In their actions and inactions, leaders’ endearment or disenchantment to their followers is conditioned or predicated upon how they decide to rule or lead. But the most favourable style of leadership, as far as the followers are concerned, is that committed to transforming their fortunes from abject poverty, drudgery to a better life of peace, good health, economic prosperity, respect for constituted authority, etc. all pointers to an incontestable, responsible, and better society.
Historically, when Kebbi state was created in 1991 from the southern half of Sokoto state and was ushered into existence by the Ibrahim Babangida military administration, the military hierarchy naturally had the liberty of determining who controls it, necessitating series of military governors and administrators and interregnum. It was not until the transition to civilian democracy in 1999 when sons and daughters of the state were given the liberty to select their leaders did they dare to hope and aspire for a greater and better Kebbi state. The records are always there for everyone to see and judge the contributions that the patriotic zeal or the lack of it of Kebbians who have held one office or the other in Kebbi towards attaining the set goals that came with the return of democracy in 1999.
The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) set the democracy ball rolling at the return of democracy and civilian rule to Nigeria and indeed Kebbi state in 1999. The government was formed under the democratically elected administration of Gov. Adamu Aliero, before the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took control, under the stewardship of Gov. Usman Dakingari who ruled the state from May 29, 2007-2015. This brief insight does not in any way attempt to aggregate the input of governors since 1999, however, curious inquisitors can’t help but define a clear of difference between past and present governments on the basis growth and development.
It is a fact and quite unsurprisingly too that democratic power is akin to a military barracks: soldiers come and go but the barracks hardly moves. This is the case with the Kebbi state Government House that has played host to different types of leaders, who come complete with their unique leadership styles. From the Adamu Aliero’s eight years to another eight years of the Usman Dakingari, it can be argued that the state witnessed mixed developmental fortunes and this is a modest assessment.
It is perhaps as a result of the dwindling fortunes associated with the last administration that hundreds of thousands of Kebbians trooped out during the 2015 general election to hand a humiliating and devastating defeat to Dakingari’s PDP, throwing out the cronies and acolytes that the former helmsman had used to milk the state for years. It was a sweet and resounding victory for the APC and the newly elected Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who moved swiftly to deliver on key infrastructural and developmental projects, programmes and policies designed to raise the socio-economic index of the state for the better.
Bagudu rather than engage in partisan axe-grinding typical of leaders that ousted crooked regimes, is running an all-inclusive administration that is treating all Kebbians as his constituents regardless of their partisan, ethnic, religious or sectional loyalty or inclination. His idea on location of projects has been across board, as and where needed and not tied to any parochial or primordial disposition as was the case with the PDP’s reign of political favouritism.
Indeed, such has been the stunning array of projects bequeathed by the revolutionary government which make thousands of erstwhile PDP supporters to switch their party loyalty to the APC as the party of hope, achievement, sustenance and delivery of democratic dividends. On that basis, the politically conscious Kebbians have compared and contrasted the dynamic APC-led government of Bagudu with the erratic PDP-led administration of yore and have come to the irreversible conclusion that the ancient regime and its remnants and lackeys must never be allowed to come close to the corridors of power again.
Interestingly, in lieu of engaging in empty, vile or deceitful propaganda reminiscent of the PDP years of the locust, an objective Gov. Bagudu has remained focused on his goal of uplifting Kebbi state to greater heights, materially, socially and physically not caring whose ox is gored in the process.
Equally, while those that regard themselves as unrepentant power brokers in the state continue in their fruitless shenanigans against his government, an unfazed Gov. Bagudu has rather allowed his visible democratic tidings to speak for him and his administration, vowing that he would not spend a kobo of state funds for cheap publicity stunts aimed at garnering cheap and vacuous popularity.
The fact is that, if money could buy votes or popularity, then Dakingari’s favoured gubernatorial choice, Major General Sarkin Yaki (rtd), would have emerged victorious in the 2015 polls but sadly the famed war hero was decimated by the APC moving train and cashiered into early political retirement before he could even kick start his political career from military retirement.
It’s a prevailing fact that, as the 2019 election looms, the PDP has once again kicked off their ubiquitous propaganda machinery comprising half-truths, misstatements, outright lies and manufactured falsehood all in an attempt to hoodwink the stoic and hardworking people of Kebbi who have borne the brunt of their years of misrule, mis-governance and neglect to no end.
However, times have changed, the Kebbi people have become wiser, have come of age and are determined to take their destiny in their own hands once and for all rather than fall victim to the hyenas, jackals, vultures, predators and scavengers that hark in the Peoples Democratic Party.
It is on the strength of this that I must commend groups like the 4+4 movement in Kebbi who are working assiduously to up political consciousness and improve the support base of the incumbent government. Besides the obvious reason behind the activity of this group, which is the brainchild of committed people around the governor, its activities also serve to improve the confidence of voters who the PDP crows may have visited with their obvious lies and lucre.
Fakai writes from Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi state
