Umar Mustapha’s dream of leapfrogging Adamawa into the 21st Century

By Dr Abubakar Abba

We are in the 21st Century which is a knowledge driven era. This is an era where leaders are assessed based on number of tweets they get daily. Sometimes back, President Paul Kegame of Rwanda was ranked as the most tweeted President in Africa. In view of the foregoing anybody wishing to contest elections must be IT compliant and digital to enable him cope with recent developments all over the world.
Adamawa is about to experience a quantum leap into the 21st Century as Mustapha has stressed the need to do things differently by making Adamawa State IT compliant and a pacesetter in terms of economic development.
As political activities pick up ahead of the 2023 elections, Mustapha has thrown his hat into the ring for the number one seat in Adamawa State. He has pledged to make a difference by leapfrogging Adamawa into the 21st Century. It is worthy of note that the articulate and erudite gubernatorial hopeful has not come up to make empty promises as the case may be for some politicians, but he has been able to identify specific problems presently confronting the state such as the infrastructural decay in the educational sector and also the poor feeding system in boarding schools which he said needs to be improved upon.
Mustapha was also able to identify the lack of human resources in the health sector and has frowned at the situation whereby in some hospitals, there is just a single doctor attending to a multitude of patients. The gubernatorial hopeful also expressed concern about the spate of poor policy implementation in the state. According to him, when government comes up with a policy, there is the need for proper implementation for overall development of the state.
Today, there is a very big challenge with the younger generation in Adamawa and the entire country at large. Unemployment, crime, drug addiction and other social vices are prevalent among the youths of today, and Mustapha has taken a step in the right direction by reaching out to the youths to ensure that they are involved in a meaningful way in the political process. This is a departure from the status quo where politicians engage youths as thugs. To demonstrate his resolve, he is sponsoring the youth wing of the party to embrace the voter registration exercise conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), ahead of the 2023 polls.
The gubernatorial hopeful who is the Otumba of Ekiti said the move will boost, and garner more grassroots support for the party, especially as he is prepared to sponsor and mobilize eligible voters across the 21 local governments of the state. The late American President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said: “A people get the kind of leaders they deserve.” Thousands of members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) met in Yola and vowed to chart a way forward for Alhaji Umar Mustapha Madawaki. During the gathering, various individuals took turn to deliver speeches of how he will win the upcoming elections since he is the most sellable aspirant in the APC.
According to the aspirant, his decision to contest was borne out of a burning desire to provide the needed dividends of democracy to the people of Adamawa State. While seeking their support to enable him emerge as the APC flag bearer in the 2023 elections, the aspirant said he would ensure that the party waxes stronger in the state to win the 2023 general elections.
In his words he said that “I know and recognise how important you are to our great party, APC, hence my decision to call for this town hall meeting for us to rob minds on how to take over power from PDP in the state.” He expressed his readiness, the willingness, commitment, and determination to carry everybody along and run an all-inclusive government by God’s will if he wins the 2023 elections.
Madawaki holds a Masters Degree in Education Philosophy and is a member of the National Education Society. Madawaki is a stakeholder in the education sector and intends to bring his experience to turn around the sector in Adamawa.
He is the chief executive of a solid mineral construction company, Kriton Lally EPC Nigeria Limited. The company is a construction and project financing conglomerate with presence in several African and Middle Eastern countries as well as Dubai and Hong Kong.
As a 21st Century governor, Madawaki is coming on board with a well-articulated economic development agenda aimed at turning around the fortunes of Adamawa state. Adamawa is an agrarian state well-endowed with a large herd of livestock. Madawaki intends to come up with strategic investments in the sector that will turn Adamawa state into a net exporter. In the past, policy makers only paid lip service to the agricultural sector. But this time around, there is a wind of change in the offing to be brought about by Madawaki.
The manufacturing sector is another area that will get a boost as a result of improved production of raw materials. The gubernatorial hopeful has the younger generation at heart and intends to engage the youths in skills and vocation to help check high level of unemployment and crime. He also intends to encourage sports and sporting activities to create a source of livelihood for the youths.
Sports is no longer about running around and jumping. Sports is big business and as such this will be another area of focus that will help the youth to be meaningfully engage. Madawaki is promising Adamawa people a wind of change that will transform the entire state to a preferred investment destination.

Dr Abba is an Abuja based development communication expert.