Dankwambo vs Goje: the battle of supremacy in Gombe PDP



Dankwambo vs Goje: the battle of supremacy in Gombe PDP
Since handing over power to Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo in May, 2011, the former Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Danjuma Goje remains in the headlines. For close to 3 years now, the governor is shuttling from one court to another trying to defend his alleged diversion of state funds and other charges. Initially, the state government has distanced itself from the travails of the former governor; however, recently, the State Governor came out publicly to declare that the sum of N5.7billion, being a refund by the federal government to complete some of the projects undertaken on its behalf by the state could not be located in any of the state's accounts. This is the first time that the state Governor was coming out publicly to accuse his predecessor of fraud.
In his remarks after he was presented with reports of committees set-up to analyze the problems of the state and advise him on how to move the state forward, Governor Dankwambo was careful to move blames emanating from the reports to his predecessor, when he declared, “It is not all the problems mentioned by the committees that relate to a particular administration in the state but an accumulation of past neglect.”
However, the political tension in the PDP, the battle for 2015 and other issues are opening the rift between the political allies and the Needs Assessment Committees’ reports will become handy in the fight of supremacy within the state PDP. From the utterances of their lieutenants in various fora, facts emerged that things are not well between the two former political allies. The utterances also have exposed the misunderstanding between Goje and Dankwambo, where their “boys” openly accuse each other of betrayal. Goje is seen by the Dankwambo’s boys as meddling into the affairs of the state, which according to them is an attempt to frustrate the Governor and distract him from the wonderful achievements he recorded in few years.
However, the crises between the two deepened in the last four months, when Dankwambo approved the appointment of Alhaji Mohammad Seyoji Ahmed as the new Emir of Pindiga, in Akko local government area of the state, who was dethroned by former Governor Danjuma Goje. This was seen by many Goje loyalists as a direct attack on their former boss. As if that is not enough, barely a month after the Pindiga emirate crisis the state Governor accused Goje, Bayero Nafada, Usman Bello Kumo and their loyalists of organizing a meeting in Abuja on how to take over the PDP structures in the state. Dankwambo was quoted by one of his political associates as saying the meeting will not produce anything as it is the person of Gombe that will eventually take decision on who becomes the Governor in 2015.
Although this remained a speculation, but the declaration of Senator Goje in a recent interview that he is the leader of the party in the state re-ignited the feud between the two. Goje had earlier this month organized a reception for himself where mammoth of crowd gathered in Lawanti International Airport to receive him. This according to political analysts was a new tactic employed by the Governor to send fears into the Dankwambo’s camp that he is still politically relevant in the state. Goje accused Dankwambo of paying more attention to infrastructural development at the detriment of human development. He was quoted as saying his politics is people oriented and it is focused on development through empowering the people. And in what can be seeing as direct attack on Dankwambo’s infrastructural development policies Goje went further to say, “Even God values human being more than any other creature. If you are building roads or schools, you are doing it for people, so you have to meet the immediate need of the people before they can live to enjoy those things you built for them. You have to survive to be able to benefit from the roads and schools”.
As the crises in the PDP deepens, many see Dankwambo as succumbing to pressures. As it is now, Dankwambo is threading carefully between his 2015 ambition and consolidating his powers in the PDP. Goje, according to some political pundits is rallying old political enemies, who now feel they are left out or abandoned in the scheme of things in the state to overtake the PDP political structures in the state and select one of them to contest the 2015 Governorship seat in Gombe. Already Alhaji Bayero Nafada was mentioned as the likely candidate due to his political influence within and outside the state. However, Nafada has issues with some Goje loyalists, who are yet to forgive him, in what most of them see as Nafada’s disloyalty to their boss when he was the Deputy Speaker. Some of them were insisting one of them should be selected to confront Dankwambo in 2015.
The Goje camp may also resort to option B, if eventually failed to take-over the PDP by joining the rival APC. He was initially mentioned as one of the leading nPDP Senators and may likely join the G7 Governors if eventually they decided to decamp or form another party. As the 2015 approaches, the political landscape in Gombe is heating up. The big actors in the state PDP will remain Dankwambo himself as the incumbent Governor, Danjuma Goje, Barrister Idris (who is politically comatose and more of an Abuja politician) and Usman Bayero Nafada, former Deputy Speaker.
However, other factors may also change the shape of events towards 2015, like President Goodluck Jonathan 2015 contest, nPDP and APC possible alliance. What remained to be seen is how Dankwambo, seen by many as elementary politician will weather the storm and emerge the Governor beyond 2015.

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