As voters in Kano State head for the poll to elect their governor for the next four years, ANDREW ESSIEN writes on the fierce battle between the two dominant parties in the state vis-a-vis their strengths and weaknesses.
The race for who presides over the affairs in Kano State Government House has always been keenly contested by gladiators in the state from the First Republic. The strategic location and cosmopolitan nature of the ancient city makes political activities there highly vivacious and unpredictable as anything could happen at any time to tilt the political pendulum either way.
As it stands today, the front-runner parties for the gubernatorial election are the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the stakes could not have been higher. On the surface, the race seems predictable and even easy but the realities on ground are different depending on the perculiar perspective from which an analysis is being done.
At one level, a school of thought posits that the APC will, with a very wide margin, traunce the opposition to retain the governance of the state, just as it did in 2015 with considerable ease.
To this school of thought, several factors support this point of view. Undoubtedly, Kano is majorly an APC state, while recognising the well-known fact that President Muhammadu Buhari is well received and loved by the people of Kano and this will have direct bearing on the political fortunes of whoever is the APC’s standard bearer in Saturday’s election.
Another factor is that, with the almost 1.5 million votes garnered by the APC for President Buhari in the last presidential poll as against PDP’s almost 400,000 votes, those sympathetic to the party are quick to say that the high figure is an endorsement of the party and its candidate by the ordinary people in the state.
To narrow it down even the more, the governorship candidate of the APC and incumbent governor, Dr Umar Ganduje polled over 2.7 million party votes in the primary election that produced him the APC governorship candidate. Votes that can ordinarily give him a comfortable lead in the contest. This, the party is quick to point out that the man is on ground and at home with the populace.
The party is also quick to remind the citizens of the Kano about the current government’s giant strides in education, health, empowerment and infrastructural sectors which, they insist, are being felt across the length and breadth of the state.
To buttress this point, the party leverages on its performance at the presidential and National Assembly polls where it literally swept all the 3 senatorial seats and the 24 House of Reps slots as indicative of future victories to come.
Again, the APC chaired by Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, a prince of the Kano Emirate and a force to reckon with in the politics of Kano state.
Another factor working in favour of the party in the state and of important mention is the influence of some key personage and actors on Kano voters. One of such notable of these personalities is President Buhari, who is seen by many in Kano state as a messiah of the poor plus the huge advantage of the factor of incumbency.
As it stands, the APC has two former governors, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and Senator Kabiru Gaya who have secured senatorial seats for Kano Central and Kano South respectively. This has added value to its quest no doubt.
Read Also:
For APC, it will be an herculean task for any other political party to dislodge the present political structure and setting. Such political party would have to come from another world, and such does not exist.
On the flip side, at a time the thinking was that Kano had all the indices of a battleground state. This line of thought was hinged on the political calculation that the combination of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a formidable former governor of the state and the factor of another former governor, Ibrahim Shekarau were enough to check the combined arsenals of President Buhari and Governor Ganduje.
However, many waters have since gone under the bridge and the PDP in Kano State has since fell from its vantage position, analysts averred.
Until recently, the PDP bolstered the face of a serious contender for the seat of government and a formidable political party in the state. That was shortly after the party’s headquarters in Abuja conceived and executed the defection of the former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his followers to the party.
It is believed that the failure of the party to successfully manage the coming together of two political gladiators – Kwankwaso and Shekarau – led to the reversal of the party’s fortunes as the latter returned to APC.
As if that was not enough, the PDP again relapsed in another dispute largely from the conduct of the governorship primary election allegedly highjacked by a faction of the party.
The contest produced about six governorship aspirants at a go. They are the former governorship candidate of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP), Alhaji Ibrahim al Amin Litte, a one-time aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Akilu Indabawa and a former governorship candidate of the PDP in the state in 2015, Alhaji Sagir Takai,
Others are a one-time managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Alhaji Aminu Dabo, a relative of Ambassador Aminu Wali, Alhaji Sadiq Wali, a young activist, Alhaji Jafar Bello and Alhaji Abba Kabiru Yusuf, who is a former Commissioner of Works in the state under Governor Kwankwaso.
Crisis erupted in the party after a clandestine meeting held in Kaduna and rooted for Alhaji Abba Kabiru Yusuf as the choice of a faction of the party faithful for 2019 gubernatorial election. His choice was roundly rejected by the stakeholders of the party. This singular decision displeased so many, who refused to buy into the explanation that his choice was informed by “competence.”
The resultant consequence was that many leading members of the PDP, such as Professor Hafiz Abubakar and Alhaji Sagir Takai went their separate ways.
They first moved to some other factions of the party in the state, from where they together demanded for the conduct of a fresh and transparent governorship primary election by the PDP. When that did not work, they resigned their membership of the party.
Ahmed Usman, a political analyst, will however caution that “Until it is over, it is never wise to say it is over” insisting that, “It is too early to give a verdict on what the future holds for the state.”
In the final analysis, the people of Kano will have the opportunity to decide who governs them until 2023. They must seize the opportunity with both hands and make the choice that is set before them. The delicate peace and security of the state hang in the balance and with the strategic location and importance of the state, nothing must be left to chance.
