By Suleiman Dauda
A true leader breathes happiness into the faces of his people. He transmits hope and identifies with their daily struggles and accomplishments. How do you identify a true leader? So easy, you see it in the eyes of the people when you mention his name, their eye lits up with excitement and they are ready to share many beautiful testimony of the leader with you.
That was my recent experience in Zamfara State as I toured the capital, Gusau and the 14 Local Governments of the State.
The chorus here is that Governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle has done well. He came into the government house in 2019 to a totally failed state with banditry holding sway in all the nooks and cranny of the state.
Killings were the order of the day with looting of the collective wealth of the people through the mining of the resources of the state by individuals and powers from nowhere.
Matawalle checkmated all that! And all the warring faction that were stealing from the people had to flee. He went ahead and revolutionised the educational system, paid for indigenes of the state to go to school and re-hauled the educational system.
An elderly man told me in Gusau; “We in Zamfara we know who are man is when it comes to politics, Shinkafi asked us for 2nd term, we denied him. But I can assure you that Matawalle is surely going to get a 2nd term from us in Zamfara state because he has done well. Matawalle loves us, he loves his people. He wants good governance in this state, he has brought in so many developments, so he deserves our support.”
As I moved from one local government location to another, I found out that this is the mindset of the people of Zamfara State. Matawalle has infected the people with the desire for development and they are ready to vote for him for a 2nd term.
They expressed regret over the past governments of the state, especially the immediate past government of Gov. Abdul Aziz Yari, whose political sins still causes the people a nightmare.
But I sought out to find out more. I wanted to know what the chances of the opposition looked like. And many were ready to share their opinion with me.
“Alhaji Dauda Lawal, the PDP gubernatorial candidate is a complete neophyte,” said an elite politician based in Gusau.
“He does not know his left from his right when it comes to handling such delicate political issues that are facing Zamfara State. Only Matawalle can tackle the enemies of this state because they are many. The job is not for a neophyte. It is not a job for somebody that is just going to come and start afresh,” he stated.
In Kamodu-Namode Local Government, Audu Mohammed was angry at my question. He asked me, how can I compare Matawalle with the PDP candidate?
He told me point-blank that there’s no basis for comparison, that Matawalle is the man of the people, having unified the local governments, taking care of the traditional rulers as Custodians of culture and tradition and giving them a sense of purpose in his government. Mattawalle deserves our collective vote as a people.
The women are not left out. According to some of the women I spoke to, while the elites are attracted to Matawalle because of the peace he has brought into the state, the average women are just attracted to him because of his charisma.
But more importantly even recently, Matawalle concluded the peace intaitive with past leadership of the state and all the aggrieved politicians paving a way for more peace during his coming second term as all hands will be on deck to push the industrial growth for the state.
Definitely Matawalle’s ideology is working for Zamfara State.
My advice for the PDP candidate in the state is that, Zamfara State is not ready for opposition. Zamfara is ready for people willing to join hands with Matawalle for a second term to achieve more in industrialization the state and giving the citizens a sense of belonging in their state.
Bello Matawalle’s name is synonymous with the present good things happening in Gusau and all parts of the state.
– Suleiman Dauda, who just returned from Zamfara State
