In the drizzling night of 27th August 1991, a new state was born. The hope of starting afresh and building a nimble and prosperous state that works for everyone was high. The euphoria of that night in across towns and villages of Yobe State is simply indescribable. Soon however, lack visionary and purposeful leadership began to eclipse those hopes.
In 2007, with the coming to office Mamman Ali and Ibrahim Gaidam, light appeared in what was then a dark tunnel. For the first time since creation, government had a plan. Yobe was immediately put back on a carefully thought out comprehensive development roadmap covering education, healthcare, infrastructure and youth employment. Sadly, Governor Mamman Ali died before most of these programs took-off. Quite commendably, on being sworn in to complete Mamman Ali’s tenure, Gaidam continued some of the legacy programs started by his predecessor with some necessary modifications. He also added a number of innovative programs of his own to the existing development template. This includes the Medical City Initiative MCI, whose cardinal objective was to make Damaturu a go-to destination for advance medical care within ten years. To achieve this, Gaidam upgraded four General Hospitals from each senatorial zone in the state to specialist hospitals, expanded and re-equipped the Damaturu Specialist hospital.
In the area of infrastructure, Gaidam’s government launched the Sahara Road Project (SRP).Through SRP, Yobe State government was able to build a broad network of tarred roads in the northern part of the state. This opened up the entire area and linked communities thereby giving hundreds of masses access to socio-economic opportunities. Currently, construction has begun at Damaturu Cargo Airport. Having Africa’s biggest livestock market in Potiskum, Yobe State government believes the major obstacle to investors who may wish to setup meat factory is transportation. So it began to invest in building a customized cargo airport. Interestingly, the governor managed to pull all these without external borrowing and despite the debilitating effects of Boko Haram crisis.
Governor Gaidam’s tenure comes to an end on the 29th of May 2018 and the entire state is now focused on who should carry the torch. The people of Yobe State have since laid the criteria for election into the highest office in the land. The man/woman that would the nest governor must be someone who clearly understands his policies and programs. Someone who apart from understanding his focus, is also helping him in his/her own way to achieve the objectives of those programs.
One man fits this description more than anybody else in the governor’s party – a man known to Yobe State as the calm, thoughtful, witty and cosmopolitan politician. He is the current Vice Chairman of Gen. T.Y Danjuma led Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative (PCNI). This man is non-other than Alhaji Tijjani Musa Tumsah- the man generally known in Yobe State as TMT.
First, Alhaji Tumsah not only has the academic qualification, the national and international exposure, he is very well known to the Yobe people and therefore very electable due perhaps to his humility and approachability. When President Muhammadu Buhari mandated his committee to help states of the Northeast recover from the negative effects of insurgency, General Danjuma seeing his commitment, conviction and passion for rebuilding the northeast, gave him sufficient leverage to put his feet where his heart is.
TMT through the PCNI has taken reliefs to president Buhari’s very own people-the ordinary masses who are in need. Beyond all of that, there is no politician in Yobe State that has invested in Governor Gaidam’s laudable development initiatives as much as was done by Alhaji Tumsah.
Healthcare is for instance, governor Gaidam’s top priority. Under the Yobe Free Healthcare Initiative (YFHI), government upgraded four general hospitals in each of the three senatorial zones in the state, while it continues to renovate and equip comprehensive health centers across the state, supplying drugs and up scaling manpower. To assist Governor Gaidam achieve the laudable objectives of the YFHI, Alhaji Tumsah ,through PCNI’s extensive healthcare support program, donated hi-tech equipment and supplies including digital x-tray machines, Blood Banks and state-of-the-arts portable scanners to the Yobe State Specialists Hospital, Damaturu worth hundreds of millions of Naira. This is in addition to previous donation of ambulances and surgical equipment to the newly upgraded General Hospitals in the state. At the primary healthcare level, Alhaji Tumsah also up-scaled PCNI’s intervention through supply of drugs, delivery kits to mothers and HIV/AIDs tests. Perhaps the most significant support to governor Gaidam’s Medical City Initiative is the setting-up by PCNI of a diagnostic center for viral diseases and the procurement of a viral load machine at the state specialist.
Governor Gaidam needs to give this man of many ideas, passion and conviction the chance to bring positive attention to this beautiful state of great potential. He needs to declare support for this one man that can carry forward his legacies.
Musa Sule Damagum, Yobe State University, Damaturu.
