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Absolute loyalty and true allegiance are what every leader needs and requires from his subordinates or lieutenants to succeed. An English adage says “Behind every successful man is a woman”, and let me add that behind every successful leader are loyal subordinates.
Any leader that lacks loyalists to help him in his team is bound to fail as leadership requires team work, support and cooperation to achieve set goals.
In Gombe state, one man I know is a true loyalist and real statesman, especially in the cabinet of Governor Inuwa Yahaya in the fish term, is the former special adviser to the governor on information management and strategy Ahmed Shuaibu Gara, alias “Gara Gombe”.
Governor Inuwa is a nice person, gentleman and kind leader that everyone who knows him closely will attest to this fac. However, the governor was not blessed with enough loyalists in his government as there were many saboteurs who besmirched the image of his administration.
These saboteurs would not help him in assisting people and politicians in their domains as his representatives but would even divert the goodies provided by the governor and meant for others. A true loyalist is someone that can even use his personal resources to work for his principal in order to project his good image and hold the people as the governor cannot attend to everyone due to the status of his position and busy schedules.
These political appointees, whom I tag saboteurs, had caused untold political problems to the governor in his first term as he had to work almost unilaterally to win a second term in the just concluded 2023 elections. The uselessness of these ungrateful appointees and cabinet members manifested during the first phase of the 2023 elections when presidential and national assembly elections held. In these elections, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) performed abysmally as it won only one out of the six House of Representatives seats and only one out of three senators in the state despite the power of incumbency.
This was due to lack of formidable cabinet members in the Inuwa administration as many were self-centered. They didn’t support him financially during the elections neither did they enlighten the electorate on the achievements recorded by his administration that made the APC to deserve support.
As a matter of fact, even the spokespersons of the government didn’t do well in educating the people on the numerous achievements of the governor. There is no denying the fact that Inuwa is one of the best performing governors in the North but many do not know because he didn’t enjoy the right publicity. Many northerners think only Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state is a performer in the North because he has a formidable and competent media team. But if time permits, I will mention some of the gigantic and impactful projects executed by Governor Inuwa Yahaya in Gombe state which were underreported until the appointment of Ahmed Shuaibu Gara as special adviser to the governor on information management and strategy.
Before Gara’s appointment towards the end of the governor’s first term in office, a lot of the governor’s people-oriented projects were not adequately publicised as the government’s spokespersons were either lackadaisical to do so or just didn’t know doing that was necessary. They never appeared on the radio or television to promote the governor or defend him from attacks by members of the opposition for the last four years.
They were grossly inept, incompetent and bereft of ideas. But in the less than one year he served as the special adviser on information management and strategy, Ahmed Shuaibu Gara visited 17 media houses, including radio stations, televisions and newspapers in and out of Gombe state on regular basis to project the image of the administration of his boss, believing that information management is beyond issuance of press releases.
He gathered that many of television and radio stations have airtime for discussion programmes including political which are unutilised or underutilised due to lack of vocal government officials to make good use of them or just lack of knowing how important it is for the government to feed the electorate back on its stewardship in a democratic setting.
Within the last eight months he was appointed before the dissolution of all political appointees following the expiration of the governor’s first term, the former special adviser had visited and granted interviews in 17 radio and television stations locally and nationally. They included NTA Gombe, Progress Radio, Amana Radio, Vision FM, Jewel FM, GMC and GTV.
Others are FRCN Headquarters, Channels TV, AIT, Trust TV, Leadership TV and major newspapers like Daily Trust, Leadership, Premium Times and News Agency of Nigeria.
Also, to bridge the gap between the government and the governed, the former special adviser established direct lines for the state citizens to interact with the governor and to participate in governance by offering suggestions and complaints.
Furthermore, he initiated the Gombe New Media Internship Programme where the interns would be promoting government programmes on social media.
On the eve of the 2023 elections, he created the ‘DANI AKAJE’ programme on radio where a post mortem of every campaign trail of the governor was being reviewed.
Moreover, during electioneering, Gara used his personal resources to organize essay and presentation competition for students of tertiary institutions in the state on the governor’s legacies all with a view to educating the populace on Inuwa’s ‘silent achievements’.
The grand event held at Gombe State University where winners were given cash prizes of N100, 000, N70, 000, N50, 000 and N40, 000, respectively, for the first, second, third and fourth winners. Other participants that didn’t win received the sum of N15, 000 each while all those who attended the event from among the tertiary schools were given the sums of N5, 000 each as their own gifts for attendance by the special adviser. The event was aired live in the media so the teeming citizens would be enlightened on those legacies by the governor.
This is the true meaning of loyalty, allegiance and statesmanship. As a political appointee you are supposed to come up with initiatives and social responsibility programmes to the citizens. Doing that will project the good image of your principal among the populace.
Though, Gara’s appointment was coming late towards the end of the governor’s first tenure when critics and detractors were having a field day with nobody to tackle them, with his initiatives, Inuwa’s silent achievements eventually became topics of discourse and the detractors had to change their accusations from non performance to alleging that the governor was not giving money which was not a constructive criticism.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s hitherto obscure projects were then brought to limelight beyond the routine news programmes as part of initiatives by Gara.
One may need to know what are these projects the governor executed? Let me mention few for space constraint. Inuwa has established the unprecedented industrial park along Deba where national and international investors can set up industries in the state, he is currently completing the Gombe mega motor park with befitting parking spaces, public toilets, restaurants and lodges for the pleasure of travellers. He built the ultra modern nursery, primary and junior secondary school with befitting classrooms, libraries and sports facilities for the benefit of the children of low in come earners in Kumbiya-Kumbiya community. He built another ultra modern almajiri school commissioned by the Sultan of Sokoto at Yelenguruza community. The school has hostels and skills acquisition rooms for the almajiris and they will be learning both qur’anic recitation and the basics of western education therein.
The governor has provided at least one functional hospital in all the 114 wards of the state and initiated at least 100 kilometers roads in each of the 11 local governments of the state. He is responding to the water scarcity in the state by awarding contract for the establishment of five new water booster stations in the state among other impactful projects.
I am happy that the public both within and outside Gombe are now hearing the good side of Gombe and the works of this prudent, patriotic and performing governor Inuwa Yahaya. It will interest readers to know that even after the dissolution of the cabinet, Gara has continued with his media programme on the governor.
He continues to defend the governor from attacks by the opposition and at the same time exposes the governor’s sabateurs he tags “Enemies within the government”. These (Enemies within the government) are the appointees who cannot use their resources to help the people on behalf of the governor, these are the people that divert gifts from the governor and reveals his secrets.
While applauding Gara Gombe for the feats, I want to recommend to the governor that he should not only reappoint him in his second term’s cabinet, but he should be elevated to the rank of commissioner of information so that he will have more power and responsibility to promote the government and bridge the gap between the governor and the governed in terms of information and enlightenment on policies, programmes and projects.
If the governor searches for loyalists and reliable lieutenants in his second tenure, Gara is a perfect example of a loyalist and statesman.
Adamu, author and public affairs commentator, writes from Akko local government area, Gombe state