CITATION OF A MAJOR GAME CHANGER

Citation of a Major Game Changer.

In politics, just as in war, so many figures who contributed to a tough victory are hardly recognized. This isn't because their efforts were undermined, but simply because we are all lost in the euphoria of the victory as we count our gains. This scenario brings to mind the relevance of the under-sung Director-General of Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello Campaign Organization, Hon. Mikail Al-Amin Bmitosahi.

The campaign office of APC Gubernatorial aspirant in Niger State became an arsenal of ideas because a leader who recognized talents and brains and was thus willing to scout and recruit well-meaning change agents, was in charge. In the political scene, Hon. Bmitosahi isn't a novice. He was a one-time member of the House of Representatives, representing Chanchaga Federal Constituency and, very important, a friend of so many youth groups across the State.

While a number of politicians given opportunity to serve at that position pass through the legislative chamber without an impact, Bmitosahi's use of that platform to launch himself as a compassionate representative of his people and as an active lawmaker was the reason he even became a noticeable political figure in the country, and influence in Niger State. 

More than just being at the lower-chamber of the National Assembly as a passive observer or allowances-earning absentee member, which has already become a common syndrome in Nigeria, Hon. Bmitosahi's presence as he served the nation and appeased his constituents, was done without the usual publicity stunts often employed by politicians with little or no achievement to exhibit their projects. This unusual style of leadership, which some politicians probably consider a pathway to political oblivion, was adequately tracked and applauded by a number of people I've met. And these were also praised as traits of a leader who means business by those who commended his leadership of the Campaign Organization.
In my efforts to track the man's political antecedents and accomplishments in office, I tasked myself with a personal cataloguing of some of his people-centered projects, and while I was impressed by his interventions, I also got to understand why he was chosen as a Director-General of a Campaign Office in a place as complex, and difficult to please, as Niger State.

My first finding that he was elected as a legislator under the platform of the ANPP in 2007 in a State and time that victory meant membership of the ruling party, the PDP, was enough conviction that he truly stood for an ideal. This is because Niger State has never been on the political left, and all the politicians who subscribed to the principles of the political Left were mobbed by sycophants and opportunists in the umbrella of a party that is now pathetically destroyed by the same sycophancy and opportunism that was once their guiding principle. Only a few politicians were left standing for the opposition before the euphoria of the CPC - ACN merger shattered the very umbrella under which they conspired against the will and welfare of the people whose mandate they rigged, or for whom they lied themselves to power.

Departing from the culture of political deceits and post-election absenteeism, as it is with our politicians after winning an election, Hon. Bmitosahi only made his presence more noticeable at his Constituency Office, with active assistants around whenever he was carrying out his legislative duties in Abuja, to listen to the demands of the people, gauge the extents of problems reported and then designed methods of resolving them. This approach was adopted in his intervention in the education and health sectors, and in the programmes he adopted to create jobs and improve the basic social amenities of his people.

Even as a humanitarian, Bmitosahi's interventions in improving the quality of life of his people are legacies that will outlive even the man himself. Through a far-reaching and effective foundation, the Bmitosahi Children Foundation, he supported hospitals and healthcare centres across his constituency. He was the first person to provide an incubator to the Minna General Hospital to help curb the high rate of infant mortality in the constituency.
To the same hospital, he donated a scanning machine, in responding to the grievances of people traveling to Minna from rural areas for this purpose. In this same regard, he donated a well-equipped Primary Healthcare Centre to Sauka Kahuta community.

This sensitivity to the health sector wasn't just a private engagement to the former lawmaker. While at the House of Representatives, he sponsored a bill for an Act to provide for the regulation and control of the establishment of Private Hospitals and other matters connected therewith. This commendable step is aimed at making healthcare services cheap and affordable to people most of whom are the less-privileged in the society.

One of Hon. Bmitosahi’s most commendable intervention in the education sector is his recognition of the economic situations that deterred so many students in his constituency from passing out of secondary schools or proceeding to the tertiary institutions. In one instance, he paid for the JAMB-UME and NECO Examination fees of over 3,000 students. He also constructed classrooms and offices of Principal and the Staff at Kwasau Junior Secondary School, Dutsen-Kura Gwari. These are aside from distributing learning materials like notebooks, textbooks, chalks, desks and chairs to all the 23 primary schools in the Constituency.

In summary, as part of his Education Support initiative, the lawmaker gave educational assistance to one hundred and twenty three Constituents. This intervention is to inspire the zeal for schooling amongst his constituents.

One other aspect of life in which the people of Niger State are at disadvantage is access to basic social amenities. The most traumatizing, however, is their lack of access to potable water despite the State government's several promises then. The former lawmaker, in his own contributions to redeeming this, provided hand-pump boreholes to various communities in his constituency. This included Kpakungu and Unguwan Zakka Primary School. He also commissioned motorized boreholes complete with generator, generator house and security house at Kampani Village.

The ecological supports, however, are his provisions of litter bins across his constituency. His passion for the redemptions of this ecological challenges and environmental hazards influenced the inclusion of water intervention schemes in the federation in our 2010 federal budget. 

Perhaps what even made this quintessential lawmaker a man of the people was his alliance with the youth and also his support for sports. For empowerment of the youth, especially those in commercial ventures and also the artisans, he made available micro-finance facilities to offer loans to Cooperative Societies in the eleven wards of the constituency he represented. A number of artisans and traders, however, benefited from the sewing machines, set of mechanic tool boxes, and deep freezers he distributed to encourage vocational skills.

The considerably literate youth were beneficiaries of the Information Technology Centre he provided in Minna to boost computer literacy. Those inclined to sports also benefited from his provisions of Sports kits to football clubs across various communities in the constituency. These and many others made this youth-friendly politician an acceptable game-changer as he supervised the designing and implementation of strategies that ensured the victory of the APC in the April 11 Governorship elections in Niger State. One can only say, you’ve won the battle.

well done, Sir!

Abdulberqy  U Ebbo