Dankwambo and 2019 Presidential contest, By Abu-Ubaida Ibrahim Kuna

It’s unarguable that, in western democracies and other politically advanced climes, tutelage and mentorship remain the best guarantor of the sound and seasoned leadership at the state and federal levels meaning that those political office holders that performed outstandingly at the local level can also be trusted to do the same at higher levels.
Therefore, talented and ingenious personalities can be easily spotted as their policies and programs stand out for sheer efficacy, efficiency, and capableness. In American political history, Governor Bill Clinton of the small state of Arkansas gained nationwide prominence on account of his unbiased, resilient and visionary approach to governance which played no mean role in propelling him to the precincts of presidential power and prestige.
While the Kennedy brothers, John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, botherstwhile Senators from Massachusetts and New York respectively were considered presidential materials as a result of their youthful vigor, freshness, competence, and dynamism that was brought to bear in the policy formulation and implementation areas.
Sailing through the Great Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair had successfully run for an election on the platform of the Labour Party for three consecutive terms on account of his eloquence, brilliance and unalloyed commitment to national unity, peace, and progress without regard to sectarian or sectional affi liations.
Thus, it can be gleaned from the above treatise that leaders do not just emerge from the blues altogether but have actually gained widespread popularity and acceptance as a result of their thorough, painstaking and uncompromising commitment to hard work, competence, professionalism and exemplary performance in all its positive ramifications.
Indeed, those auspicious leaders that many consider as the right stuff for presidential office are those that have shown no trace of ethnic or religious bias and are ready to work with all manner of people as well as all shades of opinions and ideas as far as they are geared towards enhancing the nation’s socio-economic development.
Navigating near home, without doubt, one eminent and farsighted political helmsman that aptly fits this description is no other distinguished personality than the Executive Governor of Gombe State, Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, a first class chartered accountant, consummate technocrat and prolific professional and exemplary public servant par excellence making name in our present democratic dispensation.
Indeed, due to his outstanding records of excellence in all the places where he eventually had a sojourn, Dankwambo received the deserved accolades and encomiums both nationally and globally on account of his unstinting commitment to professional arête in his chosen cum assigned field of endeavor.
Having thoroughly crafted and applied his endowed skills of the noble accounting profession from his storied days at Coopers and Lybrand, a first rate accounting firm to his enviable tenures at the Office of the Accountant General of the Gombe State and soaring to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, and presently the Governor of Gombe State, Dankwambo has always seen his vocation as an avenue to write his name in the sand of history.
In the au courant and hot off press system of governance where genuine leaders are coming up short, a glaring trait that has endeared, the principled Talban Gombe to all and sundry is his utter commitment to honesty, integrity and rectitude in all his dealings and endeavors, despite the temptation to do otherwise which many in similar position have succumbed to engaged in.
He was seen by his followers as a cut from an entirely different cloth from ordinary men as he commands respect and adulation from the Olympian heights of credibility, fastidiousness and unimpeachable honor.
In terms of professional competence, efficiency, and responsiveness, the Talban Gombe is second to none as he had positively transformed the Accountant General Federation’s office where some of the prudence financial policies enjoyed by the government today were all initiated and implemented by him.
The magnificent edifice Treasury House, Treasury Single Account (TSA), the E-payment System, the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS), and the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMS) has been part of the Dankwambo’s remarkable achievements and all are geared towards transparent financial management.
That has signposted the fact that, Dankwambo does not execute his official duties or functions by chance or blind luck, rather he burns the midnight oil in order to raise the bar of professionalism and exemplary performance to the next level in the scheme of things no matter the obstacles or challenges that may be encountered.
Extending the trend of good and accountable governance, when he assumed the mantle of state leadership on May 29th, 2011, there was a sense of optimism, hope and excitement that Gombe State would be led out of the woods of tyranny, autocracy, absolutism, political violence, cronyism, corruption, maladministration and messianic leadership that had existed as a result of the malfeasances of previous state administrations.
Indeed, the Gombe people hoped for a better deal from the man of hope and enviable stints, Dankwambo and expectedly he did not disappoint them but he had rather surpassed the wildest expectations of those that overwhelmingly voted for him in 2011 whom equally gave him a second chance in 2015 despite the Buhari’s Political Hurricane.
Today, in the health, education, roads, rural and urban infrastructure, power, agriculture, human and capital development areas, Dankwambo has taken the lead and Gombe State has become the northeastern symbol of political, economic, social development cum purposive leadership disposition.
And in terms of peace and stability, Gombe State that was hitherto regarded as the known theatre of political thuggery has never had it so good as the various ethnic, religious and linguistic groups live together in perfect harmony having embraced the peace-loving governor’s mantra of peaceful and harmonious co-existence.
Nigerian being the Giant of African Nations is in dire need of a responsible leader that sees Nigerian as his constituency and had a vast knowledge of the economic and administrative workings to explore its full potentials and Dankwambo fi ts into the country’s hole of leadership as he’s the only square peg into square hole come 2019.
Kuna is a Personal Assistant to the Governor on Social Media