Historically, tribunes were those officials in the Roman Empire period that were elected specifically to agitate for the rights of the ordinary marginalized sections of society and they pursued their mandate with all sense of resolve, tenacity and utmost independence from the Roman authorities. However the philosophy and practice of tribuneship did not end with the imperial Roman era as can be seen in the Nigerian political area where doughty, principled and articulate leaders, politicians and personalities have emerged as standard bearers for the inalienable right, welfare and well being of the under privileged, and the dispossessed of society. On 2011, with the inauguration of the 7th House of Representatives, Hon. Aliyu Gebi emerged fortuitously along with other New Age Democrats to champion the worthy cause of those that unrestrained capitalism and the pursuit of crass materialism have driven to the margins of society. As a Honourable Member representing the stoic and hard working people of Bauchi federal constituency under the banner of the recently formed Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Hon. Aliyu Gebi was adamant that the time had come for the people’s voice to be heard, their dignity restored and their welfare and wellbeing put squarely at the front burner of national, regional and global discourse as the case may be. While other compromised politicians and elected public office holders were talking from both sides of their mouth, preferring to run with the hares while also hunting with the hounds, a forthright Hon Aliyu Gebi who also held forth as Chairman, House Committee on Internal Security was unequivocal that the hour of judgment had come. Hear him: I am here to restore the dignity of my people because over the years, their dignity has been collectively eroded by misrepresentation, misdirection and political tyranny of a few people belonging to certain affiliations, my agenda is to rebuild a fragmented society, to give confidence to a disenfranchised people, we must give power back to the people. My mandate is clear, the covenant I have entered with the people is the covenant I have entered too with our creator, God. We are not a nation or state or constituency of beggars, we have pride, through our dignity has been eroded, we want our dignity to be restored meaning that we want to make sure that people who want to go back to school, do so and those people who want to stay back and take care of the home do so to’. Hon Aliyu Gebi’s particular emphasis on educational attainment in his epochal speech were no mere platitudes or sloganeering as he placed the pursuit of academic excellence at a high premium and to this end, a key plank of his political desiderata is the One Child, One Computer concept meaning that secondary and tertiary institutions within his constituency would be supplied with computers at his own personal expense so that computer literacy and adeptness would be the key attribute of all students within his constituency. Marrying principle with practice, and action-oriented Hon Aliyu Gebi supplied thousands of computers to Tafawa Balawa University Bauchi, Federal Polytechnic Bauchi, Bauchi State Polytechnic, Government Secondary School, Bauchi and Unity College, Bauchi while he constructed state of the art ICT centers at the Federal Polytechnic and Government Secondary School, Bauchi in his noble belief that all students must have access to computers and consequently acquire hi-tech computer skills.
Apart from intervening in the critical educational arena a multi-tasking Hon Aliyu Gebi has also embedded landmarks in the road construction, water borehole power supply, health care, agricultural, manpower development and women and youth empowerment sectors as he has initiated numerous self-employment schemes that has raised the living standards of the holloi polloi thus attracting widespread support and admiration from indigenes and settlers alike in his federal constituency. Indeed Hon. Aliyu Gebi’s support base cuts across all major strata of society be it the poor, the professionals, the students, artisans, market women, the upwardly mobile youths and widely across all linguistic, cultural, religious, ethnic and sectional barriers, without doubt, he is a veritable Man of the People. For instance when the contentious minimum wages issue reared it’s tempestuous head in 2011, an populist Hon. Aliyu Gebi irrevocably cast his lot with the embattled Nigerian worker arguing that the 36 state governments should devices creative wages of paying the N18,000 minimum emolument: ‘You see we are back to what I said before, social injustice. This is something we have debated on the floor of the house. We said government should pay, F.G. states please pay. These people’s demands are not crazy, they are not outrageous. N18,000 minimum wage is not too much, yet some banks are saying minimum deposit is N25,000, this amount (N18,000) is insignificant. I participated in the debate and I said our governors are very intelligent, creative people. If they really want to pay, they can find some creative way of doing some magic, let them pay for the love of God, for the love of the Nigeria nation’ an impassioned Hon Gebi demanded
As Deputy Chairman, ECOWAS Committee on Trade, Customs and Free Movement of Persons, Hon Aliyu Gebi was in the forefront of advocates for fair and equitably policies for all nations and nationalities in the sub- region and he stoutly challenged any attempt at short changing Nigeria or any other country for that matter, arguing succinctly that what was good for the goose, was also sauce for the gander. When the Ghanaian government imposed a mandatory 3,000 dollar deposit for Nigerians doing business in Ghana, Hon Aliyu Gebi led a delegation that included Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and several other parliamentarians that held talks with the Ghanaian side that led to the abrogation of the policy. Indeed Hon Aliyu Gebi sterling credentials as an indomitable and indefatigable defender of the enshrined rights of the dispossessed, the disenfranchised, the disinherited and the distressed of society continue to be burnished and illuminated as the month and years go by.
– Alhassan, a human right activist sent in this piece from Bauchi