Kashim Musa Tumsah, MFR, an oil and gas lawyer, diplomat, and farmer, is challenging our collective conscience in Yobe State, Northeast Nigeria, by investing in human capital and infrastructural development, as well as silently empowering the people across the state.
In the northern region, where political office holders elected by the people to improve their lives only turn around to enrich themselves and family members, and where wealthy individuals selfishly erect walls to shield themselves from their poverty-stricken environment, Tumsah’s challenge should prick our collective conscience.
Tumsah, a former Executive Director and Secretary of the Joint Ministerial Council of the Nigeria/Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Authority, rallied his friends and associates to light up Yobe with solar street lights under his *Operation Light Up Yobe* project—providing access to potable water through solar-powered boreholes, empowering the youth, bringing succour to the poor and vulnerable during this sacred month of sacrifice, among other interventions.
Ravaged for many decades by insurgency activities with massive destruction of infrastructure, social amenities, and an exacerbated poverty level among its people, Yobe—like other states in the North where this anomaly pervades—requires interventions by well-meaning, influential, and well-to-do members of society.
However, such intentions are hardly forthcoming, and the few who venture to reach out with pockets of activities do so for pecuniary interest, seeking cheap publicity and making demi-gods of themselves.
What is more worrisome is the fact that leaders and elected representatives are less concerned about the region’s development and the empowerment of its citizens, including the youth, whom they constantly exploit during political campaigns despite the huge annual constituency project budgetary provisions.
Such leaders and representatives would rather want the masses—especially the youth—to remain subservient and dependent on them. In return, they give them crumbs from their dinner tables while their families live in affluence.
It is this unfortunate cycle that has retarded human and infrastructural development in the region over time.
Due to this unfortunate trend, poverty statistics continue to rise against the region, with state capitals besieged by beggars—all of northern extraction.
Our streets are crowded with thousands of out-of-school children, while the enrollment rate remains low, and the Almajirai syndrome has become the region’s sore thumb.
This is the main reason why interventions such as those championed by Tumsah and his friends elicit excitement among many—not just in his home state of Yobe but even beyond.
The recent interventions began in Bursari LGA with the installation of solar-powered lights in strategic locations, including Tsangaya and Islamiyya schools, primary and secondary schools, legal community areas, market areas, and shops.
His Operation Light Up Yobe Initiative, which he intends to replicate across the state, complements the power supply efforts of Governor Mai Mala Buni’s administration, which has made significant progress in the state.
Tumsah and his friends have also been providing potable water to some communities in the state through solar-powered boreholes with large overhead tanks.
Based on popular demand, communities including Jurguya, Maji Kakuri, Malumti, Mashayan Gawo, and Mallam Wuriya have benefited from the first phase of the water supply initiative.
The Tumsah team has also purchased Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) forms for at least ten prospective applicants from indigent families randomly selected across each of the 17 local government areas of the state to ensure that a lack of resources does not hinder these bright students from furthering their education for their benefit and future national growth.
Tumsah’s magnanimity also came to play during the ongoing Ramadan fast by supporting feeding programs in designated mosques across the state while also distributing rice to poor and vulnerable families. Food and beverages are supplied daily at these designated places, enabling the faithful to break their fast with relative ease and comfort.
He has also been assisting victims of insurgency activities in Yobe and neighboring Borno State. For instance, in September 2024, he galvanized his friends to make a very generous contribution to insurgency victims in Tarmuwa Local Government Area of Yobe State to support government efforts in minimizing the devastating effects of insurgency attacks in that area.
He is also reaching out to Yobe indigenes and other individuals in Abuja while building networks with former classmates and coursemates from different stages of his education, assisting some of the indigent ones in their times of need.
Tumsah takes time to visit hospitals to sympathize with patients, pay their bills where necessary, and provide other forms of support.
This humble gentleman continues to amaze many who are privileged to come into contact with him—whether deliberately or by accident—compelling us to desire more people like him for the general good of society. May Allah continue to guide and protect this gentleman and many others like him who make deliberate efforts to give back to the society that made them.
Ahmed is a public affairs analyst based in Katsina
