In the nations political reckoning, Bauchi State has in the recent past assumed an outsize image and status as a haven of political redoubts and influential movers and shakers in the national scheme of things who have acted decisively to transform the socio-economic dynamics of the country for the better. For instance in the Second Republic, heavy weight politicians like Dr Ibrahim Tahir, former Minister of Telecommunications, Alhaji Suleiman Takuma, erstwhile NPN National Secretary; Alhaji Uba Ahmed, an NPN chieftain and other Bauchi political activist held sway and dominated the nations landscape like latter day Roman empire leviathans. However with the advent of democratic rule in 1999, Bauchi State seemed to have taken a back seat in the emerging political equation as men and women of principle, vision and focus largely adopted a siddon look posture watching political events and occurrences with a detached, somber and inert disposition, not wanting to rock the boat or intervene in order to shake up the momentum and direction of the state in particular and the nation at large. However things started to change in 2009, with the formation of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) by close associates and political allies of former Head of State and now President and Commander in Chief, General Muhammadu Buhari. In the those heady days, the CPC was in its infancy, seemingly dwarfed by other political formations like the Peoples Democratic Party, the Action Congress Of Nigeria the All Nigeria Peoples Party amongst others. In Bauchi State, it was quite fortuitous that a political gadfly and outspoken human right activist/community organizer, Hon Aliyu Ibrahim Gebi emerged in the mould of Barrack Obama to take on the political establishment and decisively over turn the old and discredited order of doing things. It is easy to forget that in the uncertain days of 2009, when the CPC was formed, most of the influential politicians in Bauchi State belonged either to the PDP or the ANPP and many were wary of indentifying with the CPC and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, due to his uncompromising and principled anti-corruption disposition. As many of the politicians had quite a number of skeletons in their cupboards and were uncomfortable with a political ideology attuned to the total eradication of corruption at all levels of government, local, state or federal for that matter. But the irrepressible Hon Aliyu Gebi was cut from a different cloth and was convinced that General Muhammadu Buhari was sincerely committed to tacking the hydra headed monster of corruption as he had squarely faced off during the no-nonsense days of the famed Buhari/ Idiagbon administration. So the task of selling the CPCs manifesto to the hardworking people of Bauchi State fell squarely on the shoulders of the resourceful Hon. Aliyu Gebi who rose to the challenge of proselytizing and sensitizing the holloi polloi on the political philosophy of Buharis brand new party that envisaged a country committed to raising the living standards of the common man and eradicating illiteracy, poverty, hunger and homelessness from the nations socio-economic spheres. A fearless Hon. Aliyu Gebi bravely stood up to the Bauchi political, economic and traditional elite not caring whose ox was gored in the process. While a majority of the elite belonged to the dominant PDP and ANPP parties that held sway at the local, state and federal levels, Hon Aliy Gebi had the singular distinction of being first and only federal lawmaker to be so elected on the platform of the CPC as a Honourable Member of the Federal House of Representatives from 2011- 2015. Indeed Hon Aliyu Gebis election was epoch-making as it was historic given the fact the CPC had no elected official at the state or federal level, before the 2011 elections and all the established parties had taken all manner of measures, counter measures, and subterfuges to frustrate the electoral mandate of the party of revolution and reform. However the people of Bauchi federal constituency were quite convinced of the sincerity of the indomitable populist leader who spared no resource or exertion in ensuring the total political, economic and social liberation of his beloved people. As the political permutations evolved in the wake of the 2015 general elections, a farsighted Hon Aliyu Gebi was once again in the forefront of the titanic struggle to dislodge the then dominant PDP from all levels of government. Having assessed the nature of the herculean task before the opposition parties, Hon Aliyu Gebi accurately pinpointed the formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as an irrevocable idea whose time had come and he rallied his ubiquitous and highly calibrated political machinery behind this auspicious conglomeration of forces that gave the PDP a run for its money. And the nomination of President Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the APC was another dream comes true for the activist Hon Gebi who was more or less on familiar turf having campaigned for Buharis presidential bid in the 2011 general elections. With the woeful and colossal defeat of the PDP and the election of an APC-led federal government, it is not yet uhuru as the forces of reaction and revanchism have yet again reared their unseemly head in order to thwart the reformist and people-oriented policies and programs of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. However just as he courageously tackled and ultimately overwhelmed the PDPs all encompassing government in 2015, so he is ready to once again enter the trenches to forestall the negative shenanigans of the conservative and power aggrandizing cabal who are bent on checkmating the APCs progressive manifesto thus once again affirming his legendary designation at the ultimate game changer of Bauchi Politics. To God Be The Glory-Ibrahim,A Political Affairs Commentator Wrote In From Bauchi
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