Undoubtedly, Hon Aliyu Ibrahim Gebi, former Chairman House Committee on Internal Security (2011-2015) is party man with unflinching support and loyalty to the All Progressives Congress (APC). In fact, his contributions seriously caused theunprecedented defeat of the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the ascension of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Yet, up till this moment, Hon Aliyu Gebi is yet to be given his due recognition by way of a much deserved executive appointment as a minister, managing director, director-general or executive secretary of any ministry, agency or parastatal for that matter. Let us call a spade a spade, without prevarication. Hon Aliyu Gebi is the staunchest loyalist of the All Progressives Congress (APC) so far; he was an ardent supporter/ally of President Muhammadu Buhari in the then Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) which metamorphosed into the APC along with the Action Congress (AC) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
It must not be forgotten too easily that pre- 2012, many of the political elite of the North were shy to identify with the electoral aspirations of General Muhammadu Buhari and his newly formed CPC, preferring to pitch tents with the PDP or ANPP political alliances. However, like the legendary Rock of Gilbatrar, Hon Aliyu Gebi stood firm and steadfast behind General Buhari through thick and thin and emerged as one of only three CPC House of Representatives Members in the 7th National Assembly (2011-2015) outside of Katsina, GMB’s home state.
While the PDP was in the ascendant position ruling the political roost, Hon Aliyu Gebi slowly but steadily, amassed a formidable coalition of aggrieved PDP members and other party loyalists disenchanted with the glaring maladministration of the PDP at the federal and state levels.
Forging lasting alliances with then House Speaker, Rt Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Hon Yakubu Dogara, Hon Aminu Shagari and other PDP heavyweights in the House of Representatives, Hon Aliyu Gebi was party to their pivotal decision to ditch the PDP for the APC and with 35 other House members and 11 Senators in 2014, along with 5 former PDP governors defected to the APC thus sounding the death knell of the then ruling party which had prematurely boasted that it would rule Nigeria for 60 years!
Hon Aliyu Gebi fought long and hard, burned the midnight oil relentlessly and waged a monumental battle against the PDP behemoth both in Abuja and his home state, Bauchi where he famously carpeted the incumbent PDP governor, Dr lsa Yuguda for glaring non-performance. Hon Aliyu Gebi also had face off with the then President Goodluck Jonathan on many raging issues from rampant, misgovernance, incoherent leadership and the worsening insecurity situation with bandits, kidnappers, terrorists and their assorted cohorts running amok across the nation.
In 2012, an impassioned Hon Aliyu Gebi raised the ante one more notch higher by calling for the abrupt sack of the service chiefs and the re-jigging of the entire security architecture of the nation to address the nagging insecurity scenario, a call welcomed and echoed by many Nigerians and the international community but firmly rebuffed (to his later regret) by then President Goodluck Jonathan.
The rest they say is history as Dr Jonathan in the face of massive defeat threw in the towel and congratulated General Muhammadu Buhari, the incoming president-elect. With the ascension into power of President Buhari and his APC- led administration, many felt that Hon Aliyu Gebi would be duly recognised for his grinding, winding and uphill yeoman’s struggle on behalf of the APC, President Buhari and the entire progressive movement in Nigeria which had just been handed a resounding, unassailable victory partly as a result of Hon Aliyu Gebi’s unflagging exertions to ensure the absolute defeat of their PDP nemesis. But lo and behold, after almost eight years of President Buhari’s two-term tenure no due recognition by way of executive branch appointment has come the way of Hon Aliyu Gebi, his support for the President and the APC still rock solid and unwavering despite all odds.
Thus the time now is right and ripe to correct the historic wrong and injustice meted out to the irrepressible and indefatigable Hon Aliyu Gebi by appointing him to a ministerial, managing director, executive secretary, director general position in any of the nation’s teeming MDAs or any other worthwhile position of executive responsibility for the nation to benefit from his renowned integrity, intellectual sagacity and prolific mastery of the bureaucratic and administrative process.
The incoming APC federal administration owes it a duty to millions of Nigerians, teeming APC loyalists and posterity at large to give Hon Aliyu Gebi his due reward and recognition in order to encourage him and millions of right thinking members of society to toe the path of honesty, integrity, steadfast loyalty, gritty hard work, principled conviction and transparent perseverance in all its positive ramifications.
To God be the glory.
Ibrahim, a public broadcaster, writes from Jos, Plateau state
