BY YUSUF IDRIS GUSAU
Certainly, anything that happens or comes by the unexpected grace and blessings of God can only continue to be unbroken and blossom for the sake of humanity while anyone who stands in its way with the intent to challenge it will either get crushed or suffer the consequences of such action without remedy, because such act is best described as challenging the will of God.
Such is the situation that God in His infinities brought His Excellency, Hon. Dr. Bello Mohammed Matawalle to take up then existing challenges faced by Zamfara including but not limited to insecurity and near total collapse of all sectors of human endeavour in the state.
Matawalle, a one time commissioner in three different ministries who represented his Bakura/Maradun constituents at the National Assembly, was mysteriously compensated by God following a Supreme Court judgement which favoured him without his having gone to the courts to challenge the election that had earlier placed him in second position after the 2019 governorship election in the state.
To many of his critics especially the opposition, Matawalle was not supposed to be governor forgetting that God has since destined him to serve the good people of the state in this capacity at this point in time and may be beyond.
Having taken over as governor however, the Shattiman Sakkwato went through the books and the activities of his predecessor and realized that the state needed a total overhaul in terms of structures and other social amenities and decided to come up with a developmental blue print for the state which are the main reasons those at the other end are not happy, especially with his openness to issues of state development and they also see the possibility that he would expose their butts to the dismay of the electorates and the world.
Matawalle who inherited serious challenges of armed banditry, rape, killing of innocent souls and cattle rustling among other heineous crimes where hundreds of lives were lost, also believed that no meaningful development can be easily achieved under the circumstance.
Immediately after the inception of the Matawalle led administration, the first thing it did was to call for unconditional truce with all those illegally in possession of arms to peacefully surrender their weapons of destruction and be reintegrated into the society.
No doubt, many of them accepted the offer by not only surrendering themselves and handing over their arms but willingly joined hands with the government and security agencies to identify, arrest and bring to book all those unrepentant bandits, a situation which forced a large number of such unrepentant bandits flee from the state or forcefully part from their bad ways to good even without coming forward to announce their decision.
This earned the state relative peace and saw the unconditional release of hundreds of kidnap victims from their captors.
And in appreciation to this resolve by the bandits, the governor began to initiate several empowerment programs to engage the youth into self reliance while building a modern well equiped multi-billion naira RUGA settlements with all the necessary facilities for the Fulanis, one in each of the three Senatorial Zones of the state.
With all these in place, the governor began a gradual upgrading of the state, starting with education where he commenced a holistic overhaul creating a far more better reading and learning environment to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of structures to fit into the modern world.
The first beneficiaries here being the Government House which underwent an almost complete reconstruction in addition to 18 detached chalets named after the 18 northern states, this also went simultaneously with the reconstruction and upgrading of the state House of Assembly and parts of the state secretariat.
The government also began the construction of a Cargo Airport, the project of which has reached an advanced stage. While all these are being carried out, the government still has to contend with pockets of armed banditry being perpetrated by those unrepentant criminals who have vehemently refused the Matawalle peace and dialogue initiative and chose to continue terrorizing innocent persons and communities.
On roads construction, the governor initiated various roads such as Danmarke-Ruwan Doruwa- Kanoma to Anka road which has reached 90 percent completion, Mada- Ruwan Bore- Wonaka, Moriki – Magarya, Lamba- Gidan Goga, Tsafe – Yanware among others.
Apart from the above mentioned roads, the governor also constructed a large number of township roads for in Gusau the at Tankin Ruwa-Fira da Kwadi- Chochin Kwano, Kasuwar Danjuma- Yar-Dantsi, Yar-Tsamiya- Gidan Mallam Maigidan Kaiwa, Layin Koramar Boko- Gamzaki, BM Audu-Sony fast food roads which have all been completed.
Others are Bye-pass- Yandorayi, JB Secretariat to round about- Massallacin Sharrif, Murtala Jangebe House-Old Yardole Jum’at Mosque road were also completed however large number of the township roads construction are on going and are at appreciable stages throughout the state.
Matawalle also constructed 147 Primary healthcare centers which have been completed and equiped hundreds percent, new infections diagnostic hospital is also constructed at Damba while the Shinkafi refferal hospital work has already reached advanced stage of completion the projects are too numerous to mention.
Similarly and coupled with all these challenges, some prominent individuals of the state having failed in discharging their responsibilities while in government declined the governor’s offer that they should shun their political differences and join hands with the government for the progress of the state and benefit of the people.
In his continued effort to bring all on board, Matawalle, a founding member of the defunct APP decided to return home to the now transformed APC by defecting from his former party the PDP, this too did not go well especially with those who felt threatened by the governor’s coming and taking over leadership of the party.
It is instructive to draw the attention of the Zamfara oppositions that by God’s design, every person has his allocated space to be what he will be and once you over-step your time, you must give room to the next man.
At the moment therefore, Matawalle is in-charge only by the grace of God and if our leaders are really doing what they are doing for the benefit of the people of the state and not their selfish reasons, they should all come together, join hands with the Matawalle administration for the peace, progress and development of the state.
Yusuf Idris is the Director General Media, Public Enlightenment and Communications, Government House Gusau
