GOMBE: WHAT WENT WRONG?

Ola Alao canvasses peace and unity for the progress of the state

When a dog which usually wags its tail joyfully suddenly starts barking ferociously, something is amiss. Gombe State which has enjoyed a relative and enviable peace in North-Eastern Nigeria is about to be orchestrated into a theatre of chaos. The only bride of investors and a choice investment destination in the region is beginning to witness an avoidable political shenanigan that signposts nothing but gloom.

What played out in Gombe State penultimate Friday is nothing but a grandiose act of grandstanding by a habitual Machiavellian trying to return to the trenches he has mastered over time. No one should be fooled.

It is very instructive to note that nothing meaningful happens outside a unity of purpose. It is a time to unite. It is also a time to join hands and move the Jewel of the Savannah upwards. This is why reasoning and sagely wisdom should be the engaging ingredients deployed on the matters at hand. Anarchy, if allowed, will narrow the developmental equilibrium presently enjoyed in Gombe State, made possible by the catalytic economic policies of Governor Inuwa Yahaya. The current embers of political flame being ignited by the fifth columnists can fester into an open conflagration which may consume this promising state.

Gombe State has been peaceful and has recorded an incremental curve in all development indices since the assumption of leadership by Inuwa Yahaya and had been adjudged as the best state in ease of doing business in Nigeria. It is perhaps one of the best states in the country in the management of diversity issues. The Yoruba residents have had almost 200 years of peaceful cohabitation, while the Ibos are already recording a third generation of settlers in the state. The Governor, Inuwa Yahaya is a Muslim, his Deputy Governor, Dr. Manassah Daniel Jatau is a Christian; such is the sweet rhythm of conviviality flowing out of the Jewel State. Gombe prides itself as a safe haven in the whole of North East Nigeria and the incumbent governor has done a lot to safeguard this status.

Internally generated revenue is rising incrementally. Many are coming daily to do businesses with the state because of the peaceful and encouraging hospitality of its people.

But alas! The calm narratives of the Jewel in the Savannah is about to be altered negatively unless some drastic steps are taken, more so when all sorts of security challenges are confronting virtually all states of Nigeria. Any state that enjoys a comparative peace should guard it jealously, albeit vehemently.

Already some persons have been declared dead and the dreaded Yankalare Boys are beginning to bare their fangs in a state where the Muslims and Christians enjoy equanimity uncommon in most states in the Northern Nigeria. What is amiss? Perhaps one may not be too fastidious in enquiring?

Although two diametric reports are in the courtyards of the media, the public should not be misguided by the narratives being bandied by people who were not fully privy to the condition precedence to the sad episode that climaxed out in the present Danjuma Goje saga.

During the last Eid- el-Kabir Sallah celebration, some thugs threw caution into the wind and went on the rampage, leading to the loss of two lives. Should the sitting governor look away while the peace of the state he presides over is being eroded by some ‘above the law citizens’?

As an elder statesman,.Danjuma Goje, is well respected and spoken of in glowing tributes in Gombe State’s political turf. The relationship between Inuwa Yahaya and Goje had been healthy and cordial.

What has changed suddenly? Could it be a matter of political supremacy? Or is it a plain calculation of the states’ political jugular ahead of the 2023 elections? The issue of who leads the party has been laid to rest. As in other states, the sitting governor is the natural and automatic leader of the party in the state just as it is in several other states where the controversy has been laid to rest.

While we continue to ponder on what truly happened, we must not gloss over the implications of reintroducing thugs who are mostly the ‘Kalare Boys’ into the Gombe State’s political hemisphere.

Who are the Kalare Boys and what was their antecedent? These were boys who changed from hunting group to political thugs in Gombe metropolis in the past. Kalare boys have allegedly committed various crimes in the state and had been the nightmare of many Police Commissioners who have served in the state. Their reappearance is indeed ominous.

‘Yan Kalare’ is synonymous with every act of political violence, threat to lives and properties, and other indecent activities. Reports have it that the Kalare thugs resort to burglary and theft and so many cases of rapes have their stamps on them. It was reported that at least 115 people have been killed and scores more injured as a result of Kalare violence in Gombe State

Let the All Progressives Congress give sanctions and caution if needs be. Let the Emirs and Chiefs come together on this matter. Let all that love Gombe arise now and lay to rest whatsoever may threaten the balance of enviable socio-economic successes recorded so far by the fiscally responsible government of Inuwa Yahaya’s and his assemblage of ‘brains and brilliance’ cabinet.

Ola Alao wrote from Abuja