*Gombe 2023 governorship race and shocking the insecurity*

*By Adamu Isa Gombe*

One would have overlooked the brazen act of thugs setting the Campaign office of the PDP governorship candidate ablaze but for the silence of the State governor Inuwa Yahaya, who is constitutionally its Chief Security Officer.

Public opinion has been oscillating between how dangerous the thuggery was, and questions about who or what emboldened the thugs to go that far.

One is particularly worried that long after that shameful arson in Gombe, neither the State government nor the All Progressives Congress(APC) leadership had come out to openly condemn the act or direct security agents to fish out the perpetrators and their sponsors.

Some observers of today's politics in Gombe State expressed shock, even outrage at the way and manner the government in the State seemed to have looked the other way, in the face of this brazen act of political violence and assault on the campaign structure of an opposition party. No such example of intolerance could be found in any of the 18 Northern States where opposition politicians have been doing normal campaigns, while the ruling party in those States issued stern warning to their supporters to let opposition be. That is quite exemplary, when placed against the latest Gombe brigandage. Emboldened by influential politicians in this broad daylight assault, the financiers had no scruples about hiring the most criminally-minded, unemployable pawns to destabilize the opposition. For this to have happened in the 21st century, means there are political forces who would stop at nothing to reach their political goal of destabilizing one of the most peaceful States in the North today. Some would argue, that political thuggery is not new to Gombe but setting campaign buildings ablaze is definitely a new low for the State.

The widely-publicised newspaper report of a civil society group calling on the Inspector-General of Police ( IGP) and the National Security Adviser (NSA) is not only timely but calls to question the competence of the Chief Security Officer of the State. On the other hand, it was actually a subtle indictment of the state government, which should have done the needful promptly enough.

Significantly, the Gombe State Government could be said to have shirked in its responsibility for failing to even make official condemnation of the arson on the PDP Campaign Office. It is not yet clear if, after failing to do so, it has made any public declaration of intent to go after both the thugs and their sponsors. This atmosphere of uannceptable silence on the part of the State Government has given the room of suspicion about whether the leadership of the State was 'too cool' to care about the assault or merely grossly incompetent.

For now, the action of the Inspector-General of Police and the National Security Adviser should save the people of Gombe from a repeat of this primitive assault on democracy and freedom of political participation, as we brace for another civilian-to-civilan transition for 2023.

It is also strange that some vocal civil rights activists are yet to openly react to this, as if millions of naira worth of assets had not been lost. Assuming some people were caught in the inferno, would they have remained silent as well? That would have been outrightly insensitive. And who is behind the current blackout of public outrage and media coverage of this brazen assault? Anyway, this is a topic for another day.

Meanwhile, it could only be hoped that the General Abdussalami Abubakar-led Peace Committee will also intercede by calling out the Gombe State Government. This should save the North from the negative image that the Gombe incident is gradually creating for the region. May we, in North, never experience the cowardly and shameful experience that befell the Gombe State governorship candidates Campaign Office, for which the savages are yet to be fished out and punished, at least for deterrence.

Isa wrote from Gombe State, Northern Nigeria

Let me not talk