before the 2023 gubernatorial election, he hurriedly rolled out a deceitful plan that worked in his favor for votes. He directed the commencement of the payment of monthly pension and gratuity allowance to those entitled. Funny enough, immediately after the election, payment was halted for a return to the dark days having achieved his diabolical interest.
Gombe State under the watch of Governor Inuwa Yahaya has never and will never settle civil servants their statutory benefits for whatever reason. It is a government that is insensitive to the plight of the people and careless for all irrespective of what the people may say.
It is a clear fact that at times like this, jesters and political turncoats including hired writers are recruited by mischievous politicians and those in government for hatchet jobs against the good of those at the receiving end with better credentials.
The brand of incompetence by those on the corridor of power in Gombe State and their hangers-on is beyond comprehension and redemption, as it is bred by a gross deficiency in human civilization and patriotic instincts that the state yearns for.
Overtime, the future of Gombe State has been held hostage by a cabal within and outside the State led by incompetence, surrounded by trick and fraudsters and hawks that take advantage to skew government policy to their greedy selfish advantage with Governor Inuwa courageously resisting and returning the state systematically to the path of discarded governance perfected by snoring undertakers masquerading as politicians lacking political or even ancestral base of recognition for acceptance by the majority.
From the baseless desperation on display to always brush opposition parties with tar just to confuse the gullible for easy access to power with intent to boost personal whims and of course to re-equip personal lost during the blockage of leakages by the immediate past administration.
The self –actualization of the noisy and lousy governor and the least qualified by all standards, is already taking a heavy toll on the unity and aggressive development of Gombe State, painstakingly built over the years and improved upon by past governors from Group Captain Theodore Orji- Abubakar Hashidu-Danjuma Gombe-Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo.
It is a public knowledge today that Gombe State is in the hands of undertakers governed by a toddler politician who is fast mortgaging the fortune of the state to his personal advantage.
The body language of the Sheriff shows that nothing under the sun can change his stand and status for now, not even the concerted effort of hired writers and comedians battling to launder his battered image as they claim to be what they are not; the Almighty and the people can bear witness on the number of claimed projects provided since 2019 and their distribution pattern in Gombe State that has inspired the people to call the shots for replacement of cluelessness and ineptitude combined if possible.
Gombe State has since 2019 been in the iron fist of an undertaker who has ignored positive suggestions to change his policy of governance and accommodate and subscribe to beautiful suggestions and ideas. He instead, subscribes to blackmail and hate traded by desperate sycophants and fronts as their un-Godly effort are similar to what they did where ever they had served before they were either sacked for incapacitation and insincerity while trading in falsehood and blackmail, for authority trust and suddenly jumped to languish in a political trench piloted by their collaborator.
Those so fast in pedestrian attacks and vomiting uncouth statements against patriotic opponents far from the saddle of governance in Gombe State are doing so at their peril. They should better have a rethink as it is not yet Uhuru, they should have a change of mindset and join the bandwagon in the struggle to correcting the wrongs and to join in building a united, prosperous and egalitarian progressing state devoid of parochial sentiments as advanced by hired writers and other busybodies masquerading as loyal aides, aiding the underdevelopment of their state and creating hate and ethno-religious bigotry for pecuniary interest, for later regret.
A mistake to voting a political tourist with an extortion mission and distortion of history at the election with a wrong credibility rating, the fast approaching 2027 political hurricane may eventually sweep them all including Inuwa Yahaya.
Within available resources, opposition PDP served diligently with passion and committed to the even development of the State. What next? Detractors started to hit below the belt with fiction but with sensibility and sincerity of purpose, they may soon collapse like a pack of cards.
The usual outburst by some spent horses and those appointed masquerades for a hatchet job that usually descend on the social and conventional media with concocted lies spiced with political undertone to frustrate, ridicule and dent some reputations, remains infantile, funny and ridiculous for believe. If the rating of the majority is anything to go by, Governor Inuwa Yahaya remains a monumental failure in governance, already de-robed of the required respect of a leader in Gombe State anytime, anywhere and anyhow. No shaking!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
