PDP Will Restore Gombe State’s Lost Glory- Hon. Mailantarki

Hon. Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, who contested under the platform of New Nigeria People’s Party ( NNPP) in the 2023 gubernatorial electoral in Gombe State before pitching his tent with People Democratic Party ( PDP), has said that his new political abode will restore the lost glory of Gombe State.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with TOTORI NEWS, Hon. Mailantarki, who came into political limelight in 2011 under Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), when he had a landslide victory in the Federal House of Assembly election, said that his political initiatives are centred on people oriented programmes which has endeared him to the people of the state.

He revealed also that the people at the grassroot are the cardinal point of his political career over the years and when he contested for the governor of the state last dispensation, he would have won, but it was unfortunate that most electorates in the state found it difficult to trace the logo of NNPP on the ballot papers.

“If you look at the foundation of my political career, we started with people orientated programmes. We are very focused on the grassroot and we concentrated deeply on the grassroot. Most of the political moves is based on the demands from our constituency, from our elders, the youth, women and political alies and when these people come together and say we think you can do better here,” Hon. Mailantarki said.

“The last election, we ran under the platform of NNPP and the people of Gombe State made up their minds to support us, to vote for us, but because it was a new party, they could not trace it on the ballot papers on the day of the election. It was very difficult for most of the electorates to identify logo of the party.

‘When other political parties we were running against saw that we were almost defeating them, they came up with other means to divert and discouraged the attention of voters from casting their votes for us.

Speaking further, he said his team did a thorough political research about Gombe State and discovered that the state is essentially a PDP state, especially in followership since the new democratic dispensation in 1999.

“We realised that since the beginning of our political journey, Gombe State is a PDP state. If you have any congregation in Gombe, you take any political party and you call whatever party it is, be it CPC or APC and you want them to respond, the next thing they will say is power. If you call NNPP, they will respond power. This is what is going on in Gombe State and If you go round the state, the people are PDP, it is very obvious.

He stressed that all the notable achievements of Gombe State in this democratic setting since 1999 had the signature of PDP, in the areas of infrastructure, medicare service, constructions and even on the field of sports, adding further that most of the youths in the state were gainfully employed during that era.

“It is not a surprise. If you look at Gombe, everything you can think of that made the state to stand out like in infrastructure, stadium, modern road contructions, hospitals and the rest of them, you will discover that all these were done during the administration of PDP governors in the state. From the tenure of Senator Danjuma Goje and Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo.

“During the time of Goje and Dankwambo, they employed more than 20 thousand youths, almost all the youths in the state had something to do legally and that was the reason the issue of thuggery and crimes dropped down drastically. The youths were engaged, but this is no longer the case. The story has changed.

“Our youths are there, roaming around the streets with nothing to do and they have turned out to be beggers, no support coming, unlike during the reign of PDP governors.

Nevertheless, he remain optimistic that his team with the support of the leadership of PDP in the state led by amiable Senator Dankwambo, will bring back more dividends of democracy and restore Gombe to the path of glory once again.

“This necessitated us to look at a better platform to join, so that collectively we can bring back the lost glory of Gombe State that it had during the glorious reign of PDP.

“The PDP is a very formidable party in my state. It has a very sound leadership under Senator Dankwambo. He has set a very good foundation for the party. We had free and fair congresses from the wards, local governments and even the state.

So, we have a very formidable PDP and all of us can come together and restore the lost glory of our state. If you go to Gombe State, you can’t see anything that is practically done targeting to help the people.

“All the policies are not people’s friendly policies,” he concluded.