Junaid Usman Abubakar, special assistant on media to the Gombe State governor, reacts to claims by former Governor Danjuma Goje that he is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader in Gombe State. Excerpts: Recently former Gombe State Governor Danjuma Goje was almost prevented from entering the state capital in what many believe was because of his membership of the New PDP. What can you say about this? First and foremost, there is nothing like new PDP in Gombe State. We only recognize the PDP so there is no talk about somebody being prevented due to something that does not exist. Goje has a court case in Gombe but has now written to the security that his life is in danger. He wants to show the people of the state that he is still relevant and hired thugs to start shouting. It is then that the authorities intervened because the governor will not fold his arms and see people breaching law and order no matter how highly placed they are as Gombe is one of the peaceful states in Nigeria. But even after he camouflaged and did that, what happened the next day? Over 500, 000 people turned out in Gombe, carrying placards and protesting against Goje. The pictures are all over, people demonstrating in Gombe. The onus is for him to answer to the charges and not begin a political campaign. I can tell you, those people that came out in Gombe, protesting with placards are genuine. They want quick justice. There is this controversy about who is the leader of the PDP in Gombe. Goje said he is the leader. What is your view? The founding fathers of PDP that came along with Sunday Awoniyi, were Dr. Suleiman Kumo and Ambassador Yerima Abdullahi. They are all from Gombe and I can tell you that it is the cooperation of the people of Gombe that made them to turn to PDP. It was because of the collective efforts of these elders that the people embraced PDP. If you are talking about qualification, of course whoever wins as governor on the platform of PDP qualifies to lead the party in any state of Nigeria. But there has to be continuity. That is why people can move and new people can come in and the party will continue. It is a growing party, it is a party that accommodates everyone, it is the largest party in Africa. It accommodates a lot of people day in day out and especially in Gombe state. But Goje has forgotten that there are other older people, like Dr. Suleiman Kumo and Ambassador Yerima Abdullahi. They are the ones that brought PDP into Gombe, because they are the people that worked for it. Goje is saying that the current governor of Gombe state was not even a politician when he facilitated his coming into PDP. How do you react to that? Goje saw in Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo a quality that only few have in Nigeria. Dankwambo is qualified to be anything in Nigeria. He is even more experienced than Goje. Dankwambo was a director in the CBN, and then became Accountant General in Gombe. He worked with Abubakar Abu Hashidu as a civil servant; he worked under Goje as a civil servant. Then merit took him to be an Accountant General of the federation. And Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo as an Accountant General of the Federation served three different presidents. And all the presidents were PDP presidents. So who is more qualified and experienced than the other? There is an arrangement in some of the states where you have the godson conceding to the godfather. For instance, in Kwara State, Governor Ahmed has now conceded that Bukola Saraki is the leader of the party in the state. Why is it different in Gombe State? We don’t know about any godfatherism in Gombe State. Dankwambo has no godfather in this world except his own biological father. Everybody knows who the late Talban Gombe was in Nigeria. Talban Gombe was a well-known contractor and a well-known person who trained his children through all the rigors from Nigeria up to Harvard Business School in America. So Dankwambo has no godfather. So who is the leader of PDP in Gombe? Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, the executive governor of Gombe State is the father and the leader of PDP today in Gombe State, because he is in charge. And it is through the platform of PDP that he won a true and fair election in Gombe. They have tried to set a trap for him thinking he will fall so that they will rubbish his name. But when he came on board, he now set up certain strategies whereby Gombe has become one of the best states in Nigeria. Dankwambo has been able to build 116 roads in two years. He has been able to inject, through partnership with the Bank of Industry, four billion into our industries. The governor has been able to revamp the agricultural sectors by importing 220 brand new tractors at the cost of 3.5 million each. For somebody to go and start shouting that he is a leader because according to him, during his administration people got married, travelled to Saudi Arabia and that he paid contractors, built an airport and university is not right because all these were not from his personal pocket. These are what people elected him to do. We are talking about institutions that will benefit the people of Gombe and the future of the state like what the Talba is doing now. If you build a university and you have like 20, 000 students who cannot pass university entry requirement, what is the purpose of the university? When Talban Gombe came on board, he now employed the services of these experts who came in and saved those almost 20, 000 that failed WAEC. And apart from this, can you now compare an institution with just empowering a single individual? Can you go and catch a fish in the river and come and hand it over to a person and say I helped you? No. if you want to help a person, teach him how to catch fish, let him be a professional in that. Dankwambo is very prudent, transparent as he inherited a totally failed state. But Gombe is now one of the successful states in Nigeria. Nobody should come and start telling us he empowered individuals. So what position have you reserved for the former governor in the PDP hierarchy in Gombe? What I am trying to point here is that, I have never seen a person respecting his elders the way Talba is doing. All the former governors are given special recognition by the incumbent governor and the governor will not come out and issue any statement without their knowledge. He knows what he is doing. I can tell you nothing can deter Talban Gombe from working for the people. They are so apprehensive about the projects the governor is doing. In the 17 years of the statehood, nothing happened as it is happening in these two years. We have an international conference centre, apart from Abuja, no other place in the North is having international conference centre that is highly digitalized like ours. We have 116 roads, all the water networks in and around Gombe, which the Vice president came and commissioned. More than 45 schools, with all the instructional materials. We are not in the business of telling people we did this or that because it is their money. We don’t have any course to start shouting about projects, it is their money. We are not doing favour to them.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 10:12:46 +0000
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