Dahiru Hassan Kera is an Abuja-based communications expert and was the chairman of the media/publicity committee of the Dankwambo campaign organization in the 2015 general election. In this interview with MOHAMMED ABUBAKAR, he expresses concern on the upcoming election in Gombe state, his experience from the last election and other sundry issues.
Sir, you were the chairman of the media team that worked for the success of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe state in the 2015 election. How were you able to deliver?
Though 2015 election has come and gone, but its memories are still resonating in the minds of all of us who were part of the struggles and the successes. In fact, we all know that winning election or campaigning for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), especially in the north, was seen as a taboo and beyond the pale in 2015 due to so many irrational reasons coupled with the political nescience and naivety’ of our people who were hoodwinked by the milk and honey promises of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In Gombe state, despite all the overwhelming challenges associated with the Buhari’s Tsunami which was very potent during the campaigns and the election, we tried as much as possible to educate our people to go the right way and not to fall victims of the APC’s cock and bull story and we give glory to the Almighty Allah because we’re able to deliver and we aren’t regretting. The good people of Gombe state are today pleased by the stance they’ve taken. They aren’t holding the short end of the stick like in some states where the APC won and couldn’t bring any positive changes rather than the crestfallen economic and grief-stricken administration they are witnessing.
What was the selling point and strategy?
Like I told you, it was really strenuous and toilsome moment and for someone to get out of it successfully, it has to be a collective effort and effective use of political armamentariums and above all, it has been decreed by Allah the Almighty. In fact, it was quite a challenging period, the tsunami swept virtually all the northern states and only Dankwambo and his Taraba state counterpart, Governor Darius Ishaku, flew in the face of the sweeping tide of the APC and emerged victorious in the whole of the 19 states of the north. In the splitting distance to the 2015 general elections, Gombe state was the only state in the whole country visited twice by President Buhari in an effort to wrestle power from Governor Dankwambo and it all resulted in APC’s gubernatorial candidate in the state suffering a humiliating defeat by a very wide margin. And all of these have culminated into success because we have a brand that’s sellable to the people of Gombe state. Even before the election proper, Dankwambo was already an established authority known to the people. Although the Buhari tsunami presented a formidable challenge, Dankwambo’s credentials were so intimidating that they worked for us very well. With the kind of people in the APC, we drove it to the people that it is better to stick with him than these unknown quantities coming. Again, Dankwambo performed extremely well in his programmes as he turned the fortunes of the state from the very debilitating situation we met for the better. So his acceptability was really not a problem for us. His remarkable achievements in economy spread in all over the 11 local government areas of the state also speak volume for him and the PDP. The people of the state voted on the line of integrity and consolidation of the good work Dankwambo has started beyond party inclination.
But people are accusing the governor for abysmal failure in governance
You see, don’t be deceived by what you hear from harum-scarum politicians and their devil-may care attitude. They can go to any length to poke full of holes in order to deceive the people and gain cheap political points. We have people in the APC who are yet to wake up from their slumber of the last defeat they suffered from Dankwambo and they are still discrediting his government baselessly as if we are at the campaigning period. On the other hand, we have the newcomers in the state who are in the game to grab power by all means; how do you expect those categories of people who are engraved by inordinate whims and caprices to rationally tell the world the reality of Dankwambo’s feats in Gombe state.
There was an interview granted by one Muhammed Jibrin Barde where he claimed that, there was infrastructure failure in Gombe state
I don’t want to be glorifying that man because whenever you mention his name, people will be asking you, who’s this man? Meaning they don’t even know him in the state. Yet he is dreaming of becoming the governor of the state. If I may ask, how can that be possible? In fact, he doesn’t know what infrastructure means either contextually or denotatively. For someone who does not know the meaning of infrastructure, how can that kind of fellow deliver in a state that is desiring rapid development? He is a new political jokesmith rummaging to be in power by all means, but Gombe state is too important to be left in the hands of people like Muhammed Barde. If a man, who always drives from the airport straight to his house on well tarred road constructed by Dankwambo, who will also drive on a dual-carriage road to his father’s house sandwiched by two dual-carriage ways, who sees the international conference centre, petroleum tankers’ parking bay, beautiful roundabouts and lots more, will accuse Dankwambo of failure, then something is wrong with such as fellow. May be the kind of school he attended has erroneously taught him that success is failure. That is why we said he does not know the meaning of infrastructure.
Do you think the PDP will still win election in Gombe state?
Are you in doubt? It will even be easier than that of 2015 because people have seen the inept way the APC have handled some states they’ve won in 2015 where wheelbarrows in Benue, tea items in Kano, goats in Jigawa, shoe polishing items in Borno have been distributed as youth empowerment schemes; and if you allow people like Barde who cannot nurture a quasi commercial bank, who cannot differentiate between success and failure to be at the helm of affairs, they will definitely ground the state to the detriment of the sons of the soil whose fathers and forefathers toiled and built the state to its enviable status which sons of the caravans are now trying to come and destroy.
Dankwambo is gunning to be president. Do you agree that this ambition of his cannot be attained given those he has to contend with in the PDP and then Buhari?
It is not as you think. Now look at it this way. For the past three years, Dankwambo stands out as a PDP governor in a zone that delivered the second highest electoral vote in 2015 general elections. In the face of subtle intimidation with President Buhari’s visits twice to the state, the governor gets even more popular. The people know their friend, they would want to stick with him. With due respect to the other aspirants in the PDP, what Dankwambo stands for has dwarfed them collectively and individually. Mention anyone among them who can face Buhari at the next poll if not Dankwambo. Not just young, here is a man who is well made, focused, understands modern dynamics of leadership and is ebulent, who is not tainted by any voices having been the Accountant General of the Federation without any traces of wrong doing. The PDP needs a real image redeemer for it, and only Dankwambo can do that. Only he can comfortably square it up to the APC and Buhari who have squandered a very lofty goodwill given to them in 2015.
