Fall of Kwankwasiyya in Kano politics

“Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso does not want any other person to shine. I know Kwankwaso more than any other person. He is a kind of person that knows everything, knows better than any other person and who is self-centred. Whatever this man asks you to do or to pursue will be for his own benefit not yours. “I know all his political tricks, deceptiveness and doggedness but I endured him for all the years we were together. He will never appreciate you for whatever you did to him, be it big or small. When we contested election in 1999, ‘Wallahi’, I was his boss because I paid for his political posters and mobilised people for him from all the 44 local governments of Kano state. In fact, Kwankwaso did not win the primary election in 1999, I won the election, but we were reconciled” – Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Governor of Kano state. 

This is a testimony from the horse’s mouth and a proof of what many say of RMK as self-centred. Having worked closely as RMK’s deputy whatever Kadimul Islam says about Kwankwaso cannot be disputed. The duo, however, drew the battle line shortly after RMK handed over to Ganduje on May 29, 2015. Kwankwaso’s alleged quest to control Kano government house from Abuja and Ganduje’s reported resistance to godfatherism, snowballed into a deep-rooted political rivalry, which made Kwankwaso to dump APC and return to PDP while vowing to ensure that Ganduje is voted out of power in 2019.

Even at the peak of their tussle, Ganduje remained focused on delivering democracy dividends to Kano people. He has not only kept faith to his promise of continuing the projects and policies of his predecessor, but has moved on to conceptualisation and consolidation of his own projects and policies. Kwankwaso is deluded by his rise to political limelight and his rabid followers do not help matters as they spurn a myth around him that he wears shoes made of metal and could step on the toes of all – the mighty and the not-so-mighty. He is even presumed to be undefeatable: he can do and undo, he can make or mar, he can give power to whomsoever he wishes and wrest power from whomsoever he wishes. Kwankwasiyya has now crumbled like a pack of cards and the domino effect will extend to his remaining supporters.

Out of his tricks at making Ganduje administration a failure, over N350 billion debt was left by   Kwankwaso administration. The debt cuts across contracts for uncompleted flyovers, roads, and the controversial foreign and local scholarship scheme. This is not to count the ordinary citizens, civil servants and pensioners who suffered varied indignity during his second tenure between 2011 and 2015. Madugu borrowed N4.161 billion from the pension fund to build Bandirawo and Amana Housing Estates and Ganduje’s government is still paying the debt.  

As it is, power intoxication pushed Sen. Kwankwaso to dare Ganduje. As the saying goes one reaps what he sows, everyone knows that Malam Musa Gwadabe and Senator Hamisu Musa are Kwankwaso’s political godfathers before they parted ways after Kwankwaso realised his political ambition. Dauda Dangalan, the late Muhammad Abubakar Rimi and even some nondescript but rising politicians sacrificed their time and resources for his political glory only to be discarded. Those who closely follow the political antics of Kwankwaso, know that he revels in the political misfortune of others and can go to any length to dig a deep hole for his perceived enemies. Kwankwaso cajoled the former deputy governor of Prof Hafiz Abubakar to resign on the promise he would give him the gubernatorial ticket of the main opposition party only to pick his anointed son-in-law who is well-known as a puppet.

Political observers opine that Kwankwaso takes his political associates of over 20 years for granted and thinks he can do and undo. He recently granted an interview aired by many radio stations in Kano in response to Ganduje’s outburst while receiving PDP chairman and a leader of Kwankwasiyya, Rabiu Bichi, and other members at government house. Kwankwaso tried to identify himself as a defender of traditional institution whereas people will not forgot when he led the state from 2011-2015. The same traditional institution has not been spared from his sharp tongue and disrespect and what is more painful is that his blind followers see nothing wrong in what he does. The business community in the state bore the brunt of Kwankwaso’s mischief as his policies while at the helm of affairs retarded commercial activities rather than promoting commerce for which Kano has been well-known since time immemorial. So it is laughable now that Madugu has turned defender of traditional institution. .

Ganduje is now in total control of the state’s political space. The 2019 gubernatorial and rerun elections have shown that the touted strong political base of Kwankwaso as majorly constituted by the youth is nothing but a shaky foundation on which the house of Kwankwasiyya has been built. “If you want to dig a hole of mischief, make it shallow for you may be the one that will fall in it”. Now RMK is in political eclipse. In the whole twists and turns, Ganduje appears to be consolidating his political base.

Dukawa, a journalist, writes via [email protected].

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