Jaya State: A Tale of Full-fledged Hitches and the Sight for Sore Eyes -By Isma’il Alkasim

The Jaya state has had a brush with death in the recent years. Communal clashes resulted in
profusely widespread of genocide; unemployed youth were causing terror, snatching phones and
precious materials. Aside the debilitated health care system which accounted to about seventy
percent of death in the state, there was the colossally deteriorated system of education, where
studies were taken underneath trees with unskilled and unqualified teachers; majorly political
thugs used by politicians during elections in manipulating the elections. Life was quite
impecunious in the state. The state recorded the worst poverty-stricken index, hunger became an
eatable ingredient. Annoyingly, traders ought to kowtow to politicians otherwise they would be
illegitimately deprived their franchise to business. People lived in helter-skelter, their life was a
near-death experience.

The gender disparity and human rights violation perpetrated by power occupants was quite
excruciating. Government deprived people any dividend of democracy. Two years after swearingin of Dr. Fataye Peter as the Governor of Jaya state, everything collapsed further. His
commissioners became complicit in enhancing corruption and mediocrity in their portfolios.
Moreover, the Jaya state judiciary was just a rubber stamp. Critiques of the government were
mostly detained and jailed.

In the height of these atrocities, there existed Mr. Hudu, who was a renowned philanthropist
endowed with boundless potentials and a burning desire to uplift his state. Though, he looks at
education through rose-colored glasses yearning for younger generation to have a quality one. He
assumes the responsibility of students distinguished by unusual keenness to study at famous
institutions outside the state, amongst the beneficiaries was Jalal Umar who finished his secondary
school with resounding success and got admission to study Bachelor of Laws (LLB).
During Jalal’s studentship, he met resourcefully talented young students like him, distinguished
among them were Emmanuel Peter, who was a student of Economics, and Natasha Farouq, who
was a student journalism. They were famous in unionism and devoted in activism. They were
widely known for their intrepid boldness. Hence, they became knights that were admired among
the students populace.

After their studies, they formed a movement which embarked on community services and human
rights mobilization. The movement later metamorphosed into a political party called People’s
Choice (PC). They defied insurmountable odds and daunting challenges to address the
embarrassingly donnybrooks among different communities. They made various formal objections
against the malfeasance and misconducts of Jaya State Government officials.

At the mid of their struggle, the tenure of the incumbent governor, Dr. Fataye Peter, elapsed, but
he sought for second term under the umbrella of his party, the Formidable Party (FP). Jalal Umar,
who was the head of the People’s Choice, urged the party stakeholders to nominate Mr. Emmanuel
Peter as their gubernatorial candidate, which they yielded to. After his nomination, Dr. Fataye
mobilised thugs and galvanized them to unleash terror during the People’s Choice campaigns, he
used the state apparatus to blackmail, jail and witch-haunt the members of the PC, but to no avail
– people have already bucked into the trend and joined the bandwagon.

There was an outpouring of joy and hope as Mr. Emmanuel Peter was declared the winner of the
election against all the odds. After swearing-in, he set a cabinet of dedicated young men and
women which was the bedrock of his achievement. Commissioners were sent on tours to different
parts of the world to garner ideas that would help the government in doing remarkably in
healthcare, education, clean water supply, energy and infrastructure. He fought corruption and
used the public funds judiciously, thereby impacting the life of the people optimally

Correspondingly, both local and international investors considered the state as a promising one
due to supportive and enabling environment the government provided. This made the state a
modern industrial hub with mammoth young men and women engaged in direct and indirect jobs.
The collaborative efforts of Mr. Emmanuel, his deputy Mrs. Natasha Farouq, party leader Umar
Jalal, and the cabinet members was a sight for sore eyes. They have made people’s life a lap of
luxuries. They received many awards including the United Nation’s SDGs award.

Isma’il Alkasim a student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, writes from Garki, Jigawa State.