By Hon. Umar Haruna Doguwa

Reputation management does not start and end at making someone popular, but protecting his or her personal integrity in the eyes of the public.

Many scholars in the field of sociology and communication have taken their time to explain the complexity of human perception as it relates to how people develop and maintain a mindset of other fellow human beings.

I have decided to take this bold step to publish this write-up on the ongoing fight against the global pandemic disease of corona virus also known as covid-19 with a sole aim of explaining the shallow approach given by Kano state governor Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

I am eminently qualified to speak on the governor as his former colleague when both of us served as commissioners during Kwankwaso’s administration and I am one of the key figures that brought in his administration in 2015 under the platform of All Progressive People’s Congress being the pioneer elected chairman of the party in Kano state between 2014 and 2017.

So I have worked closely with Governor Ganduje more than many politicians within the state.

Let me begin by extending my heartfelt condolences to the good people of Kano who lost their loved ones due to the corona virus pandemic in the state.

I have decided to put down this piece of write up as Kano has became the epicenter of covid-19 disease in northern Nigeria, unlike other state governors who have been up and running, providing the preliminary tools/equipment in preparation of the arrival of the pandemic into their states, Governor Ganduje has shown a deliberate nonchalant attitude towards fighting the disease at the state level.

The governor rather, saw the pandemic as a window of opportunity to garner resources for a reason best known to him, strategically, Ganduje set up a shadow structure, looking beautifully upright and ahead of the arrival of the pandemic, appointing his deputy as the head of Covid-19 State Response Team with his first daughter Dr. Amina Ganduje as the defector technical lead of the team.

I have been reliably informed that the activities of the committee depend largely on what the governor’s daughter consented upon, the meeting proceedings were nothing other than observing what Dr. Amina Ganduje has interest on, sometimes, meetings cannot hold if she is not available and she is the one briefing the governor on every activity of the committee.

Probably, because of this nepotism and self-centredness, scores of frontline health workers are currently infected by the covid-19 disease in Kano.

One can easily perceive an agenda, knowing well who Governor Ganduje is, it is predictable that it’s the business as usual but not doing the needful for the fight against covid-19 in the state.

As an administrator, Governor Ganduje knows the constitutional ways to harness resources internally through budget virement that is as simply done through a letter to the state assembly requesting change of some line items in the fiscal document to allow insertion of new items that can cater for the activities of corona virus.

Instead, the governor decided to pursue the federal government to give him N15b.

Unfortunately, his reputation has kicked the bucket in the public glare, the federal mercy he enjoyed to rig election and manipulate the judiciary to scale through the daylight robbery of the 2019 elections is no longer of help to him this season.

He constituted a fundraising committee, in good time, but the potential donors prefer to contribute in kind because of the governor’s previous records and bad reputation of handling state resources.

There is a popular Hausa proverb that says “Ba a bawa Kura ajiyar nama” meaning “meat is not safe at the hand of a carnivore”.

It is not a surprise that the fund raising committee could not yet announce the total amount realized, because potential donors were afraid to give in cash.

Umar Doguwa writes from Kano, Nigeria