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By Missang Oyama
Umaru Tanko Al-Makura is a man whose birth was indeed a miraculous manifestation, and his life’s odyssey a parable of resilience, determination, and grit.
Al-Makura successfully broke through the crucible of life and rose to stardom in the face of adversity and daunting challenges. He grew up with high-minded aspirations to be the best of whatever he sets out to do. His story inspires politics, leadership, culture, education, religion, and business management. He is a fine blend of the private sector genre and political impresario. His carriage, charisma, and inimitable warmth offer far relevant life lessons than can be seen in most Nigerian politicians of his standing.
His Excellency, distinguished Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, is a raw depiction of the father of modern Nasarawa and one of the most critical stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress. With an irresistibly charming aura, Senator Tanko Al-Makura is so accomplished yet graceful and approachable. He is possessed of the most profound sense of humility and modesty regardless of his manifold achievements. He is, indeed, a man of easy manners. Al-Makura mirrors the actual image of a progressive politician with reform minded disposition. He believes that government should constantly reinvent itself in order to achieve the ultimate goal of socio-economic development.
The story of the religious tolerance and peaceful habitation in his home-state of Nasarawa, where he held sway as governor for two terms of eight unbroken years, is full proof of his leadership mettle. He is allergic to ethnic jingoism, religious bigotry, and other often employed schemes to divide our people into factions. He is foresighted enough to recognize that the socio-economic development of Nigeria transcends the strictures of ethnic and religious sentiments. The distinguished Senator is principled yet amendable to positive change and superior logic. He embodies the finest tradition of our nation’s political leadership. An admirable down-to-earth mien informs his private and public life.
It is often said that “You know the outcome of a day from the morning.” The connotation of this syllogism in connection with the nub of this piece, distinguished Senator Tanko Al-Makura would suggest that the man’s past should throw up expectations of what he will bring on board as he strives to take on the gauntlet of the leadership of the APC as national chairman in the forthcoming convention slated for February 2022. However, there is no gainsaying that the ruling party is in dire leadership strait, and Senator Al-Makura has presented himself as the best option to be hired.
As the 2023 general election beckons, APC would need a man in the mold of His Excellency, Senator Tanko Al-Makura – a man whose emotions are securely stable, steady, and intact to navigate the ship of the party. His inexhaustible bank of political experiences will be of immense benefit to the party at this time. The man is an elephantine reservoir of sociopolitical wits and uncommon stratagem. His borderless interconnectedness across different parts of the country is one of his defining features. He is from the North-central but in the 1970s, Al-Makura was in College of Education, Uyo in the South-south where he studied and obtained the National Certificate of Education (NCE) before proceeding to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he obtained a Bachelors of Education degree.
He has spread his tentacles across the length and breadth of the country, building bridges and enduring relationships. As one who is loyal to friendship, Senator Al-Makura enjoys enormous goodwill from his friends across the nooks and cranny of the country. At this time of heightened ethno-regional crises and increasing violent fronts opening up in different parts of the country, Al-Makura will serve as the unifying factor in the APC.
Senator Al-Makura proved his mettle so eloquently in 2011 when he flew the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) flag as its governorship candidate, a newly registered political party. In a deft political prowess, he fought off an incumbent governor. That is a rare feat of political ingenuity in our clime. It was a testimony of his sagacity and dexterity in the turf. It is even more profound when considering that the incumbent governor was from the ruling party at the center.
Senator Tanko Al-Makura built his public service and political career from a bottom-top approach fastened to a rock-solid foundation. In 1978, the young Tanko Al-Makura (as he then was) from the highly competitive old Plateau State secured a spot as a Member of the Constituent Assembly, thus making him one of the framers of the 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He forayed into partisan politics when he joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Not known for docility in any of his engagements, the youthful Al-Makura became an active and dedicated party member. He contested and won the election as the State Youth Leader of the party.
After the military incursion of 1983, Al-Makura registered a limited liability company, Al-Makura Nigeria Ltd, with interest in construction, export, import, general goods supplies, and real estate. He took the company from the cradle and built it into a massive empire. Tanko Al-Makura has stamped his name like an indelible signature in the Nigerian private sector as a resounding success. He is a man of enviable business acumen.
In the wake of the botched Third Republic (1991-1993), Tanko Al-Makura was a member of the National Republican Convention (NRC). He gave his all and best for the party’s growth, particularly in his then home-state of old Plateau. As one who is always driven by leadership instincts, he contested and won election as the party’s State General Secretary before the military truncated that democratic dispensation. Senator Al-Makura has a solid and unparalleled pedigree in internal party administration. He understands the rudiments and intricacies involved in the daily management of a political party. To this end, rising to the rostrum to lead the APC at this auspicious time in the party’s history is not only a desirable call to duty that all should support, but it is equally a familiar terrain for him.
At the formation stage of the party, Senator Al-Makura was the only governor from one of the critical legacy parties, the CPC. He was a member of the merger committee representing the party. In an unprecedented magnanimity, he took full responsibility for funding and providing the necessary logistics for members of his former party throughout the merger talks that eventually gave birth to the APC. His desire to lead the party should be applauded as a man’s propensity to nurture what he labored with others in the trenches to build.
The immensity of Al-Makura’s contributions to the emergence of the APC as a formidable political platform that upstaged the once self-styled biggest party in Africa, the PDP from power at the center cannot be discountenanced. When the history books are written, His Excellency, distinguished Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura will indeed occupy a prime place of reckoning as one of the closest exemplars of Renaissance Men in the ruling All Progressives Congress.
• Oyama, a social commentator, writes from Abuja
