by Uchechukwu Okoroafor, Abuja
There comes a time in the life of every society when experience stops being an advantage and becomes a necessity. As Gombe State prepares for the 2027 governorship election, the conversation is shifting beyond party colours and campaign theatrics to a more urgent question: Who can actually govern with competence, fairness, and institutional depth after the votes are counted?
Grow your business with us
In that conversation, Dr. Babayo Ardo Kumo of the NDC stands out as the candidate whose profile most closely matches the demands of the moment.
Born on 2 December 1963 in Kumo, Akko Local Government Area, Dr. Babayo’s journey is one of deliberate preparation. His academic path—from Central Primary School, Kumo and Government Secondary School, Billiri through Ahmadu Bello University, the University of Lagos, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Aptech Computer Education, and the University of Jos—produced a rare combination of credentials: a B.Sc. in Political Science, a Master’s in International Law and Diplomacy, a PhD in Political Science, a Diploma in Information Systems Management, and an MBA. This is not ornamental learning. It is the intellectual foundation of a man who has spent decades inside the machinery of government.
He taught at the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, rose through the Gombe State Civil Service to become Permanent Secretary, and later served at the highest levels of the Federal Civil Service—across the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the State House, the Federal Ministries of Transport, Environment, Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, culminating as a Federal Permanent Secretary. Alongside this, he has remained an active scholar, publishing and contributing on nation-building, public administration, pensions, grassroots democracy, and Nigeria’s political development.
This is the profile of a man who understands how government actually works—how policies are formulated, how institutions are managed, how intergovernmental relations are navigated, and how results are delivered or lost in bureaucratic failure. Gombe’s next governor will face the hard, unglamorous tasks of improving roads, healthcare, education, agriculture, jobs, security, and transparent administration. Those tasks reward competence more than charisma.
Now place this record beside the two major-party alternatives.
Isa Pantami (PDP) carries heavy national baggage that cannot be wished away. Old sermons from the mid-to-late 2000s expressing support for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, positive references to Osama bin Laden, sympathy for Boko Haram members as “our Muslim brothers,” and remarks about being happy when “unbelievers” were killed continue to circulate. Though he has since disavowed those views as products of youthful immaturity, the recordings remain a source of lasting distrust—especially among Christian voters and moderates in a multi-religious state.
Compounding this is the perception of political opportunism. Pantami once used religious language to brand the PDP and its members as “kafirs” or “infidels.” After rejecting the APC’s consensus process as a “coronation,” he defected to the very party he had denounced and accepted an unopposed affirmation that displaced other aspirants who had followed due process. Controversies around his academic title and questions of consistency further weaken the claim that he represents a clean break or unifying leadership. In a state that needs healing and broad trust, these liabilities are not minor.
Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna (APC) faces a different but equally structural problem. He is from the same local government (Gombe LGA) and even the same ward as the outgoing Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya. With previous governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo also from Gombe LGA, a Gwamna victory would extend one-zone, one-LGA dominance to 24 consecutive years. Critics rightly call this “domination” and “ward capture.” Equity across Gombe’s three senatorial districts cannot be an afterthought.
His emergence through a consensus process that fellow aspirants described as a “coronation”—short notice, lack of written consent from all aspirants, and the appearance of top-down imposition—has already generated internal resentment. His history of moving across parties (ANPP, a failed PDP governorship bid, then APC) feeds the narrative of a “perennial ship-jumper.” While his business and philanthropic record is real, the perception that he represents continuity of the incumbent’s personal network rather than a broader, more inclusive mandate limits his appeal among voters seeking genuine rotation and renewal.
Against this backdrop, Dr. Babayo Ardo Kumo offers a clearer alternative. He is from Akko in Gombe Central—providing natural zonal balance after years of concentration in Gombe North. His career has been built in the open institutions of the civil service and academia rather than through last-minute party manoeuvres or contested religious rhetoric. He has no record of extremist past statements to defend, no sudden ideological conversion from “kafir” rhetoric to partisan convenience, and no appearance of being the product of a closed-door “coronation.”
Gombe does not need another experiment in religious polarisation or another extension of one-zone dominance. It needs a governor who already knows how ministries function, how policies survive bureaucratic resistance, how intergovernmental relations are managed, and how to turn academic insight into administrative results. That is the preparation Dr. Babayo Ardo Kumo brings.
Elections are about choices. In 2027, the people of Gombe will decide whether they prefer the weight of unresolved controversies, the fatigue of prolonged zonal monopoly, or the steady competence of a man who has spent a lifetime preparing for public responsibility. On the evidence of record, experience, and the absence of the heavy liabilities that burden his main rivals, Dr. Babayo Ardo Kumo emerges as the candidate best equipped to lead Gombe into its next chapter.
About The Author