*SENATOR UMAR TANKO ALMAKURA* – *BEACON OF HOPE IN NASARAWA STATE*
Leadership and relationship go together. In other words they are inseparable. Leadership is about people and how to relate with them. Good leadership is achieved when there is cordial relationship between the ruler and his subjects and it is this relationship that sustains it.
Relationship is sustained when leaders respond to the needs of the people.
Sardauna of Sokoto , Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo , Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Mallam Aminu Kano among others are leaders who provided good leadership during their time. These past heroes had the ability to engender followership and carry them along in achieving specific goals.
Their leadership was exemplary by all accounts and they served as a guide, symbol and inspiration of what good leadership is all about.
They had good relationship among themselves and despite differences in tribe, region, religion and political affiliation, the ‘Nigeria project’ was their common constituency. Together they fought for the country’s independence.
Up north, Sardauna viewed people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, cultures, religions and different political parties as one and served them as father to all.
He encouraged modern education. Down south Zik ( as he was fondly called) was a powerful figure who provided conducive environment for economic activities to strife while Awolowo made free education in the west possible and a tool for development.
Some of today’s politicians seeking cheap popularity and self interest pretend to be disciples of these heroes past.
In their campaign on the soap box a lot of promises are made but they hardly fulfill any of them when they get to power.
In the North few leaders have followed the path of Sardauna and his peers in providing good governance .
They believe in the ideas and legacies of Sir Ahmadu Bello and study his leadership principles.
One of such leaders is the two term immediate past governor of Nasarawa State and Senator of the Federal Republic, Distinguished Senator Umar Tanko Almakura.
The desire to provide good leadership inspired him to vie for the position of executive Governor of Nasarawa State in 2011.
In a battle to unseat the then sitting governor, Almakura came out victorious as the political champion of Nasarawa State.
When Almakura took over power in 2011 he listened to the hues and cries for the creation of more chiefdoms and as a responsible government that loves the people it was difficult to ignore such demands.
Therefore he took a bold step and during his first tenure in office created some chiefdoms and towards the end of his second term additional ones were created.
The ones that were created long ago were actualized.
Creation of chiefdoms place high premium on the desire of Almakura’s administration to unite the people under accountable traditional institution .
Rather than remain ambivalent in the face of controversies , he listened to the yearnings of the people and emancipated them.
For eight years Almakura thought outside the box and did things differently, touched every strata of the State. Both rural and urban roads were opened and Lafia the State capital was given a facelift of a real status of a State capital. His contribution to the advancement of the State were enormous.
Another crucial aspect of the Almakura led administration was that it maintained cordial relationship with the people. This was why impeachment bid against him by the PDP dominated House of Assembly in 2014 triggered a State-wide protest by the masses. Nasarawa State Traditional Council were not left out in finding solution to the feud. After their extraordinary meeting on Tuesday 19th August, 2014 a communiqué signed by the then Emir of Lafia and Chairman State Council of Chiefs, HRH Alh. [Dr] Isa Mustapha Agwai 1, stated among others, ‘’In this connection , council appeals to both the Executive and the Legislature to hearken to the pulse of our people who are tired of the distraction caused by the threat to impeach the Governor’’.
Though the impeachment was followed to a logical conclusion at the end of the day it became a child’s play . The distraction over, Almakura continued by initiating far reaching policies and programmes which brought about massive infrastructural revolution in Nasarawa State that earned him the sobriquet, ‘’Architect of Modern Nasarawa State’’
In the words of Calvin Coolidge ‘’No person was ever honoured for what he received Honour has been the reward for what he gave’’ .
Rather than receive, Almakura has given to humanity in his local, national and international politics and as a business tycoon .
This could be the reason why recently his kinsmen [Gwandara nation] honoured him with the traditional title of ‘’SARDAUNA GWADANRA’’ The coronation which took place in his country home of Kwaddare was a crowd pulling event with friends, admirers, political and business associates and the masses in attendance.
Like the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the traditional title of ‘’SARDAUNA’’ is given to people of unique character of honesty and selfless service to humanity, not tribal or religious extremists and those engaged in primitive accumulation of wealth. Almakura initiated far reaching policies and programmes which brought about massive infrastructural revolution in the State.
When he was exalted to the position of Governor he remembered when he was ‘nobody’ but a boy who sold cassava flour at Shabu as his economic contribution to the survival of the family and as governor visited the women who were still in that business and carried a tray of flour on his head in remembrance of olden days. He equally remembered his days as a junior student, Government Teachers College Keffi and his senior who took care of him while in school. This is humility in leadership.
Almakura broke the jinx ‘’a prophet is not without honor except in his own country’’.
The success story of Almakura is that of a once unknown personality who refused to give up his dream. For the Gwandara nation to honor him this way speaks volume’s.
- Salihu Abdullahi Osuko
(Garkuwan Giza)
Media AIde To Distinguished People’s Senator Umar Tanko Almakura.
