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Sunday <strong>04</strong> <strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

19<br />

2019<br />

Watch<br />

Dankwambo in the eyes of publics<br />

MABEL DIMMA<br />

Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo,<br />

governor of<br />

Gombe State, a graduate<br />

of Accounting from<br />

Ahmadu Bello University.<br />

He went on to obtain a<br />

Master of Science degree in<br />

Economics from the University<br />

of Lagos, in 1992 and a PhD in<br />

Accounting from Igbinedion<br />

University.<br />

His name, along with the<br />

names of other seasoned politicians<br />

and technocrats have<br />

been making the rounds of<br />

those who are interested in<br />

occupying Aso Rock, and controlling<br />

the affairs of the largest<br />

economy in Africa, leading it to<br />

the Promised Land come 2019.<br />

Recently, Yoruba Solidarity<br />

Alliance (YSA), a group<br />

drawn from the South West,<br />

has thrown its weight behind<br />

Dankwambo, saying he is the<br />

most marketable presidential<br />

material for the PDP.<br />

The group said the 55-yearold<br />

governor is the only one<br />

who can represent the interest<br />

of the youth and defeat All<br />

Progressives Congress (APC).<br />

“Nigerians have evidently<br />

become disillusioned as a result<br />

of countless broken promises<br />

of the APC,” the group<br />

said, adding that “Only a man<br />

of known performance and<br />

integrity like Ibrahim Dankwambo<br />

can readily appeal to<br />

the electorate during the 2019<br />

presidential elections.<br />

“Now that the ruling party<br />

has demonstrated its inability<br />

to offer better governance,<br />

PDP cannot afford to seek the<br />

trust of Nigerians once again<br />

with any serial presidential<br />

candidate that is bogged down<br />

with moral burden and encumbrance<br />

of corruption,” it said.<br />

According to the group, “It<br />

is amply evident that the long<br />

The man Dankwambo<br />

He was born on the April 4,<br />

1962. He graduated from Ahmadu<br />

Bello University in 1985<br />

with a degree in Accounting. He<br />

obtained a Master of Science<br />

degree in Economics from the<br />

University of Lagos in 1992 and<br />

a PhD in Accounting from Igbinedion<br />

University. He began his<br />

career with Coopers & Lybrand<br />

in 1985, and worked at the Central<br />

Bank of Nigeria from 1988<br />

to 1999. He was then appointed<br />

Accountant General of Gombe<br />

State, holding this position until<br />

2005. He was appointed Accountant-<br />

General of the Federation<br />

on 20 April 2005. He held<br />

this office until he resigned to<br />

Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo<br />

suffering Nigerians have had<br />

enough of gerontocracy while<br />

majority of them are prepared<br />

to do away with this unworkable<br />

idea in 2019.<br />

“What the nation needs at<br />

this time of untold economic<br />

hardship and insecurity is a<br />

much younger president who<br />

is fresh with new ideas and<br />

innovative concepts and Dankwambo<br />

is the only way out in<br />

2019 especially with his proven<br />

achievements.”<br />

In January <strong>2018</strong>, controversial<br />

Reverend Father Mbaka of<br />

the Adoration Church, far away<br />

start his campaign for election<br />

as Governor of Gombe State<br />

January 2011.<br />

In the 26 April 2011 election,<br />

Dankwambo won 596,481 votes,<br />

ahead of Abubakar Aliyu of the<br />

defunct Congress for Progressive<br />

Change (CPC) with 91,781 votes<br />

and Senator Sa’idu Umar Kumo<br />

of the All Nigeria People’s Party<br />

with 84,959 votes.<br />

He is also a fellow with the<br />

Institute of Chartered Accountants<br />

of Nigeria (FCA); Fellow,<br />

Chartered Institute of Taxation<br />

of Nigeria (FCTI); Fellow, Chartered<br />

Institute of Bankers of Nigeria<br />

(FCIB) and Fellow, Nigeria<br />

Institute of <strong>Mar</strong>keters (FNIM).<br />

in Enugu State, had made some<br />

predictions in line with the<br />

YSA leanings that Dankwambo<br />

would replace President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari in Aso Rock,<br />

Nigeria’s seat of power, in 2019.<br />

That prediction was promptly<br />

refuted and referred to as ‘fantasy’<br />

by Coalition of Gombe State<br />

Indigenes through Muhammad<br />

Jibrin Barde, insisting that if<br />

the reverend father was well<br />

apprised of the state of affairs<br />

in Gombe, he would certainly<br />

not recommend Dankwambo<br />

as a worthy replacement for the<br />

‘great President Buhari’.<br />

The coalition went ahead to<br />

list some of the alleged damage<br />

done to Gombe State and its<br />

indigenes by the Dankwanbo<br />

administration.<br />

It stated that Gombe town<br />

had battled with lack of potable<br />

drinking water since independence,<br />

and the previous administration<br />

of Senator Danjuma<br />

Goje took this as a priority,<br />

spending over N8 billion to ensure<br />

provision of water across<br />

the state and specifically within<br />

Gombe metropolis.<br />

“Dankwambo refused to<br />

make an annual budgetary<br />

spending of only N200 million<br />

required to maintain the supply<br />

of water. Today, you will<br />

easily find water in the desert<br />

before Gombe State,” the coalition<br />

said, adding that “Gombe<br />

State education system was<br />

adjudged one of the best in the<br />

country, with a State University<br />

founded by the previous<br />

administration being rated as<br />

one of the top 10 state-owned<br />

universities in Nigeria as at<br />

2011.”<br />

Barde said as with the water<br />

project, Dankwabo did not<br />

continue with the required<br />

funding of the university.<br />

“Today, the university and the<br />

entire educational system are in<br />

shambles and our classrooms<br />

are playground for idle students<br />

without teachers who have left<br />

en mass due to unpaid salaries.<br />

Our hospitals, which were modernised<br />

and fully equipped, are<br />

now mortuaries and consulting<br />

clinics,” Barde said.<br />

Barge said pensioners are<br />

yet to be paid and dying, despite<br />

the Paris Club refunds<br />

and bailouts engineered by the<br />

Federal Government and the<br />

committee of governors to assist<br />

state governments clear arrears<br />

of workers emoluments.<br />

“These are few examples<br />

to show the extent Governor<br />

Ibrahim Dankwambo, with all<br />

his accounting credentials, has<br />

wreaked havoc in our state in<br />

just six years of his maladministration.<br />

He has reversed the<br />

glorious achievements of the<br />

previous administration and<br />

destroyed all the good works<br />

of the distinguished senator,<br />

Danjuma Goje.<br />

“I advise Father Mbaka to<br />

travel to Gombe State and visit<br />

the state university, hospitals<br />

and water projects in Gombe<br />

town and all the other 10 local<br />

governments of Gombe State<br />

and tell Nigerians his findings”.<br />

Meanwhile, several articles<br />

on the internet are full of<br />

praises of the man.<br />

Leaders.NG, an online news<br />

platform, said: “In the last<br />

dispensation, Governors Rabiu<br />

Musa Kwankwaso (then PDP)<br />

of Kano and Ibrahim Hassan<br />

Dankwambo were undisputedly<br />

two of the best governors<br />

in the federation.<br />

“Dankwambo’s case was<br />

even unique in the sense that<br />

he had little resources at his<br />

disposal when compared with<br />

his then Kano colleague and<br />

those of the southern states,<br />

yet, his performance rivalled<br />

and eclipsed those of his<br />

peers.”<br />

The above statement is<br />

a huge departure from the<br />

gloomy picture painted of<br />

Dankwambo’s tenure as governor<br />

of Gombe State by the<br />

Coalition of Gombe State Indigenes.<br />

Leaders.NG, went on to add<br />

that, “Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo<br />

became a poster Governor<br />

for the PDP in Gombe<br />

state and the entire northeast,<br />

not even the change mantra of<br />

the APC and Sai Baba wind was<br />

able to sweep him out of office<br />

in the 2015 general election.<br />

He came head to head with<br />

Senator Danjuma Goje’s political<br />

machinery and triumphed<br />

comfortably. He became the<br />

only PDP incumbent Governor<br />

to deliver his state to the party<br />

in the entire northern region.”<br />

Those rooting for Dankwambo<br />

to become the next<br />

president say critics are yet to<br />

find any loophole to pin him.<br />

“He is a professional, a perfect<br />

technocrat, he is still in<br />

his prime years at 54, and he<br />

represents the call for generational<br />

shift in leadership that<br />

we all yearned for.”<br />

“With the situation of things<br />

in the country, it only makes<br />

sense for a real fresh air to step<br />

in, fix the country and safeguard<br />

it from total comatose.<br />

“What else does Nigeria<br />

need in 2019 other than this<br />

professional Accountant? We<br />

gambled in 2015, we can’t<br />

afford to toe the same line in<br />

2019. He is a 21st Century technocrat<br />

who understands 21st<br />

Century solutions to the myriads<br />

of problems in Nigeria. He<br />

has no corruption case or any<br />

baggage hanging on his neck.”

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