When Benue FirstLady Arc Yemisi Suswam Led A Delegation Of Northern Governor's Wives Forum To Broker Peace In Taraba State.

Are the Suswams back to NGF ? lol

When Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Dame Patience, stepped up the campaign for greater recognition for women in politics, perhaps, her action was informed by their dexterity in conflict management. Women are believed to be endowed with the ability to calm frayed nerves even in situations that appear tough. In other words, the role on Nigerian women in acting as catalysts in stabilising the thorny nature of the nation’s political system cannot be ignored.

The political row in Taraba State provided an opportunity for them to showcase such endowment. The wives of Northern governors under the umbrella of Northern Governors Wives Forum’ led by Benue State First Lady who doubles as chairperson of the forum, Mrs Doshima Yemisi Suswam, went on a trouble-shooting mission to the state. After their visit, relative peace and harmony appears to have returned to the state.

It will be recalled that Taraba had in the last few months been enmeshed in a leadership row occasioned by the return of the recuperating governor, Mr Danbaba Suntai, from a medical treatment abroad. The governor had arrived the state after 10 months of medical attention, following the injury he sustained after a plane crash almost a year ago. His arrival generated ripples in some political camps, especially between him and his deputy, Alhaji Garba Umar, who became the Acting governor of the state.

While supporters of Suntai insisted that their principal had taken over the administration of the state following his return from medical treatment abroad, the camp of Garba maintained that the governor had not fully recovered to be subjected to the rigours of governance.

The crisis culminated in the alleged sacking of some loyalists of the acting governor holding political appointments, an action that attracted counter-statements from the government nullifying the alleged sack. While the logjam lasted, a case was also instituted against the acting governor in a law court.

A former Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, in a telephone interview with Nigerian Tribune, had described logjam in Taraba as a sad reminder that Nigerian politicians had always found it hard to resolve their differences without heating up the polity.

The angry reaction of most Nigerians to the impasse prompted the intervention of the national leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which set up a committee to mediate in the dispute. But the committee achieved little because soon after the members visited the state, and claimed to have resolved the issue, the warring factions returned to the trenches.

Interestingly the situation in Taraba, which seemed to have defied all previous peace moves has mellowed down after the intervention of the Northern Governors Wives Forum. The forum sent some of its members to broker peace between the two camps involved in the dispute.

The delegation, which was led by the chairperson of the forum, Mrs. Yemisi  Dooshima Suswam of Benue, also included the Vice chairperson and wife of the Gombe State Governor, Hajia Adama Dankwambo, and the Financial Secretary and wife of the Niger State Governor, Hajia Jummai Babangida Aliyu. The women met with virtually all the principal actors in the logjam, including Governor Suntai and his wife, Mrs. Hauwa, as well as the wife of the acting governor, Hajia Umar. However, her husband was reportedly on an official assignment when the women came, but was said to have been in a constant touch with the emissaries.

At the peace meetings, which lasted several hours, it was learnt that Mrs. Suswam urged all the parties to the crisis to sheath their swords and work together in the interest of the people of the state. She was quoted as saying, “As women, we have been reading disturbing reports in the newspapers about the crisis in Taraba State. That is why we have come on behalf of the Northern Governors Wives Forum to show solidarity with our sisters, the wives of the Governor and that of the acting Governor and also encourage Taraba people to embrace peace. We are pleading with the feuding parties and loyalists of the two factions to come together and form a formidable force to move Taraba forward so that the negative reports we read in the papers about this peace loving state would come to an end.”

The women also pleaded with the leaders of the state to shun those they described as agents of destruction and disaffection, “creating estrangement between the governor and the acting governor so that love, peace, compassion for one another in the state will usher in the much desired peace and the people of Taraba will feel the impact of good governance and also rejoice.”

After series of meetings, the delegation departed the state with assurances from all the concerned parties that their motherly intervention in the crisis would not be in vain. Shortly after the departure of the women, a suit filed by some loyalists of Suntai against the acting governor was withdrawn. This was followed by a public declaration by the acting governor of his total loyalty to his ill boss, who on his part promised to work with Umar in an advisory capacity to ensure that the state occupied its pride of place in the scheme of things in the country.

Reacting to the mediation of NGWF, the Benue State chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Mr Baba Agan, an engineer, lauded what he described as the “bold move of the women,” adding that their intervention had led to the resolution of the Taraba imbroglio. In his opinion, the development has again brought to the fore the critical role Nigerian women have always played in critical issues concerning the well-being of our nation, especially in areas where the men folk had failed. “Perhaps if women had been given the opportunity to intervene in the Boko Haram menace we are today confronted with, we would have found a lasting solution to the crisis,”Agan stated.

Well done Mrs Suswam and others.

Source Tribune Newspaper