Adamawa guber: Who delivers the people from decadence?

By KINGSLEY OMONOBI and UMAR YUSUF, Yola.

As voters in Adamawa State go to the polls next Saturday, the people hope that the election will not only be peaceful but  it should be devoid of rigging and electoral malpractices.

The wish of the people also is that the authentic winner of the election must be declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The people vowed to ensure that their votes count by staying firm to witness the counting of their votes, unlike what transpired in the past.

Because of the sensitivity and passion attached to the election by the people, the Nigeria and the international community which have pledged to monitor the election through their observers, the major candidates have tried to out- do each other in the bid to sell themselves and their programmes to the electorates.

Though there are five parties and five candidates contesting the elections, the frontrunners are General Buba Marwa, CPC; Governor Murtala Nyako PDP; and Engr. Markus Gundiri ACN.

Gen Buba Marwa, CPC

There is no doubt about Marwa’s passion to not only win the election but to bequeathe to the state and its people, much more than he did in the previous states that he served with aplomb.

Consequently, the Marwa campaign train which kicked off on Tuesday December 6, 2011 has seen him visiting the nooks and crannies of the state in very unthinkable and unpalatable terrains.

This has not only exposed the CPC candidate to the magnitude of work to be done but also alerted the media to the poverty, neglect and non-existent infrastructure that is the hallmark of rural communities in Adamawa state.

During the campaigns, people turned out en masse to hear his message of ‘Chanji Yazo’, meaning change has come. A vivid outcome of this was when 72 years old Alhaji Mamman Janro Foka, a former supporter with (ACN), number 0056799 led over 3, 000 opposition party supporters in Ganye Local Government Area into CPC.

Nyako and Marwa

Governor Murtala Nyako

Governor Murtala Nyako of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during his campaign hinged his vision for Adamawa State on a holistic approach to ensuring economic development, job creation, skills acquisition and empowerment of the citizenry.

While his chances of being re-elected are believed to also remain high considering the fact that he has the advantages of being the incumbent, he has continued to point at the fact that he achieved so much.

He has pointed to the fact that he established the Special Assistants Project (SAS) Local Apprenticeship Scheme (LAS) and Technical Skills Acquisition centers, works, roads and infrastructure.

He argued that when his administration came on board, infrastructure in the state was at very deplorable stages. Roads were undeveloped, and in most cases were death traps, while nearly all parts of the state suffered lack of facilities and amenities like power supply, drainages and transportation.

Some of the projects he named are the Gombi – Ganda road, Pella to Mayo Nguli road, bridges on Fufore road and Kiri to Shelleng road. Other achievements in this sector include state capital and township roads and two kilometers of roads in each local government headquarters.

There are also housing projects that include government lodges in each local government and private sector- encouraged housing estates.

In the area of education, the governor pointed at a multi faceted investment culminating in the improvement of dilapidated structure and enhancement of quality of products and teachers.

Particularly, he pointed at the Universal Basic Education, UBE sphere where tremendous funding, reappraisal, provision of better conditions for teachers and provision of instructional material as well as structural development have enabled Adamawa UBE to win National Awards for three consecutive years.

Governor Nyako during campaigns further contended that new water schemes have been established while township and local government water treatment plants are being upgraded.

Engr. Markus Gundiri- ACN

On the part of the ACN candidate, Engr. Markus Gundiri, political observers believe he has a very bright chance of winning the election considering that, one, he is the only Christian candidate among the front runners, and secondly, he has programmes that if elected would put Adamawa state in a better footing than it presently is.

During his campaigns, he promised a transformed Adamawa state as he has studied the problems and worked out ways and means to tackle these problems. He also has a lot of sympathy among the Christian community.

Gundiri, a water Engineer by profession who was the director of Dams at the federal ministry of water resources before retirement, also promised to use his expertise to transform Adamawa state which he said is completely lagging behind in infrastructure.

Other promises made by the ACN candidate if elected are that he would pay the N20, 000 minimum wages to workers, and embark on training and retraining of civil servants both at home and abroad.

More importantly, ACN promised to transform the rural settings of the state which it regarded as the least developed among the 36 states of the federation.

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Adamawa guber: Who delivers the people from decadence?