In most scenarios, some leaders sloppily seek elective positions without at the first instance having conscience, requisite governance potential, and pragmatic blueprint to make a difference when eventually they get elected. It’s indeed sad as the majority of those occupying or seeking to grab positions of authority fail in all the yardsticks of qualities and capacities.
It’s not surprising why our age long democracy is not yielding positive results in spite of the time and enormous resources we invest in the system, recruiting a set of leaders in and out at different stages. But, it has been normal, after each and every election, the electorate would start lamenting over the brashness of those we elected, especially on reneging on most of the promises made during the campaigns, ostensibly to persuade voters.
It’s true, the Nigerian electorate are obsessed with sweet-talks on campaign podiums and rallies but don’t really ask questions after elections or hold leaders accountable. No wonder, the gullible electorate are always left holding the short end of the stick. In every quagmire or unsavoury situation, there are usually a silent few who keep hope and confidence alive in the minds of the people by not only doing the needful but also doing the undoable.
In a most wonderful way, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state is practically defining what leadership entails, especially in hard times where despondency and despair have virtually consumed the electorate and the people in general. Buni’s rare leadership qualities began to manifest right at the beginning of his political sojourn in 1992 when he contested and won the councillorship of his ward on the platform of National Republican Convention (NRC) and subsequently elected as the Speaker of the Council. He successfully rose from that position to various positions of authority too numerous to mention here. He was the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC). It was during his reign at the APC headquarters that President Muhammadu Buhari emerged in 2015. Buni left the office in 2018 to contest for the governorship of Yobe state.
Buni was overwhelmingly elected as the fourth Executive Governor of Yobe state in the 2019 election. He defeated his closest rival, Bello Iliya of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after scoring the highest votes of 444,013 against Iliya’s 95,703 votes.
Convinced by his sporadic leadership shrewdness, when the ruling APC was riddled by internal crisis which led to the dissolution of the Adams Oshiomhole’s led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, Buni was appointed as the chairman of the party’s Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee. Undoubtedly, throughout the Oshiomhole tenure, the party’s fortunes nosedived almost irretrievably. Instead of the former governor of Edo state wooing people to the party, he suspended many party stalwarts. Consequently, the APC lost states like Edo and Zamfara because of the crisis in the party.
Without prejudice and in fairness to Governor Buni, what was bequeathed to him by the Oshiomhole national working committee was the remnant of the crisis-ridden party. But he successfully piloted the affairs of the party and succeeded in bringing three serving governors into the party – Governors Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state, Ben Ayade of Cross River state and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state, alongside the state’s legislators.
In fact, Buni has distinguished himself from the ordinary, especially his contemporaries. While many governors were struggling in managing the affairs of their states without much impact, Buni was doing the seeming undoable in the Yobe state and the APC national secretariat. The silent go-getter, he does things without media hysteria.
Today, the people of Yobe state have witnessed cogent life-changing projects in the economy, agriculture, youths and women empowerment, education, social interventions and other critical sectors of the state.
Education was given high priority. On assumption of office, Buni immediately declared a state of emergency in education by building schools, employment, training and retraining of teachers, and awarding local and international scholarship to brilliant indigenes of the state to study various courses at different universities.
By way of matching words with action, Governor Buni has graciously injected over N2 billion into the hitherto comatose education sector and over 300 schools renovated and equipped with modern facilities to create conducive learning environment.
Second to education is health. It’s said health is wealth. Governor Buni, in a bid to revamp the dilapidated health sector, upgraded the sector by building over 130 health centres in fulfillment of the promise he made to construct 178 of the centres in the state.
To bridge the gap of inadequate manpower in the health sector, Governor Buni sponsored 233 indigenes to study medicine and surgery, basic medical sciences in various universities in India; the most amazing thing is that, most of them are the sons and daughters of the have nots.
Under Buni administration, Yobe state has become a hub of infrastructural transformation with befitting road network, modern markets, model schools, airport and lots more. It will be an underrepresentation of fact to highlight the exceptional feats of Governor Mai Mala Buni in this piece. But the few ones listed here will go a long way in unmasking the rare personality and leadership attributes of Buni. Let’s not forget the fact that he took over at a time the Boko Haram insurgency has crippled virtually everything in the state; the Covid-19 pandemic popped up to add more burden on the leadership.
Recently, when the communities in parts of Yobe state were hit by massive and deadly floods, Buni was seen inspecting the areas affected with helicopter, canoes, and cars, depending on the nature of the terrain and how easily the communities could be accessed. This was apart from setting up a powerful committee to look into the tragedy with a view to ameliorating the sufferings of the affected people.
Though, they will not make any mistake but it is germane to retell the people of Yobe state to recall where they were, where they are, and where they’re heading to as the 2019 general elections draw near, the decision on who to vote for must hinge on the person’s commitment to the development of the state. In that aspect, Buni stands tall among all the contenders.
Musaji writes from Kano.
