Gombe State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Jamil Isyaku Gwamna, is ready to participate in any debate with other candidates ahead of the 2027 election, his spokesman, Ibrahim Sani Shawai, has said.

Shawai, in a statement, welcomed calls for an open debate among governorship candidates, saying Gwamna was prepared to engage other contenders “any day, any time” on issues concerning the development of the state.

He, however, said the debate should focus on concrete issues and verifiable records rather than accusations and campaign rhetoric.

“Leadership is bigger than a debate, endless talk, baseless accusations, lies and propaganda. Politics and governance are not an endless contest of words. Leadership is about people, relationships, capacity, experience, institutions and results,” Shawai said.

He said Gwamna had spent more than two decades building relationships across Gombe State and beyond, while investing in people and developing political and professional networks in the public and private sectors.

According to him, the proposed debate should allow candidates to present their records and explain what they had achieved with opportunities previously available to them.

Shawai listed human capital development, employment, education, healthcare, agriculture, water, infrastructure, investment, industrialisation, youth development and women empowerment among issues that should feature in the debate.

He challenged other candidates to account for what they had done in areas including employment, citing what he described as more than 1,800 jobs created for Gombe indigenes at KEDCO and KAEDCO and over 1,000 opportunities at the Gombe State Water Board.

He also cited scholarships, support for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and youth and women empowerment initiatives as areas that could be subjected to public scrutiny.

Shawai said Gwamna’s proposed development agenda was anchored on continuity, sustainability, consolidation and expansion of what he described as the development gains of Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s administration.

He noted that the state already had a 10-year development framework under Yahaya, arguing that a change of administration should not automatically result in the abandonment of existing programmes and projects.

According to him, governance should be treated as a continuum, with sustained policies rather than repeated cycles of abandoning and restarting development programmes.

He challenged other candidates to come to the debate with verifiable records and concrete plans.

“Let us put the records on the table. Let us debate records, not rhetoric; impact, not propaganda; people, not promises,” he said.

Shawai reiterated that Gwamna was ready to participate in any debate, saying the APC candidate would present his record, vision and plans for the future of Gombe State.

“Dr Jamil Isyaku Gwamna is ready. Any day. Any time,” he said.