Gombe State may not have measured up to her slogan of ‘Jewel of the Savannah’, but for Ibrahim Dankwambo. The state was rustic and lacked the basic infrastructure befitting of a state before the incumbent governor came into power on May 29, 2011. The giant strides of the governor have practically led to the rebuilding of the state. It must be noted that despite the fact that Gombe is at the bottom of states on the ladder of statutory federal allocations, yet Dankwambo has succeeded in achieving much with the meagre resources.

The electoral promise of the governor to revolutionise agriculture in the state has since been fulfilled. He procured 225 units of tractor for the use of farmers and this has been followed up with the training and retraining of poultry farmers. He ensured regular distribution of fertilisers and other farm implements to farmers in the state.

This architect of development has constructed several markets in the state, in his quest to encourage and boost cotton-farming. The Dankwambo-led administration successfully established a Groundnut Processing Mill, which has provided 4,600 direct jobs. The company now boasts of 326 heavy duty machines being used for milling 150 tons of groundnuts, 80 tons of groundnut oil, and 70 tons of groundnut cakes on a daily basis.

Alhaji Dankwambo – Fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) – has equally proven himself as a promise-keeper, given his strides in the education sector. He has constructed over 502 classrooms across the state. He also ensured the recruitment of over 1,000 degree and NCE graduates into the state’s education sector – even as he approved the training of over 5,000 teachers - to enhance their productivity.

He established School of Basic and Remedial Studies in Kumo, as well as College of Education in Billiri. Besides, he set up the Gombe State Polytechnic in Bajoga, and the College of Legal and Islamic Studies in Nafada. It is to the credit of Dankwambo that 25 students of the state have been sponsored to India and the United Kingdom for Maritime studies.

It is most heart-warming that schools in Gombe are now well-equipped with modern facilities, such as e-learning centres, e-libraries, ICT centres, laboratories, expansive and conducive classes, modern furniture and well-motivated workers. All these contributed to the successes recorded by primary and secondary school pupils in Gombe, in their external examinations.

Dankwambo set new records of achievement in the state’s heath sector. He upgraded the Urban Maternity in Idi to Children and Women’s Hospital. He has completed a newly constructed Dialysis Centre within the Gombe Specialist Hospital. He also stamped the feats with the construction of College of Nursing and Midwifery, Dukku as well as the Snake Bite Treatment and Research Centre, Kaltungo. It is noteworthy that patients are being brought from across the state and even as far as Cameroon for treatment in the health facility. Dankwambo also delivered on the supply and installation of four dialysis machines and two dialysis chairs.

It is incontrovertible that no sector in Gombe has been left undeveloped by Dankwambo since he became governor. He constructed and delivered close to 2,000 units of two and three bedroom flats that are already being occupied. His flagship performance is the construction of 3,000-seater International Conference Centre. The governor also constructed a big ultra-modern motor park in the state capital. He constructed a state-of-the-art tankers’ parking bay. This facility can conveniently house 300 articulated trucks. The project was necessitated by the hitherto regular occurrence of accidents in the state, caused by indiscriminate parking of articulated petroleum trucks on the roads.

Poverty alleviation and youth empowerment have been of importance to the PDP governor. He has trained more than 3,200 youths in six different trades at the four skills acquisition centres located in the state. Dankwambo’s administration also sponsored the training of 330 supervisors at the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, Jos, Plateau State. He recruited over 1,500 youths as traffic, environmental and security marshals in Gombe. The youth that now live responsibly were hitherto entrenched in thuggery and other social vices, before Dankwambo gave them a new lease of life. The governor trained a different category of 1,000 youths in welding, fabrication, POP, and tiling. Besides, his government trained another set of youths numbering over 1, 200, now known as Kalare, under the Talba Youths Reorientation and Rehabilitation Programme.

The state’s judicial sector has also benefitted from the transformational impacts of the Ibrahim Dankwambo-led administration. Not less than 162 laws of the state have been reviewed, aside the codification of existing ones. Gombe State Judiciary Headquarters has been tastefully renovated by the administration of Dankwambo. The governor delivered the construction and furnishing of law courts in the state, as well as magistrates, upper and area courts. Judges in Gombe judicial system are regularly being sponsored to national and international conferences, in a bid to broaden their intellectual horizons and enhance service delivery in the sector.

Building and upgrading of infrastructure in the state have been another area of major concern to the current administration, which constructed not less than 13 major gully erosion sites - each of which is more than four kilometres long – in a bid to curtail erosion problem. The governor also ensured the establishment of 30 hectares of woodlots in five council areas in the state. He deserves credit for the establishment of road-side plantations in the state metropolis. Also to his credit is the procurement of over 200 electricity transformers to ensure regular power supply in the state. The government ensured the provision of information communication technology equipment in the state.

Dr Dankwabo equally transformed the state’s civil service, and approved the promotion of over 2,000 civil servants in both the senior and junior cadres. Not less than 1,000 graduates were recruited into the state public service through other programmes of the government.

He was adjudged the best northern governor in 2017, largely because of his performance in the area of road construction. He constructed over 3,000 kilometres of roads with solar-powered lighting.

•Bidemi Adeniyi sent this piece from Gombe.

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