DSK: MAN OF THE YEAR
Chief David Sabo Kente has won the hearts of many people in Taraba State for the good things that he is doing. This impeccable record of performance, as resonated from the findings of our reporters, has earned him the NewMission Magazine rating as the Taraba State’s Man of the year, 2020. Williams Ayooso reviews his impact on the state’s socio-economic space.
The bad economic situation in Nigeria is continuously taking a toll on the people, even as economic pundits predict a clampdown on the low income population in no distant time.But some individuals are working assiduously to ensure that such a calamity does not befall their people. One of such persons is Chief David Sabo Kente, a Taraba State born business mogul and technocrat.
He is a protagonist of capacity building and entrepreneurial skills development to the vulnerable class, especially the youths and women. To facilitate the smooth sail of this ideology, he has set up a DSK Foundation, which is now a platform of not only removing the not-privileged people from the pit of obscurity, but strengthening the capacity of their aspirations. With this strategy that underpins the goals of the hopes of the people, Kente has interjected the shortchanging wiles of the upper class. Like a colossus, the impact of his intervention programme has bestridden the socio-economic space of Taraba State.
DSK Foundation is one out of the five authorized training Institutes recognized by NASA for trainings on skill acquisition in Taraba State. Kano state, for example, has over 700 of such platforms. What a successful man he is. But he is yet to find fulfilment in life.
“I thank God for what I am and where God is taking me to. But what does a man gain in the midst of plenty when you are in the midst of people that did not even have? I have excess food in my house. I have enough water in all my guest houses in this town. If you get to my village and turn a tap, water is constant. So at the micro level, I am contented. But at the state level, I imagined how people are passing through pains.
“I got to Sabon Gari the last visit I had in Jalingo, I felt so bad about what I saw. A lot of Tarabans are in pains. Where I get fully satisfied is when I have an opportunity to put smile in the faces of those who are in hardships.” He told our reporter in an exclusive chat recently.
But the sustenance and expansion of the capacity building project as an umbrella of hope for the entire people of Taraba remains Chief Kente’s major challenge; as this can only be achieved through the instrumentality of government. That is why he has stepped up his desire to be the governor of the state.
“That is what is taking me to politics. Otherwise, as an Ibo man, for that is how they call me, I don’t think I have anything to do with Taraba other than coming to do my best to ensure that I uplift my standard of living because I know, God has taken me to a level that I should be grateful to him and humble myself.” He told our reporters.
Getting to the driving seat of the state policy, where he can redirect the resources to the common benefit of Tarabans has posed a challenge for the philanthropists. Twice, he has tried, and twice he has had his feats trapped by the antics of some typical politicians. But the struggle continues. The dream of making Taraba State a better place cannot be suppressed by mere thumb twisting and class conspiracy against him by desperate politicians. However it is the choice of the Taraba people. They can choose whether to go to the promise land or remain in Egypt.
The technology lies with Tarabans. Once Tarabans knows that they have been bamboozled in the past with words rather than action, the onus is now on them to look around and look at sons and daughters of the state and bring out the ones that can put smiles on the faces of Tarabans and bring them to bear.” He said.
Aside politics and human capacity building strides, Chief has set pace in many areas of human reckoning. He has demystified the culture of survival that is tied on the apron of the government funds. He is an example of how to reach the pinnacle of economic success through entrepreneurial drive. He has proven that hard-work and resilience pays. He has proven that you must not originate from the Dangotes and the Odetolas of Nigeria to hit the dice of your economic target. He has shown the Nigerian people that one most not be a Senator, House of Reps member, or any political office to be rich.
“I had been in the government service and have retired about six or seven years ago. When I retired people were saying oh! He had retired, he is finished! But you see when I was out there; I even did much better before my recent appointment into the Board Member of the NEDC about seven years ago. The six or seven years that I have been out of the government, I have been able to put quite a lot of things together….” He revealed.
That is the spirit. Chief Kente has the love of his community flowing in his veins. His investments bestride the economic space of Nigeria spanning across some countries in Africa. Yet, he had huge investments in the state, with a greater concentration to Wukari his home town. However, those investments, which manifests in modern, exotic structures, are there to sharpen the potency of his social development initiative to the people of the state.
Again, he is Taraba’s only personality with a social visibility that cuts across the three zones in the state. How did he achieve this? He told our reporter:
“I spent much of my life in Tararba State, in Jalingo most especially. So people in the Northern Zone know me very well. In the Central Zone too, I spent sometime in the Mambila Plateau when I was with the state Agricultural Development Programme… Some of them are regional politicians running from Local Government Chairmen from House of Assembly to House of Representative. But I am a state politician not a regional politician so of course I should have supporters from across all the regions.”
With these attributes, Chief David Sabo Kente has won the hearts of many people in Taraba State. To the assessment of NewMission magazine as resonated from the people, he is the man of the year, 2020.
He has a message for Tarabans:
“They should try as much as possible to live in peace with one another. How do we live in peace? We should try as much as possible to be fair to everybody that resides in the state. The issue of religion and tribalism must be down played and even the issue of the region that we are experiencing should be down played as much as possible. Let all Tarabans live as one indivisible family and with the cohesiveness, we can go places.
“My second message is that Tarabans should exercise care and be very careful in selecting the next batch of their leaders. Because the only mistake we make on an election day last for a period of four or even eight years. So we should exercise restraints and care in selecting our next leaders because of the bad experiences we had as a result of the haphazard selection we did in the past. We should base our selection processes on capacity rather than religion and tribalism.” He said.
