APC, PDP chiefs differ on outlawing defection
Gombe guber hopeful employs over 700 indigenes
Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Gombe State, Abdullai Jalo, has called for the review of the nation’s constitution to outlaw defection by politicians, describing the menace as nuisance and ridicule on democracy.
But a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship hopeful, AVM Adamu Fura (rtd), disagreed with him, noting that cross-carpeting ought to be an instrument to be deployed by any politician whose interest or those he represents is no longer served.
According to Jalo, the changes should specify that the main opposition party should produce the House of Representatives Speaker, while the ruling party produces the Senate President, adding: “It works in Ghana, it would work in Nigeria.”
Addressing newsmen in his Gombe office recently, Jalo who was PDP national deputy publicity secretary said “until Nigeria reviews the aged constitution, Nigerians would continue to mock and endanger democracy.”
No politician, he added, cross-carpets because of development of his people. “They defect for office-seeking sake. To make things work in Nigeria, we should all do the needful; the National Assembly should amend our constitution or add addendum to forbid defection in Nigeria.
“The judiciary needs to be very firm to check the wave of defection and counter-rulings by courts,” he added.
For Fura, defection should be a normal thing as long as a certain political party ceases to satisfy the reason for joining it: “It ought to be a free thing; free entry, free exit.”
MEANWHILE, another PDP governorship hopeful in Gombe, Dr. Jamilu Gwamna, has reportedly given jobs to over 700 indigenes of the state in the private sector.
Disclosing this to newsmen, yesterday, in Gombe, former chairman, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in the state, Sa’idu Sambo, commended Gwamna for the feat, which he described as unprecedented and uncommon.
According to him, Gwamna used his influence as the Managing Director of Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) to employ more than 700 into the private sector in Kano, Jigawa and Katsina states.
Sambo reasoned that Gwamna’s efforts must have aided the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report published by one of the dailies in 2021 ranking of Gombe as having lowest poverty rate in the North East.
He identified Gwamna as a philanthropist with highest records of job creation for the teeming youths of the state.
Urging the PDP and the entire state to consider Gwamna’s singular efforts at empowering the youths with steady jobs, Sambo said Gwamna is determined to change the narratives of the human capital development index in Gombe “if given the opportunity in 2023.”
