By Babayola M. Toungo
The season of campaigns and political rallies has reached its zenith and we are already on the last lap of the campaigns. The elections are just around the next bend; therefore, we can safely say we are on the homerun. Beginning from October 28th, 2022, when the ban on campaign was lifted by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigerians have seen the best and the worst in our politicians while trying to sell their candidatures to the voting public.
From the ridiculous to the mundane and unfathomable, we have been entertained by the kind of politics that is played these days – mediocre. The campaigns lack both colour and verve. With the type of campaigns that abound these days, I sometimes wonder the utility value of the campaigns to those “herded” into the venues just to listen to music and dance away their sorrows and daily realities.
I am sure most of the people that attend these rallies cannot honestly tell you what they took away from listening to their preferred candidate in terms of policy and strategic agendas of these candidates. The rallies have been turned into musical jamborees for praise singers and merry makers. I am no politician and therefore can safely say these rallies are just jamborees – no substance, no policy statements.
In fact, the rowdy environment associated with the rallies will not allow the candidates to speak. It is a bazaar for musicians, dancers, and political thugs. But sadly, they have become a necessity on our political landscape. In years gone by, aspirants use the opportunity afforded by political rallies to ‘connect’ to the voters. It was a platform where party/candidates manifesto is broken down to the level of the masses.
There was colour and charisma; entertainment wasn’t the main menu but rather the dessert. These days campaign rallies have become avenues for fleecing the candidate by party aficionados. Since ‘connecting’ with the voter by the candidate is the primary objective of campaign rallies, and that the rallies are now just jamborees and not platforms where candidates “sell” their candidature to the voter, I don’t see the need for people like the Adamawa State governor, his excellency Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri to be seen campaigning for votes by attending these rallies.
The governor has successfully “sold” himself to the Adamawa voter by his policies and projects, which impacts the everyday life of the ordinary citizen of the state.On assumption of office in 2015, the governor drew up an eleven-point agenda, a sort of blueprint by which he intended to deliver good governance to the people of Adamawa. Has he delivered on his promise? I think he did. We may all have our opinions on whether he did deliver or not, but in my view, he did. Believing so, informed my opinion that Fintiri shouldn’t be seen to be hustling with other candidates for votes. He has proven himself while the rest are unknown quantities when executive office is the issue. Other candidates can and must go out to hustle for votes, but Fintiri’s works should speak for him.
Governance is about providing good leadership and direction to the led by the leader and governor Fintiri has done just that. His government’s intervention in critical areas like education, healthcare delivery and agriculture speak for the governor. Payment of examination fees to examination bodies like WAEC and NECO for the children of the poor is now regularly done by the government.
The government’s school feeding programme has improved enrolment and retention of pupils who hitherto withdraw midway from school. The increment in enrolment has also drastically reduced the number of out of school children while the school feeding programme helped in reflating our rural economies because almost all the foodstuff and ingredients are sourced locally.
The agricultural revolution is the one most exiting to me. The livestock sector, which for long has been moribund got the government’s attention in so many ways. Livestock markets are upgraded to provide conducive ambience for business to flourish. This is a sector that has been deliberately neglected over a long period of time. Grain producers also benefitted immensely from the government’s intervention in the sector due to the relative harmony existing between herders and farmers in the state because both are busy flourishing with no time for hating each other.
Healthcare delivery system was reinvigorated with existing facilities renovated/ rehabilitated while new ones provided. The sector benefitted from the regenerative efforts of the Fintiri administration. A sector that was becoming a hybrid of an abattoir and a mortuary got a shot in the arm by the unprecedented intervention from the government. The role played by the governor in the realisation of the Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital indicates the importance the governor attached to the delivery of health services to all the citizens of the state.
Governor Fintiri inherited a civil service that was neither civil nor service delivery oriented – it was bloated, lacks morale because of incessant interference from politicians and bogged down by the frequent scrimmage between the then government and the labour leadership in the state. The Adamawa state civil service today has found its groove because the governor ensured that the service regulates itself with minimal interference from the government. This harmony is what is driving the developmental efforts of the governor.
The mother lode of all the foregoing is the security architecture the governor put in place to fight both rural and urban brigands. On assumption of office, Yola, the state capital was in the grip of street urchins who were making life a living hell for the dwellers of the city; the rural areas were in the firm grip of bandits, kidnappers, and other criminal operators; farmers and herders were at each other’s throats.
Today the level of insecurity has been reduced to its barest minimum making it possible for the rural economy to pick up and commercial operators access rural markets. The unprecedented construction/ rehabilitation of rural road network across the state is a testimony to the government’s prioritisation of connecting rural to urban economy and commerce. With these achievements by the governor in his first term, I am of the view that the governor need not go out to hustle for votes from the Adamawa electorate.
Toungo a media aide to governor Fintiri writes from Kaduna.
Seriously, your opinion as stated in your write-up. But for us in the State Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri failed woefully. Given time and opportunity I will explain in myself.