Muhammed Badaru
2023: Badaru has prepared Jigawa well for Jagaba
By Lawal Jet Kaugama
Jigawa state governor, Badaru has kept his promise to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. For upteenth times, he had told Tinubu that he would deliver Jigawa state to him. Also in collaboration wth northern states governors, will mobilise millions of voters in the North for him in the coming general election. He is doing just that.
In the last Saturday APC presidential campaign rally held at the Mallam Aminu Kano Triangle, Dutse of Jigawa state Jigawa state, the mammoth crowd that graced the occasion was phenomenal. People thronged to the venue of the rally in large numbers to welcome Tinubu who can be aptly referred to as a friend of Jigawa state because of his closeness to Gov Badaru.
In fact the crowd was unprecedented. It shows that Badaru is popular, well connected and a man to be trusted with any higher national assignment. Unlike the empty promises of other politicians, whenever Badaru promises to do anything he will do it, because it is only things he knew he could accomplish that he would promise. He is not in the mould of those who promise to build bridges where rivers are non existent.
The crowd at the Saturday rally for Tinubu/Shetima presidential campaign has already shown to Nigerians that Tinubu is the president in waiting.
Our dear governor has played his part excellently in selling Jagaba to both Jigawa and the whole North. The crowd he pulled to Jigawa for Tinubu stood like solid walls and rocks.
Jagaba can now go to sleep. Badaru and his counterparts in the North has done the ground work for him.
On his part, Tinubu at the rally urged party supporters who thronged to the campaign rally ground to vote in responsive and responsible leadership, and those people that have a track record of delivering prosperity to the people
Tinubu and Badaru are bound by common vision for their fatherland, and humanity for their fellow countrymen and women.
No wonder the governor said he is one of the few who can ‘walk into Tinubu’s bedroom, wakes him up even if he is sleeping’.
The mammoth crowd in Jigawa was a reminder to Tinubu of his loyalty to him. These two personalities are inseparable.
In May 2022, during the party primaries, Jagaban spoke admirably of Gov Badaru. He said,
Governor Badaru is his brother with whom he started the ACN together. Jagaba further said he and Badaru are like a conjoined twins that “will take a specialist doctor to separate us, evil will not separate us.”
Badaru, is like the proverbial golden fish that has no hiding place. It is the duty of every Jigawa man or woman who are true witnesses to his success in office, and humanity to all, to tell their compatriots in other states and the world at large what their governor has achieved in seven years.
Badaru, worried about the economic condition of his people, has been prioritising the economic sectors that have direct bearing on the Jigawa people in terms of welfare and social infrastructure, even as he does not forget to understudy the viability of his projects before embarking on them.
He has shown that the desire to seek and hold public office is not for the pursuit of parochial self-interest, but for the good of all. Humanity always remains his cardinal principle.
His major concern is to execute projects that hold greater benevolence to the growth of the state and welfare of the people.
He doesn’t care who takes the glory after completion.
Some of his political associates and aides paid him glowing tributes bordering on his success story and people-centred policies.
His deputy and most of his aides play their respective roles in congeniality with his vision and philosophy, thus their synergy helped to lift Jigawa state to an enviable height in the present dispensation.
It takes a strong spirit for man in Badaru’s position to think of saving for the rainy days, in an economy over stretched due to overdependence on petroleum resources.
When marking his one year in office, Badaru said “When we came here last year, we saw residents pushing carts in search of water”, but within seven years, water flows in every nook and cranny of the state.
The first thing Badaru did when he came in was to prioritise people-oriented investments by way of human capital development, through education. Education was, and is still a priority of his administration. He believes that once the right education is given, every other thing will be right.
Badaru has popularised agriculture among Jigawa youths by initiating them into the agricultural value chain and ensures that they not only participate but make profitable livelihood from it.
The astute governor is a phenomenon in Nigeria’s political landscape today. His actions are totally different from what is a norm among his peers. Nigeria needs more of the likes of Badaru in our democratic system; we need more shrewd businessmen in our polity; we need y of God-fearing administrators in our polity.
This is a man whose charisma drew many opposition party members to APC. People defected in droves to APC in Jigawa state because of him.
The defectors, having seen the new Jigawa, wanted to be part of the success story of an altruistic politician.
In Jigawa state, Badaru made Jagaba a household name.
Lawal Jet Kaugama, writes from Kaugana, Jigawa state.