BusinessDay 04 Mar 2018
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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.”