By: Sani Ubaida
What quality leadership means to us as Bauchi State citizens is how well the people we voted into power carry on their duties in developing the state and building a sustainable economy. But for a clime that has been enmeshed by anti-development politicking and evil machinations where the so-called cabals have for a long time held sway, any elected official who desire to do things differently would certainly be met with some resistances and difficulties that could be surmountable and conquerable only by great minds and committed leaders.
In writing political history of Bauchi State, successive governors of our dear state had been held in the jugular, they had succumbed to the antipeople forces of godfatherism and moonlight financial requisition, where rather than the interest of the people, the interest of the cabals were put in the front burner of the power that be, leaving the government balance sheet dry while development was at stake with deplorable structures. Put bluntly, before the emergence of Governor Muhammed Abdullahi Abubakar's administration, the state has been under the stranglehold of antidemocratic forces holding the state to ransom.
As natural as it were, the people apparently got tired and in the 2015 general elections and when the fine and focused gentleman, Barrister Abubakar offered himself as a credible alternative under the All Progressive Congress (APC) to the slave driving regimes that had held Bauchi down for many years, the people overwhelmingly cast their ballots for him while being confident that, he’ll unshackle the state from the burden of underdevelopment and financial recklessness.
Today, we are at the first half of the journey to make up his first tenure, to justify this all-important mandate given him by the people of Bauchi State, a question could be asked, what is the man Governor Muhammed Abdullahi Abubakar doing differently and how is he redefining governance differently from what was obtainable in the previous locust ravaging regimes?
To start with, Governor Abubakar has taken a bold step of blocking the financial leakages and ensuring that, monies meant for the development of the state have channels to the legitimatize ways in developing the state and sensitizing the act of governance in the state. The points where the state's fortunes are being depleted. The monsters of corruption, godfatherism, nepotism and cronyism which have hitherto stood side by side the state's administration, were no longer allowed a space.
Upon assumption of office, the administration of Gov. Abubakar made it clear that the state must be liberated from the stranglehold of these anti-developmental practices. He made a clear and bold decision to erase the influence of cabals and political godfatherism and the immediate good of this move is that the speed of delivery public good like social and infrastructural development is no longer slowed down by the so-called powers that be. Today, policies and programs of the state are conceived solely in the best interest of the citizens.
Standing up against an established wrong system is not easy. Such a system usually has an army of powerful elements who feed fat on the rot. And that, they mount strong resistance against progressive thinking and policies. At national level, we see how the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is being sabotaged by certain forces whose only care is to maintain a status quo of corruption. Quite surprising is that, the depravity in their hearts wouldn't let them give up easily. In essence, they constitute the internal bottle neck to the administration hiding under politics and vainly to truncating policies that do not promote their own selfish interests.
Worse is their temerity to use the media to advance their unwholesome and unkind interests. They hire an army of fifth columnists who weave narratives of falsehood to beguile the unsuspecting reading public, usually using m