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Kano: Empty leadership, huge liability

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Abdullahi-Ganduje

Umar Haruna Doguwa

“We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren till she transformed us into beasts” – Patrick Henry

I was the pioneer elected All Progressives Congress (APC) party Chairman Kano State.

As Chairman, I organized, coordinated and spearheaded the processes and campaigns that brought Governor Ganduje to power in 2015.

It means I am well positioned to know all that has transpired before, during and after his emergence as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and as Governor.

My reasons for writing this piece today therefore are: First, I am duty bound to review and reflect on the promises and pledges we made to the good people of Kano State against the backdrop of darkness, occasioned by misgovernance enveloping Kano today.

Secondly, I write this as a True Musilm knowing fully well how all religions implore its followers to fulfill promises and pledges made by individuals or parties.

Thirdly, my reason is to echo the silent screaming of the hapless majority bearing the brunt of an inept leadership that in any case, they did not vote for.

Kwankwasiyya Ambassador

At his inauguration for a first term of office as Governor, Ganduje uttered the folllwing words: “I pledge to continue with the good works we started since the first tenure of our administration (1999-2003/2011-2015).

“There is no gain saying that the APC as a party and we as contestants in particular, gained tremendously from this colossal giant (Kwankwaso) whose monumental strides virtually obliterated the relevance of other parties in the State.

“I on behalf of all elected office holders therefore, assure you that we will continue to be good ambassadors of the Kwankwasiyya movement in the service of our dear State and the country at large”(Gov. Ganduje’s inaugural speech 2015, page 1 paragraphs 2).

This was the first reassurance that Governor Ganduje gave to the good people of Kano State.

This inaugural speech was the seal on all promises and pledges made by myself as chairman of the party (APC) and leader of the campaign tour on his behalf and Governor Ganduje (Then Deputy Governor and our party’s candidate) to Kano State electorates during our tour of the 44 Local Governments Area councils which was delivered a few minutes after he was administered to an OATH of office by the then Acting Chief Judge of the State with the Holy Quran.

This was watched and witnessed by thousands of good people of Kano, including myself standing next to him on the podium.

Born on 25th December, 1949 (Officially, on Christmas day), Governor Ganduje must have known the gravity of making promises, pledges and his subsequent physical swearing with Holy Quran and its consequences before making it.

I am particularly craving the indulgence of Kano citizens and Nigerians in general to read and re-read that inaugural speech of Gov. Ganduje in 2015 to see for themselves the many mouthwatering promises and pledges it contains, especially on the continuation of the “Excellent works started under the able leadership of the indefatigable leader Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso during his first and second tenure” as conspicuously stated by Gov. Ganduje in his inaugural speech 2015 page 2 paragraph 2, the promises of which he (Gov. Ganduje) has the power and resources to execute (if he’s willing to) as the Chief Executive Officer of Kano State.

Education on my mind

While reading and re-reading through the inaugural speech, one aspect that continuously caught my attention is Education. Obviously Education, because an ignorant man is doomed for poverty and the level of educational achievements made in the State by the Indefatigable Leader Engr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who bequeathed enduring and effective structures, from basic to tertiary levels, built solidly to stand the test of time.

The primary schools with well-structured schools feeding system that was envied by many States including the Federal Government, the two set of free uniforms to each primary schools pupil, the massive purchase of instructional materials, the thousands of additional new blocks built and equipped (an upstairs building that can be seen throughout the State known popularly as Kwankwassiya blocks), the regular training and re-training of teachers, the prompt payment of salaries on the 25th of every month, the recruitment of additional staff, the renovations of existing classroom blocks and offices through Community Re-orientation Committees (CRC), the re-introduction of boarding primary schools and the teacher: student ratio of 1:54 (source -Kano state school census data MOE 2014/2015) and many more.

The secondary schools also enjoyed that excellent strides from Kwankwaso’s purposeful administration were he built and equipped 100 new laboratories to WAEC and NECO standard, built four (4) mega secondary schools, apart from the many junior and senior secondary schools built across the state.

Additionally, he built houses for teachers in day secondary schools in most of the rural areas, provided large number of long luxurious buses that constantly convey girls to and from schools; specifically to encourage girl-child education which was applauded by world recognized NGO’s.

Also there was prompt payments of full salary every 25th day of the month, Car Loan for teachers, a teacher – student ratio of 1:31 in JSS and 1: 32 in SS ( source – Kano state school census data MOE 2014/2015) to mention just a few.

The tertiary education experienced a revolution, the conceptualization and actualization of two state owned universities; The Kano State University of Science and Technology Wudil and the Northwest University Kano, the establishment and maintenance of more than twenty additional new higher institutions; Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso College of Arts and Remedial Studies, Tudun Wada, College of Arts and Remedial Studies, Kunchi, Informatics Institute, Kura, Reformatory Institute, Kiru, Fisheries Institute, Bagauda, Horticulture Institute, Bagauda, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Madobi, to mention but a few.

He also Sponsored Kano State indigenes to various private universities at home and abroad based purely on merit for undergraduate and postgraduate studies respectively, which eventually placed Kano State among the States with highest number of Masters and PhD holders now.

He Improved infrastructure in all the existing tertiary institutions ; Audu Bako College of Agriculture , Dambatta, Aminu Kano College of Legal and Islamic Studies Kano, Kano State Polytechnic, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education Kumbotso, College of Arts and Remedial Studies, Kano.

The midas touch are verifiable.

There was prompt payment of Registration Fees for Kano State indigenes that got admission into The Nigerian Law Schools nationwide, least I forget, there was Total Free Education at all levels in the State.

Discontinuing the legacy

The Above picture and many more are what His Excellency Governor  Abdullahi Umar Ganduje inherited on the 29th of May 2015 as Governor of Kano State in Education sector alone and which he eloquently described in summary on page 2 of the inaugural speech as “excellent achievements”.

These achievements are what Governor Ganduje promised, pledged and sworn with the Holy Quran to continue with, listened to by the mammoth audience physically present and on radio.

He also was watched on YouTube, Television, Twitter etc worldwide by millions of people interested in the development of Kano State. As the saying goes, promises and pledges are meant to be kept, because broken promises are like broken mirrors.

They leave those who held to them bleeding and staring at broken images of themselves.

They (Promises and pledges made during the campaign) must therefore be looked into in comparison with the sad story that obtains now.

“I pledge to continue with the good works”. Curiosity,

I picked up my Oxford English Dictionary to find the real meaning of these words:

I: used by a speaker to refer to himself or herself

Pledge: (Noun) A solemn promise or undertaking. (Verb) Commit by solemn promise.

Continue: To persist in an activity or process.

Good: Having required qualities of high standards.

Work: 1)A task or tasks to be undertaken. 2) A thing or things done or made, the result of an action.

After going through these definitions and knowing fully well what is obtained now in Kano State from primary to tertiary institutions- the near non- existence of feeding program in primary schools, the cancellation of two sets of free uniforms to primary school pupils, the scarcity of instruction materials, the uncertainty of “full” salary even on the 30th of every month to teachers not to talk of car loans, the overcrowded classes with teacher-students ratio of 1:113 (Source – Kano MOE Schools Census Data 2018), the epileptic services of schools buses for girls where more than 60% of the vehicles were grounded over minor repairs, the overcrowded classes

with teacher-students ratio of 1:52 for JSS and 1: 42 for SS (Source – KMOE Schools Census Data 2018) which is below standard.

One may even be tempted to ask why I am using 2018 data when actually we are in 2020.

Well, that is the latest results available with the Government!

I seriously wonder which data do they use for planning!!!.

The monumental disaster of closing established schools e.g, School of Remedial Studies, Kunchi, the Corporate Security Institute, Gabasawa and many more, the cancellation of free education at all levels, in its place announcing the free and compulsory education program for Primary schools only after amassing 15Billion Naira “Education Development Loan”, the Primary education that was made free and compulsory nationwide by Olusegun Obasanjo the then Head of State as far back as 1976 through UPE is now being made free again in 2020 (laughable).

With all these in my mind, I begin to ask myself whether actually Governor Ganduje wanted to say in his inaugural speech (2015), “I pleadge to DISCONTINUE with the Good works”, Yes to discontinue, if not, how can an elderly man (71years old officially) fall short of keeping his promises and pledges made under oath willingly watched and listened to by millions worldwide, even as he has the means?

This I think, provides the missing link, as to why Kano people voted the way they did in 2019 Governorship Election.

This Government is not worth re-electing and majority of Kano citizens did not re-elect it, but it was imposed on us and we are allowed to bear the cross of its emptiness, which Kano citizens saw right on time, accounting for why they refused to vote for it.

Umar Haruna Doguwa is a PDP Kwankwasiyya stalwart in Kano state.

Opinion

Best Online Shopping in Nigeria: Your Ultimate Guide to Convenient Shopping

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If you’ve ever wondered where to experience the best online shopping in Nigeria, you’re not alone. The shift toward digital buying has transformed how Nigerians shop — from fashion and electronics to home appliances and groceries. One of the fastest-rising names leading this change is Nujora.ng, a trusted platform designed to make shopping easier, faster, and more rewarding for both buyers and local sellers.

 

 

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Why Nujora.ng Is Your Go-To Online Marketplace

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Final Thoughts

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Opinion

𝐊𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐨’𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐥

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Aliyu Isa Aliyu, Ph.D

 

During my time as the financial secretary of NNPP in Kano state and other political engagements, I saw clearly how many of the so-called fake Kwankwasiyya loyalists behaved. They always came with sweet promises, showing deep respect for Kwankwaso’s leadership and pretending to be his strongest disciples. They claimed they would defend the party’s ideology even with their lives. But the moment they got what they wanted, whether it was an election victory, recognition, or political favour, they slowly pulled away. Their loyalty was never to the Kwankwasiyya movement, but only to their own ambitions. Personally, I never regarded their loyalty, never praised them, and never wasted my time writing about them.

 

What surprised me most was Kwankwaso’s ability to take all of this without holding any grudges. Time and again, he welcomed them back whenever they were politically stranded. Instead of shutting them out, he gave them another chance, teaching us that leadership is not about revenge but about building bridges, even with those who once betrayed you. Many of us in the party leadership found it hard to understand this level of patience, but over time, I came to see it as part of what makes him a rare politician in Nigeria.

 

This same cycle has repeated itself in every election season. Politicians who abandoned kwankwasiyya the most critical times would always return in desperation, and Kwankwaso would open the doors again. For him, the bigger picture has always been the growth of the movement and the empowerment of the masses, not the small politics of exclusion. But from my own experience, I have seen both the strength and weakness of this approach. The strength is Kwankwaso’s unmatched generosity and forgiveness, but the weakness is the opportunism of those who treat leadership as a shortcut to power. In 2024, some of them worked tirelessly with all kinds of deceit just to secure tickets for their boys as local government chairmen, but thankfully Madugu Kwankwaso was firm and did not fall into their trap.

 

Now the time has come for our leader, Senator Kwankwaso, to reflect on his political generosity and take the right stand. It is better to lose an election with true loyalists than to win with those sabbatical politicians who only come for their selfish gains. Nobody can deny that they contributed to NNPP’s growth in Kano, but the truth is that the sacrifices Kwankwaso made for them are far greater than what they have done for him or the movement. Before their defection to NNPP in 2022, there were committed people already vying for those positions, but they were pleaded to step down and hand over the tickets for free. You cannot build a political movement with people who carry two faces. In politics, you are either here or there; there is no middle ground. Kwankwasiyya is not only about winning elections, it is also about discipline and sacrifice. We won clearly in 2019 before the election was declared inconclusive, and we still won in 2023 despite the odds. If Almighty Allah has destined our victory in 2027, no betrayal can stop it, no matter who leaves Kwankwasiyya.

 

– Aliyu Isa Aliyu, Ph.D

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Opinion

A reply to Dan’uwa Rano’s from makafi to awakai: the display of blind plotics and political idolatry 

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Ibrahim Bello-Kano           

I’ve read Danuwa Rano’s post as a trained and professional critic of prose works, both fictional and non-fictional (the kind of writing in which the writer and the narrator are the same person, and in which there is a direct mode of address to the purported reader of the writing, the text). Thus, my response to this post, shared on this platform, is three-fold. 

1. The writer, Danuwa Rano, is a well-known member or sympathiser of the APC in Kano and a supporter of an aspiring APC candidate for the position of the Gov. of Kano State, despite his critical yet digressive comment on the Gov of Jigawa, Namadi, Abubakar Rimi, and Aminu Kano, to cite just those three. In my academic field, we train our students in the literary criticism of non-fictional texts to look for the writer’s MOTIVE for writing. Usually, in this kind of writing, the writer does not reveal his motive (which is usually hidden) for writing directly but takes detours, digressions, and other textual strategies of establishing some nuggets of “authenticity”. Just a ploy to deceive the unsuspecting or the gullible reeader, to say the least. If and where the writer is well known, we also seek to read his previous works, including his podcasts, interviews, or open attitudinal-ideological stance in relation to public discourse.

2. We also probe the text for its linguistic “unsaids” or “non-saids”, namely its TONE and the perspectival presentation of events and people (we call this reading or interpretive strategy “symptomatic reading”). It’s interesting that the writer himself reveals that his text was inspired by a previous one critical of Kwankwaso and the Kwankwasiyya movement, written by Auwal Anwar.

3. After a thinly veiled ideological bad faith on the part of Danuwa Rano, he delves into a moralistic discourse, namely that God/Allah has created human beings with dignity and with self-worth, higher than those of the animals such as “goats”; and much more integrative than the blind (“makafi”). But Danuwa Rano is clearly not very educated in how language, in this case Hausa and English, work. In language, in Hausa, we call or regard someone that is a maestro, a highly gifted person, in any vocation or an endeavor, as, or by describing him as “shege” or “maye” in or about something that we admire or value (masterly). Why is that? Language has both DENOTATION and CONNOTATION. In any Hausa dictionary, the denotation of “Shege” would be “bastard” (illegitimate within the marriage-kinship and cultural system). But when used in the context of connotation, “Shege” describes someone with admirable skills, in appreciation of his or her skills, mastery, and distinguished capacities. Alas, this is what Danuwa Rano has missed. So, in every linguistic comminity, symbolism, figuration, and emblematic descriptions are never far away from the symbolic sphere of experience. Here’s another example from the English language. Expressions such as “evil genius” and the Latinate “maestro” exist because symbolisation or figural descriptions are creative, a way of coming into the undecidable space of appreciation and appropriation, including the anxiety about what we denote in the cultural-linguistic game, and in our unconscious.

4. Rather bizarrely and crudely, perhaps even maliciously, Danuwa Rano fails to see, blinded by his ideological moralism, that whenever the Kwankwasiyya people call themselves “makafi” and “awaki” they are, in fact, ENGAGING IN the SYMBOLIC PARODY of their opponents, that is, those who criticise them for being resolute and committed political agents in a certain way. To borrow a metaphor from Michel Foucault, it is the Kwankwasiyya people’s way of “self-presentation” in the political and democratic arena. Indeed, it was the same process at work when the British Workers called themselves “Chartists” (based on their Charter of Demands). But we know that a group of human beings cannot be a List or a Charter. Rather, in language, any group can identify with a colour (“Red” for communists and Marxists; Green for Muslims; or with emblems (the Crescent Moon, The Cross, or the Hammer and Sickle, or just an Effigy; a country’s or a state’s “coat of arms”). Should we assume, then, that the Kwankwasiyya followers are physically, intellectually, or ideologically blind? But if they were, they would not work for someone, Senator Kwankwaso (RMK), that they couldn’t have literally “seen”.

5. Danuwa Rano is such a poor writer, such a poorly educated person on how language and symbolisation actually work, that he mistook a figural statement as intransitively real and factual. What a pity! In fact, I am tempted here to cite the famous argument of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, that language as such is only a doxa (opinion) rather than (a) truth (episteme). In this view, language is a kind of rhetoric and thus inherently rhetorical. For example, in the Hausa “Kirari” system, any one can call themselves a lion, a mouse, an elephant, or even a fox, or even, indeed, a “merciless killer”, one who does not and would not spare his enemies. I recall, in my youth, my father admiringly calling my mother “uwar garke” (“the mother of the herd”, his herd) but does that mean she was a cow, the female head of a herd of cows? Certainly not!

6. It is a mark of Danuwa Rano’s ideological project that he mistakes linguistic and symbolic parody for the literal thing. Hence, his weak, unconvincing, and flat moralistic attacks on RMK and the Kwankwasiyya people. The latter are saying that they are deeply committed to their political projects, that they are not the typical political opportunists, fortune chasers, and the “fair weather people” that one finds in the Kano APC. In addition, the Kwankwasiyya “Makafi” are also saying that they see clearly where their principled allegiance lies.

7. If Danuwa Rano were a careful, perceptive thinker or writer of political innuendo, he would have seen something prevalent in the history of Kano since the 18th century, namely the tradition of following religious, sectoral leaders, as seen in the mass of committed followers in Kano of the Tariqa, the Shia, and the Izala, to mention just those three. It’s hard not to find a Kano man or woman that is not openly oriented to those three groups.

8. It is, without a doubt, the same temperament that one still finds in the secular political sphere in Kano. Expecting otherwise in the political sphere of the community is either short-sighted or willful blindness or sheer ignorance, all all three. Or, one might ignore all this in furtherance of his un-stated ideological-political agenda.

9. Let me reiterate a point that I have always argued in public: Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is, without a doubt, a veritable political leader for many reasons. There is not one politician in Kano today who has the deep and wide charisma as to draw a huge crowd of enthusiastic supporters, with the charm and grace that can score, or in fact has scored, over one million votes in Kano State in the elections. His party’s candidate for Governor scored well over a million votes in the 2023 elections. Even Tinubu lost in Lagos in the 2023 elections (only scored anout 600, 000 votes). For that reason and many others (RMK’s cosmic patience, personal Promesean and Sysipusian endurance, his political sagacity and capacity for brilliant and moving political oratory— the “Ma-a-ha chant”), he is the target of disgruntled enemies, the object of deep malice but that is obscured or hidden as “objective analysis”.

10. But hate him or love him, despite Kwankwasiyya movement or not, one must accept that RMK is simply the modern expression of the new politics that is gripping the imagination of young people and that of perceptive, politically committed intellectuals, those who know what is at stake in the political future of Kano State and Nigeria as a whole.

11. Imagine a political leader, the one whose previously opportunistic followers had deserted when he left office, the man who stayed out of power and elective office for eight years, the man who founded a political party within eight months to the national elections, and yet him and his party swept the board, won virtually all the elective offices, including the Govenorship. I daresay such a man, RMK, is naturally the target of malice, envy, and bruised political egos. Danuwa Rano’s virtuperations on RMK and the Kwankwasiyya movement is one more example of crudely malicious, badly conceived, poorly written attacks on modern Kano’s most successful person and his movement.

Ibrahim Bello-Kano.

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