Tanko Al-Makura: Odyssey of a Leader at 69

Tribute

Abubakar Idris

On Monday, November 15, 2021, former Governor of Nasarawa State and Senator representing Nasarawa Central Senatorial District, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, was at the Comprehensive Special School, Lafia to donate wheelchairs to the children and mark his 69th birthday. His government built the school for children living with disabilities.

But this is not the first time he would celebrate his birthday at the school. As an incumbent governor, Al-Makura was at the same school in November 2018 to celebrate his 66th birthday. He had joined the pupils in recreational activities and had lunch with them. He had explained that he loved to spend his birthdays with the physically challenged children in order to build their confidence and inspire them to fulfill their dreams and great destinies.

“I chose to be with this category of people I have passion for and always advocate for, as an inspiration to raise their hopes and brighten their future. So, I decided that there would be no funfair and elaborate merriment for my birthday.

“Apart from giving them education, we would be monitoring the progress of the status of their disabilities to see the support and assistance we can give.

We shall be providing glasses for those with partial visual impairment, hearing aids for the hard of hearing, as well as wheelchairs and the like to those requiring certain mobility aids”, Al-Makura said, assuring that

his administration had put adequate structures in place to ensure that the school was sustained beyond his tenure in office. That was in 2018.

Fast-forward to 2021, several years later, the Governor Abdullahi Sule administration has kept Al-Makura assurances, just as the former governor has not only kept his tradition of being there for the children, but also continues to support them with wheel chairs and other supportive aids.

To cap up the 2021 edition, the Senator equally donated a motorised wheelchair to Miss Charity Angu, a young lady who settled in Nasarawa after her National Youth Service in 2020, to appreciate her for her commitment to helping the challenged children despite her own physical challenge. It was a sight to behold.

“Wherever I go, whatever position I hold, you would be one of my primary concerns. I pray God to continue to give the leadership in our society the wisdom, the focus to promote and develop these kind of schools, so that the vulnerable, the people who have these kind of challenges will have a bright future”, Al-Makura told the Comprehensive Special School community.

But the philanthropic and humane side of the Senator is just one of those qualities that stand him out as a leader innately inclined to the masses and the downtrodden.

Born in Lafia on November 15, 1952, Al-Makura is of the Gwandara ethnic extraction, but has a cosmopolitan exposure in the course of his education, business life, and politics. He attended the Government Teachers College of Education, Uyo between 1972 and 1975 before heading to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He served as a teacher at the Government College Makurdi during his NYSC.

He foraged into the business world, establishing himself in the import and servicing of agricultural and industrial machineries before additionally going into real estate and property development business where he has made so much name and fortunes. He is also established in the hospitality industry.

Al-Makura, though quite young in the Second republic was already an active political player at the time, emerging the State Youth Leader of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in Plateau State where the late Chief Solomon Lar of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) was governor. But being an opposition youth leader was perhaps a divine arrangement that helped him to assert himself as a political force in that Republic.

He was elected into the 1988/1989 Constituent Assembly to work out a new constitution for the country preparatory to the handing over of reigns of power to the civilians by the General Ibrahim Babangida administration, which eventually did not materialise following the annulment of the June 12 1992 presidential election.

Al-Makura equally served as the Secretary of the National Republican Convention (NRC) from 1990 to 1992 in the old Plateau State in the ill-fated Babangida transition programme and later became a staunch and founding member of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) when General Sani Abacha’s became Head of State and swept away the old order.

It is noteworthy that the Abacha regime had created Nasarawa out of Plateau State in 1996 before his demise. When that era ended, the political fervour and party financier in Al-Makura did not wane as he also became one of the founding members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the General Abdulsalami Abubakar transition to civil rule programme.

However, his ambition to lead Nasarawa on the platform of the PDP, which they built into the most popular and entrenched party in the state failed under questionable circumstances. Nevertheless, he supported the candidacy and administration of Aliyu Doma, who was the then choice of the outgoing Abdullahi Adamu, notwithstanding the fact that Doma actually was the main challenger of the PDP in the 1999 and 2003 elections on the platform of the All Peoples Party.

Al-Makura challenged the incumbent governor (Doma) for the PDP ticket in 2011, but was maneuvered out in yet another clear questionable circumstances. In the wider interest of the state, the Al-Makura Campaign Organisation moved to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), vowing: “We cannot fold our arms and watch while the state is drifting into a bottomless pit. We want to rise up now to get him (Doma) out of office through a popular mandate”.

Although it appeared a mission impossible given the depth of PDP’s entrenchment in Nasarawa, coupled with the power of incumbency at the state and federal levels, Al-Makura got the job done though popular support. He trounced Doma by over 73,000 votes, thereby recording a remarkable upstage that would alter the politics of Nasarawa State till date.

At the time of the merger negotiations towards the formation of the APC, Nasarawa as the only CPC controlled state and Al-Makura as the only CPC governor not only strengthened CPC and Muhammadu Buhari’s hand as the party’s leader. Today, it is doubtful that the story of APC and Buhari’s victory in 2015 could be told without a mention of the Nasarawa and a game changer known as Al-Makura.

But the quite hurricane, Al-Makura, was not yet done with dismantling the PDP in Nasarawa State. In 2019 and for the very first time, PDP lost the presidential election in Nasarawa. It equally lost all the three senatorial seats in the state to the APC. And of course, he ensured the popular election of the man he believed had what it takes to carry on with his legacies, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, as governor in the 2019 election.

Unsurprisingly, for all his accomplishments and humble dispositions in it all, Al-Makura is a prophet highly honoured like a king among his people, a privilege not many prophets enjoy at home. Also, unlike in other states where ex-governors and the successors they installed are engaged in cat and mouse relationship, Al-Makura and Governor Sule have continued to work amicably for the development of their state and peace of the APC. Nasarawa APC is just one of the few states without crises and parallel congresses.

Meanwhile, to drive home their love for the man Al-Makura, the people of Nasarawa trouped out en-masse in March this year to turban the Sarduana of Gwandara. The import of that honour, which came about two years after he vacated office, is not lost on watchers of political events in the country. they see it as a further confirmation of how far he went in touching the lives of the people.

To underscore this, the Secretary of the Publicity Committee of that event, Shuiabu Madaki, described Al-Makura as an “endlessly affectionate and consummate leader, whose preoccupation, is to see how he takes Nasarawa State and her people, as well the country at large, to the next level of development”.

He described him as defender of the cause of the poor, recalling how his home remained a kind of Mecca for the poor.

Perhaps, it was at that event that Governor Sule bared his mind on A-Makura’s style of leadership for the umpteenth time, recalling his selflessness and patriotism. He said but for Al-Makura’s sense of justice, fairness and unity, he could not have picked and supported him to succeed him as governor.

“I wasn’t a member of the CPC. I wasn’t his commissioner or adviser. I was even appointed by the late Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma as Chairman of the state investment company and when he came. He removed me. But when it was time for Al-Makura to go, he put the development of the state ahead of personal and partisan interest to pick him as his successor.

“I’m committed to building upon and exceeding the foundations laid by Senator Al-Makura, not because I’m better than him, but to justify his trust in my capacity,” Sule told the crowd and eminent Nigerians, who gathered to honour his predecessor.

Meanwhile, Al-Makura’s attributes have not gone unnoticed not only among the APC stalwarts, but also the everyday party faithful, starting from his home state where even his governor believes he is best positioned to rebuild and reposition the APC.

Recently, a group, the All Progressives Congress Coalition for Credible Leadership in a statement also urged the party to look in his direction as the party’s next national chairman. They argued that he would have “a calming effect on the party’s storms, given his peaceful, and humble, cosmopolitan nature”.

The group believes that “Al-Makura has what it takes to reconcile the contesting interests, boost the party’s national popularity ahead of the 2023 elections, given his far-reaching goodwill within and outside the party”. As the distinguished Senator basks in the euphoria of his new age, he no doubt deserves all the encomiums coming his way and confidence reposed in him by his people, party faithful and leaders.