By Ali Abare
President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to visit Nasarawa State come Tuesday, February 6 on the invitation of Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura. This is indeed a homecoming for the President considering his close affinity with the state and its people, being the only state to have emerged following the birth of President Buhari’s defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) back in 2011.
Unlike his previous visits to the state, being the first since he was elected, President Buhari is expected to commission several numbers of projects put in place by the Umaru Tanko Al-makura administration, an accumulation of critical interventions across various sectors embarked upon from the onset of the administration.
The event promises to be not only epochal but marks a giant stride in the quest by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration under the leadership of Governor Al-makura to transform Nasarawa State. Previously, Nasarawa State was arguably rural in outlook but now transformed into a modern society that can compete favourably with its peers as well as older states in terms of critical infrastructure that have the potential to galvanize the people to pursue aggressive wealth generation through enterprise thereby casting off the chains of poverty.
Since the inception of his administration in 2011, Governor Al-makura has left no one in doubt regarding his resolve and determination to leave Nasarawa State, tragically left to suffer from the vagaries of ill-prepared leadership as well as docile followership, far better than he met her.
In his now celebrated inaugural address, with Buhari in attendance, Al-makura showered encomiums on the CPC founder, describing him as an “illustrious Nigerian who embodies the spirit of service, and the quest for real change that this country so desperately needs”, while rightly prophesying that the journey to a modern Nasarawa State won’t be a tea party.
Indeed, the journey from a Nasarawa, previously “held hostage to the folly and excesses of its rulers”, such that “stagnation, even decline and decay” became self-evident, to that of a modern enterprise society, has been long, tough and arduous but for the dogged resilience of Governor Al-makura.
Armed with the fore knowledge of the challenges against his mostly corrective regime, Al-makura knew from the onset that change, positive change for that matter, comes with a price tag.
“So on this day we are gathered here to give a decent burial to the politics of arrogance, pettiness, division and false promises that have plagued our body politic. In our quest for prosperity and freedom, it should be understood that these must be laboured for with resolve and diligence. They will not come to us if we choose the easy way out, if we settle for the life of the indolent or seek only the delights of easy riches and glory,” Al-makura has said on coming to power.
It follows that as a result of his commitment to these ideals and the quest to “foster a modern, educated enterprise society so as to help people help themselves, and cast off the chains of poverty”, Al-makura through the years, encountered series of challenges mostly initiated by those that preferred the sustenance of the status quo.
First, the governor started on a cleansing programme within the folds of his then party, the CPC. It was tough battle attempting to turn around the understanding and perception among government officials who previously viewed their offices as avenues to enrich themselves. In a society where public officials see public funds as free for grasp without visible consequence, Al-makura was a lone voice in a sea infested with hungry, greedy killer sharks.
Some of his earlier political appointees used to the old ways of gross abuse of public trust, got tired of his missionary zeal and left. Others patiently waited for the governor’s initial enthusiasm to be dampened and for him to throw in the towel and for business to go on as usual. The latter category of officials never saw their prayer answered. Because rather than give in, Governor Al-makura became even more determined to usher a new lease of life to governance and through sheer will power compelled these officials to understand the necessity for accountability and responsibility.
Then the politicians came after him. “Things are not going well as before” became the trend. Politicians have, through the years been exposed to sleaze and wanton abuse of public funds. With Al-makura and his call to probity, many a politician saw the governor as obstacle in their quest to get rich quick at the detriment of the state. The celebrated impeachment saga initiated by the state House of Assembly was seen by many as the peak and final push by obviously disgruntled politicians to push Al-makura aside.
When the politicians failed in their bid, they sent the people after Al-makura. There were muted complains of “hunger”, with the accompanying joke, “We will see it on ground”, with the governor’s resolute pursuit of equitable distribution of wealth across all the strata of society, ironically becoming the butt of a joke. Still, Al-makura refused to give in as he became even more determined in his quest to turn around the fortunes of the state for the better.
During his second coming in 2015, with the accompanying global economic recession as a result of the downfall in oil prices, civil servants picked up the gauntlet to further assail Governor Al-makura so that he could cave in and allow the state slide back to the impunity of the past. When it was obvious, the inability of state governments to pay salaries of workers was national and mostly because of downfall in subventions, workers, seeping from a poisoned political chalice, blamed Al-makura for the shortfall, mounting a campaign for the governor to “stop his projects and pay salaries.”
Indeed, the journey has been tough and tasking. The result of Al-makura’s resoluteness against mounting challenges however is there for all to see, a loud confirmation that after all, the governor meant well for the state and its people as facilities and infrastructure to be commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari would finally be bequeathed to posterity and for generations yet unborn.
Therefore, as President Buhari arrives the state, the people should turn out en masse, irrespective of political leanings to celebrate these achievements by Governor Al-makura seen by many as the Architect of Modern Nasarawa State.
The projects to be commissioned ranging from schools, hospitals, markets, cargo airport or the NIPP/TCN 330 KVA station, among others, don’t belong to the governor, but to the state and its people collectively.
Ali Abare is a journalist based in Gombe, northern Nigeria
