189 CHAPTER SIX ASTHE THIRD CTVILIAN GOVERNOROF GONGOI.A STATE, OCTOBERTO DECEMBE& 1983. 6.I INTRODUCTION l. GONGOI-A STATE UNDER COL. MUHAMMADUIEGA The General Murtala Mohammed Administration created Gongola State in February 1976 along with six other states. The state had Lt. Col. Muhammadu Jega (now Major General Rtd.) as its fust Military Governor. To all Gongolans, the creation marked the beginning of social, economic and political challenges leading to general development. Carved out of the defunct North-Eastem State (comprising former Bauchi, Adamawa, Borno and Sardauna Provinces) and part of Benue-Plateau State (i.e. the former Wukari Division), Gongola State had a land mass of 102,068 sq kilometers which made it the second latgest state in the Federation. It is located within latitude 11" South and longitude 9%"West and 14" East with a projected population of 4.6 million people (1983). Gongola State shared comnon borders with Plateau and Benue sates. Seven administrative divisions comprising Adamawa, Numan, Mubi, Wukari; Ganye, Jalingo and Sardauna made up the state at its inception. At the initial stage, the st2te capital, Yola, and all the seven adrninistrative headquarters had few or no modern infrastructutal faciiities. Mosi facilities therefore had to be developed from scratch in all parts of the sate. To this end, a Task Fotce Committee was esablished undet the chaitmanship of Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi @aban Larai) to scout for both of6ce and residential iccommodation for the more than 5,000 civil servants deployed to the state. Similarly, the committee had to device means of srilizilg 6axi6fly, the few movable assets inherited from the former North-Eastern State. The Task Force Committee sarted by declaring all provincial as well as divisional offices vaczrnt and re-allocated them to ministries. Equally, houses of provincial staff went to top civil servants. This exercise had its problems as Yola, a hitherto small provincial headquarter, with a small river merchandise depog was suddenly forced to accommodate a capacity population far more than it could cope with at short notice. With the acute shortage of both of6ce and residential accommodation, officers had to sleep in their cars or use school buildings while others were compelled to stay in sub-urban areas like Numan, Gombi, Mayo- Belwa and other towns quite far away from Yola. As for office accommodation, 190 BisaPb aJNE . (DR.) BAMANGA TUKU& CON senior officers had to share offices with their subordinates' This uncomfortable situation forced the Task Force Committee to rent sub-standard houses ol erect temporary, cottugated Lon sheet structules to house civil servants as well as provide ofEce accommodation. The problem of accommodation was further compounded by a sudden rise in the ctst of living in the new state. Prices of commodities went up, with people making brisk businesses through exorbitant hotel and rent charges in Yola mettofolis. This ptoblem forced government to embark on the construcdon of 50b senior houses by worthy contractors within the shortest "td lotio. possible time, within the state capital. In the pdvate sector, a lot of well-to-do people, both within and outside the state capital embarked on the construction tf ho..ses which were subsequently rented to government and public servants' Thus began the population and infrastructural growth of Yola under the leadetshil of Col. MuhammaduJega and his lieutenants. Apart from his civilian .o--i..ioner., Col. Babatunde Idiagbon Q-ater Maior General and Chief of Staff under the Buhari administration now late) served in the cabinet as Brigade Commander of 15" Mechanized Brigade, Yola. The political climate in the state had been largely dictated by several factors' Thes'. f^.tors include among others the desire for quick infrastructural development, the heterogeneity of the various et}nic gtoups in the state, the literacy level of these people and indeed the genetal topography of the state' One hlstorical landmark af the early stage of its development was the 1976 local government feforms, which brought about the creetion of 17 local government Ireas. The councils were: Yola, Fufore, Mayo-Belwa, Ganye, Numan, Gul'uk, lVukari, Song, Gombi, Mubi, Michika, Zng, Jahngo, Karim I-amido,'Takum, Ba[Ld Sardauna. This noble task was undertaken by an ad-hoc committee headed by the then Commissionet fot I-ocal Government and Social Development, Alhaii Mamman Bayero.' The administrative structure of the sate remained so until the Second Republic further btoken into 40 local goverrunents (1979-1983)'O^tde/Juta when the state u/as d*itrg ,t. administmtion. Although it was sttongly argued in c.rtaii qoa.t.t. that 40 local governments could not be managed successfi'r'lly d.r. to th. states' lean resources, yet the creation went a long s/ay to satisfr the politicel yearnings of the people who considered it a positive move towards i*"1 d.rr.lop-.nt. The local govelffnents wete however short-Iived' No sooner had Maior Genetal Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) seized power in December 1983 than the 40 local governments were reYerted to their former 17 in a nation-wide te-organization. This remained so until President Ibrahim Badimasi Babangida created four more' The Local governments are: Gashaka, Yorro, Hong and Maiha' foundation for By the timi Col. Jega was redeployed in July 1978, a solid Gongola's infrastructural development had been 1aid. The civil service was As tbe tbird Cioilian Governor of Gongola State, Octobet - December, 198i 191 strearnlined, while housing projects like Karewa and Dougirei GRAs, Bekaji Housing Estate, including additional lovz cost houses went a long way to ease the previous problem of official residence for civil servants. It is on record thatJega started the State Secretariat, opened the College of Preliminary Studies, College of Education Jalingo and Staff Training Centre Numan. It was during his tenure that private schools and hospitals were taken over by government- He also set up the School of Nutsing and Midwiferl', Yola, and started township roads in Wukari, Numan, Mubi, Yola, Gombi, Jalingo, and Ganye. Col. Jega would also be remembered for starting theJimeta rWater Treatment Plant which today has been expanded to serve both Jimeta and Yola metropolis- Col. Jega's Chief Adviser was Alhaji Hamidu Alkali who was the first Secretary to the Military Government in Gongola State. Alhaii Abubakar Girei later took over as Secretary to the Military Government when Alhaji Hamidu Alkali relinquished his office. ii. BRIGADIERMAHMUDUISTRANSITIONAIADMINISTRATION Brigadier A.R.A. Mahmudu fi,td.) took over the mande of office from Col. MuharirmaduJega (X.td.) as Military Administrator. His barely one year in office ensuted a smooth transition to civil rule in October 1979. lfithin this short period, he initiated the setting up of Gongola Bteweries and ensured the completion of Dougirei Lodge. He also built the defunct House of Assembly Complex and commissioned many basic health projects and water schemes. It was during his tenure that both the Numan and Jimeta bridges were commissioned. Brigadiet Mahmudu had the privilege of hosting General Olusegun Obasanjo (X.td.) during his farewell tour to all the states of the Federation.o It was Brigadier A.R.A. Mahmudu who passed the baton of leadetship to Alhaji Abubakar Barde, the First Civilian Governor of Gongola State in the Second Republic at an imptessive ceremony on 1" Octobet, 1979. Thatwas the Gongola State inherited by Bamanga Tukur. 6.2 PARTY POLITICS IN GONGOLA STATE 1979-1983 Gongola State is made up of about sixty different ethnic groups, most of which are equally sized.u Amongst these, the Fu.lani ethnic group is often regarded as the "dominant" ethnic group. Because of the difficulty in obtaining information on the relative population sizes of the various ethnic groups, here we consider a "dominant" group from a sociological and economic viewpoint as one, which more than any other group in the state controls political and economic power. !(/hen the ban on political activities was lifted in 1978, the most important political institution to be created by the 1979 Constitution was political parties. More than fifty political associations emerged, but the then military government through the Fedeml Electoral Commission €EDECO) selected four, which were accorded recognition 792 BiogruPb ,/ALH. (DR.) BAMANGA TUKUR, coN namely, The National Party of Nigeria (NPlg; the Nigerian Peoples Party (f{PP); the Unity i'arty of Nigeria (UPN); and the Peoples Redempdon Party (PRP)' Of these fout were undisguised re-incarnations of the three that ruled -th.p^rti.s, th. first tlree Parties .ount y f.o- 1952-1965. Two of them wete led by the same leaders, namely, UPN and the Nbp. AII the three were ethnically and regionally based in the three former regions (North, West and East) and were dominated by the three so-called "major" .aIoi. gtoop.. The fourth party was a re-incarnation of the most radical opposition party i;the;ld Northern Region, the Nonhern Elements Progressive Union Q"lEPtf , ied by the late Mallam Aminu Kano. Latet, the NPP broke into two factions: the NPP and the Great Nigeria People Party (GNPP). The former was led by Dr' Nnamdi Azikiwe and the iatter by Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri. Both were given recognition by FEDECO.U Bamanga Tukur belonged to the NPN, an offshoot of the former NPC Q.{orthern Peoples Congress). Gongola State, like other states created in 1976, witnessed active party politics only in the S-econd Repub[c, october 1979 to December 1983. Because of the hetetogeneity of the ethnic gioups in the state, all the five political parties were represented' However, the power tussle was mainly between the GNPP, UPN and the NPN out of which the GNPP was victorious, largely as a tesult of the interplay of ethnic and religious politics' The membetship of theie political parties was determined, to Yarying degrees, by role' ethnicity and religion.