By Kabiru Assada
According to Leo Tolstoy, the two most powerful warriors are patience and time. This could be attributed to Sokoto state governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, CFR, (Mutawallen Sokoto) as he clocks another milestone of age today. Luckily for Tambuwal, he already has the patience and time on his side at 56.
Going down memory lane, on two occasions, Nigerians have called on him to contest for presidency and twice he exhibited the patience that Tolstoy ascribed. First, at the age of 49 while he was Speaker, Tambuwal’s colleagues and like-minded Nigerians purchased a presidential expression of interest form for him in 2011.
At that age, he was eminently qualified to hold the ace of a presidential mantle. He rather accepted to serve the good people of Sokoto state because they wanted him to come back home and serve his state.
Four years later, precisely at the age of 53, Nigerians and associates sprinted for him to contest for presidency again in the 2015 general elections. They had seen human and infrastructural developments put in place by Tambuwal, within the space of four years as the governor of Sokoto state. His imprints in the area of Agriculture, education, healthcare reforms, social development etc were unprecedented in the history of the state, the replication of which was sought for at the national level.
In tone with the late Premier and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello’s legacies in the Northern region, as a governor, Tambuwal has also continued to make history as the first governor to initiate several legacy projects in the seat of the Caliphate as well as laid many legacies that still stand the test of time.
At 56, when the late Northern Premier was assassinated, he had accomplished all his wishes for the region. Likewise at his prime age, Tambuwal’s tremendous achievements then as Speaker at Nigeria’s National Assembly and today as governor of Sokoto State, are unparalleled. Lest we forget, Tambuwal remains the first governor to construct two flyover bridges at traffic-hit points within Sokoto metropolis, simultaneously.
Tambuwal is the first governor to build a State University Teaching Hospital to boost healthcare management in the state; he remains the first governor to build one Premier Hospital each in the three Senatorial Districts of the state; the first Sokoto governor to build Girls Science Academy in the state, and the first to build Ultra-Modern Stadium, and Advanced Medical Diagnostics Center.
Tambuwal has equally made history as the first governor to build an international standard Senior Secondary School in Gudu, the only local government in Nigeria without a Senior Secondary School. He constructed two dual carriageways – Waziri Abbas and Maituta roads within the state capital. By the end of 2022, when all these ongoing projects will all be completed, Tambuwal would no doubt have set another unprecedented record that no governor of the state had achieved.
Like the saying goes, “patience is not only the ability to wait but to keep a good attitude while waiting”, these Tambuwal’s legacy-projects are testimonies to the fact that he kept a good attitude while waiting for another call to serve the nation.
Like many like-minded and famous people like Kamala Haris, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Boris Johnson, Tambuwal at 56, is being sought-after by Nigerians to serve them at the presidency. The time is now for Tambuwal to rescue Nigeria from the hands of bad leadership and salvage it to a greater height. His stewardship as Speaker of the House of Representatives and now Governor of Sokoto State, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Governors Forum as well as Deputy Chair, Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, makes him a candidate Nigeria needs to further solemnized her national cohesion.
Assada is Senior Special Assistant to Governor Tambuwal and wrote this piece from Sokoto
