The need for LG equality in Yobe executive council

The fear of an ethnic group or few states to dominate the political governance of the country was the reason behind the enclosure of the federal character principle in the 1999 constitution as amended. The nationalists who were the architects of the drafting of the federal document tried to ensure that appointments to public service and institutions fairly reflect the linguistic, ethnic, religious and geographic diversity of the country, made sure that appointments and recruitment to military and paramilitary institutions are equally and evenly distributed.

This arrangement that has ensured relative peace in the federal setting, seems to be eluding Yobe state, the state governed by the ruling party’s national interim chairman, a state with almost one religion and culture. It is of course the first since the return of democracy to the country in 1999 that this format is failing in the state. If former governors Abbas Ibrahim, Mamman Ali and the immediate past… have done this before now, it could have been termed a precedence, but if sound administrator of Governor Mai Mala Buni can tread the path of this anomaly, then his advisers have not served the state in their best interest.

Governor Buni, the fourth executive governor of the state, is no doubt an astute administrator. His ascension to the pinnacle of leadership of his ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) when the party was in crisis, the enviable peace he has brought the party attest to his dexterity in administration. Doubling the management of a ruling party affair with his statutory function as a sitting governor is one thing that has surprised even tested technocrats in the country. It therefore goes to say that somebody somewhere in the state is head bent to cause this affection.

Much as it could be termed oversight in appointment and administration, his ignoring the imbalance of distribution of commissionership appointment among all local government areas in the state is an unexplainable oversight that even his admirers and foes daily battle to fathom out.

Yobe state has 17 local government areas and all these council areas are all represented in the state executive council as commissioner with a local government while one of the local government enjoys three slots in state executive council, Bade local government is either forgotten or something unexplainable happened that it is not represented in the state executive council with a commissioner. It maybe an oversight that one of the serving commissioners that resides in Bade may be believed to be from the local government but it’s not true. For instance, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Alhaji Mohammed Gagiyo, only resides in Bade local government but not an indigene of the local government. Let the record be made clear that Abdullahi Bego, Jaba Ward, and Hajiya Mairo Amshi from Zabudum/Dachia Ward and the said Mohammed Gagiyo of Girgir/ Bayam Ward are all from Jakusko local government all enjoying plum position of commissioners while Bade local government watches without a representative in state executive council.

Some analysts are of the view that there’s either no qualified person from Bade local government for appointment as commissioner, or that the local government never voted for the governor hence the reason for the development. If this view being peddled in some quarters is not the reason for Bade local government denial for position of commissioner, then it’s time for the people’s governor to be a father of all in the state and remember Bade local government to be represented in the state executive council because, as observed many years ago, “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.”

Gashua writes from Damaturu, Yobe state.