The Executive Governor of Zamfara State Hon Dr. Bello Mohammed Matawalle MON, FSESN, FNATE, is a typical example of the terms Unity, Peace, and Progress (UPP).
In our contemporary Nigeria’s Democracy, most of the states are characterized by political turmoil, upheavals, disunity, and chaos among key actors in almost every state.
However, in Zamfara state the story is different.
Some crystal examples could be drawn easily in the neighboring states of the northwest from Kebbi to Jigawa and from Kaduna to Katsina. However, Matawalle distinctly distinguishes himself by completely uprooting all forms of elements that bring about disunity, conflict, and regression as well as chaos among key political actors in Zamfara state.
From the early days of his clinching victory as the Executive Governor of the State, some of the major problems Matawalle faced head-on include the decade-long criminal activities by the recalcitrant bandits. It was a crisis that nearly engulfed the entire state in all its nooks and crannies.
Knowing fully, of the negative impact of the crises on the well-being, development, and growth of the state, Matawalle with his prowess as an echelon of the mastery of intelligence, security, and public safety, did not hesitate a moment to think of unity, peace, and progress through dialogue and Reconciliation.
In fact, within the first 100 days of his administration in office, Matawalle was able to knock down and degraded the major negative impact of the crime through a dialogical approach. He achieved that beyond a reasonable doubt even when some people were skeptical about the move initially, but by the kick start of the campaign in the state, it became glaringly clear that Matawalle has achieved 100% of the result of his dogged determination to bring everybody that matters in the state under the single fold for onward journey to a new Zamfara.
One of the dastardly acts in political campaigns that Matawalle decisively dealt with is political turpitude by rascals, rogues, and thugs during campaigns and we all knew how political thuggery thrives in a divisive political sphere. In such a scheme of things, where each key actor plays the role of political godfather to a certain group(s), one cannot rule out clashes that could lead to conflict.
Gov. Matawalle effortlessly dismantled such a mantra through reconciliation which has greatly helped a lot because there would have been a lot of provocations here and there that would have led to casualties during campaign rallies.
Going back a little to explain the result of Gov. Matawalle’s calming the saturation of the political boiling pot, it may be recalled that the state recently hosted the National Qur’anic recitation competition. During the closing ceremony, all the past and present leaders of the state graced the occasion including the first Military sole administrator of the state Col. Jibril Bala Yakubu (Rtd.). This is evidence of the onerous effort by the incumbent Executive Governor, Shattiman Sokoto, Barden Hausa, Hon. Bello Matawalle in bringing unity and sanity in a deliberate determination to move the state forward to a more civilized, level-playing field where peace and progress will replace conflict and regression.
Given the aforementioned, prior to the May 2022 reconciliation that brought every political big weight in the state together, it was crystal clear that the entire political space in Zamfara state was beclouded by uncertainty and political turbidity.
With the kind of mammoth crowd that brought the entire Kaura-Namoda to a standstill and the massive turnout of people in Bakura, one can say, without mincing words that Alhamdulillah, Governor Bello Matawalle has made a breakthrough in Nigeria’s political scene and has thrown a challenge to other states not only within the northwest but the entire states across the Federation to copy his style, because it is practicable, realizable, feasible, viable, workable, replicable, representable, testable and trustable.
LAWAL UMAR MARADUN, fnipr, arpa,
is the Principal Private Secretary,
Office of the Executive Governor,
Zamfara State.
