Umar Namadi Dan Modi: Behold Jigawa’s sparkling servant leader-Dauda Saidu Shamakeri

By Dr Dauda Saidu Shamakeri

As the gubernatorial and Houses of Assembly elections draw closer to less than a week, the good people of Jigawa state are faced with a choice between freedom and hegemony on the one hand and between solid rock foundation and quicksand on the other.

The people of Jigawa state are hard-working people who engage in crop and livestock farming, trading and itinerant commercial activities. They are people who believe in hard work and dignity of labour, and rarely depend solely on government jobs for survival.

Even as government is the largest employer of labour in the state, its agrarian status is not undermined, in spite of the perennial problem of flooding. Since its creation, successive governments have laid foundation for the growth and development of the state.

The onset of democracy in 1999 has provided the people the opportunity to exercise their democratic right to choose their leaders at the two tiers of government, the local and state governments. The performance of these leaders from that period to today can be described as a mixed grill of good, better and worst.

Overall, the state has moved on and is currently rubbing shoulders with more advantaged sister states in terms of some development index. This achievement would not have been possible without the vision, innovation and people-oriented leadership of Governor Badaru Abubakar and his Deputy Governor Umar Namadi Danmodi.

These two have repositioned the state to regain its status as an agricultural producing state, with increased irrigation farming and soaring rise in rice, wheat and maize production. The state has benefitted immensely from infrastructure development and construction of urban and rural roads across the state.

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Over the last eight years, Governor Badaru’s cordial relationship with President Buhari and the presidency has conferred significant advantage on the state in terms of federal presence, such as the sighting of the Federal University of Science Technology in Babura and Federal College of Education (Special) in Birnin Kudu, and political appointment of Jigawa state indigenes into key federal government parastatal and agencies.

These, no doubt, are no mean achievements that should be frittered away on the altar of politics. For the achievements recorded by the Governor Badaru administration to be sustained, the people of Jigawa need to be guided to understand the implication of being bamboozled by political propaganda to jump into a ship that may lead to nowhere because the captain is tardily inexperienced and not familiar with the geography of the environment.

Therefore, in our choice for the governor to take over from Governor Badaru, we must make sure we are pitching our tent with someone who not only know the way, but has requisite experience in leadership, governance and administration.

We must not be swayed by primordial sentiments to vote for someone whose only credential is that he is the son of a former governor and is thus being presented as heir apparent to the power to perpetuate political hegemony of a particular family on leadership, governance and administration of Jigawa state.

The people of Jigawa state must rise up to the occasion to elect someone with unblemished character and proven track record of service in private and public organizations, and lately as Deputy Governor of Jigawa state in the last four years. That person is none other than Malam Umar Namadi Danmodi, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Malam Umar Namadi Dnmodi has no comparison among those currently vying for the governorship seat of Jigawa state. The difference between him and other contestants is the difference between heaven and earth. And if we need to compare him at all with the PDP candidate who is being promoted to perpetuate political fiefdom in the state, it is like the difference between solid rock and quicksand.

When it comes to entrusting someone with leadership position, it is imperative to take cognizance of the person’s pedigree and scale it up against the position in question. Danmodi possesses the mental and intellectual capacity to withstand the stress of leadership and governance. What more evidence do we need?

He has been tested in several positions of authority and has distinguished himself creditably well. Thus far, he could be adjudged as the best performing Deputy Governor of the state since the onset of democracy in 1999. He has stood in for Governor Badaru most of the times he was away from the state for official assignment and this he did with absolute and commitment to the vision and overall interest of Jigawa state.

It is not surprising that Malam Umar Namadi has been able to distinguish himself as a high flying Deputy Governor. His academic and professional qualifications prepared him for this.

That’s why we see him as the most qualified among the contestants in the race for Jigawa state governorship seat. Malam Namadi was born in 1963 in Kafin Hausa town of Kafin Hausa local government.

He obtained Bachelor of Science in Accountancy and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Bayero University, Kano. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1993 and founded his own private accounting firm, Namadi, Umar and Co Chartered Accountants based in Kano. He was for some years the Head of the Dangote Group Management Accounts Department. He is an Associate Member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN). In 2010, Malam Namadi became a Fellow of ICAN. He served as Commissioner of Finance until 2019 when he was nominated by Governor Badaru Abubakar to replace Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia as the Deputy Governor of Jigawa state.

This is the pedigree Malam Umaru Namadi is bringing to the table as he threw his hat into the ring for the governorship seat of Jigawa state under the All Progressives Congress (APC). His robust campaign agenda is anchored around the central theme “to build a stronger, smarter Jigawa that works for everyone.”

But most importantly, his campaign blueprint or manifesto which is titled Danmodi Project + Danmodi 2023 Development Agenda for Greater Jigawa revolves around 12 key strategic goals, namely Agriculture, Health, Information Technology, Manpower Development, Rural Transformation, Education, Urban Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Local and International Investors for Development, Social Security, Securing Jigawa and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Each of these key 12 goals has been adequately defined and specific objectives of actualizing them properly spelt out. Going through this manifesto and clearly spelt out goals, it is unmistakably clear that Malam Danmodi is eminently positioned to take Jigawa state to the next level of growth and development.

He is poised to reposition Jigawa state to embrace new technology which is to serve as the driving force of all government policies and plan of action. In other words, governance and administration of the state will key into the ease and boundless opportunities provided by the information technology to allow for smart and efficient service delivery to the people.

This piece makes a passionate appeal to the good people of Jigawa state to embrace a man whose lifelong desire is to serve his people and contribute his utmost quota to improving their lives in more ways than one.

Here is a man who sleeps and wakes up with the problems of his people, and who is always working tirelessly to make sure the ordinary Jigawa man and woman are provided with basic public utilities to make life better and fulfilling for them.

To this end, I implore our people to vote for Malam Umaru Namadi as governor of Jigawa state under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday March 11, 2023.

Shamakeri, writes from department of English Federal College of Education, Kano