Kwankwaso Forgets History: How Kano Once Voted Him Out Of Office And Chose Shekarau, ‘A Man Without Structure’
The Oasis Reporters
July 6, 2022
By Greg Abolo
In a recent interview granted by Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso on ChannelsTV where he clearly overrated himself has become another reminder that there are politicians who aim at sophistry to keep themselves in relevance even if it makes the concept of one Nigeria, a huge fallacy.
According to Harvard trained lawyer Victoria Ibezim Ohaeri, “Kwakwanso succeeded in convincing naysayers that northerners believe only in the north, northerners and northern Nigeria. Not that this is not widely known, but saying it so haughtily on national TV removed all the doubt that he is a small-minded, extremely retrogressive politician of the old order who is totally incapable of repairing the extensive damage Buhari inflicted on national unity. Someone with that sort of very low intellect and limited exposure is not the kind of leader Nigeria needs in the 21st century”.
Falling into the baseless temptation of
overrating himself like Kwakwanso did by saying Northerners won’t vote Peter Obi for President because of Biafra agitations in the South-East during an interview on Channels TV on Sunday, he further asserted that the northern electorate believes in one Nigeria and will always vote for northern presidential candidates.
From left: Peter Obi, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
But that is evidently a lie going by history.
Take the June 12, 1994 election for example, two presidential candidates, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, incidentally a Kano citizen resident in Kano was on the ballot for the National Republican Convention (NRC) while Lagos resident and indigene of Abeokuta in the South West, Chief MKO Abiola flew the Social Democratic Party (SDP) flag.
At the end of voting in Nigeria’s best known free and fair election, Abiola defeated Tofa hands down, even in Kano State, inclusive of Tofa’s polling area. That was a clear sign of the maturity of Kano voters who do not care where you come from as long as you can deliver democracy dividends.
Yet the former governor of Kano State and presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso clearly forgets history.
Curiously, Kwankwaso conveniently forgets his own case history. At the onset of the third republic in 1999, Kwankwaso was elected governor of the populous state of Kano. While he tried to work hard for his state, he inadvertently exhibited traces of undue arrogance and mindless pride. Despite state power and financial wherewithal, a challenger, Ibrahim Shekarau who Kwankwaso demoted as permanent secretary to the position of Classroom teacher, threw his hat into the ring as opposition candidate.
Shekarau had no money like Kwankwaso. He could not afford to even print posters to advertise his candidacy. The ordinary masses campaigned for him by writing his name on stones, walls, paper etc with chalk and charcoal besides finely printed Kwankwaso’s campaign posters. Shekarau did not give anybody “shishi” (bribe). Yet the votes were massive. Kwankwaso suffered a humiliating defeat. Despite his ethnic politics reminding Kano voters that Shekarau was ethnically of the Baburr tribe or as some said, Kanuri from Nguru in Bornu/ Yobe axis, the voters scoffed at Kwankwaso and handed him a clear defeat. Such that the defeated sitting governor became Nigeria’s first politician to ever concede defeat publicly when he congratulated Shekarau.
To compensate him, then President Olusegun Obasanjo made him the defence minister in his second tenure.
Shekarau, despite being a non conventional politician went on to govern for two consecutive tenures. It was only after eight years that Kwankwaso was brought back by the people to do another four years and his gait and visage showed that he had become sober and more humble. Kano shows the strength of independent mindedness in politics, and after Kwankwaso’s final four years, the state was once again handed over to his estranged deputy who decamped and joined the opposition APC and remains the governor till date when he will complete his tenure in 2023.
Thus what is Kwankwaso really saying via all the grandstanding he exhibited during his interview?
He said northerners won’t vote for the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Peter Obi due to the secession agitation in South-East Nigeria.
According to Kwankwaso during an interview on Channels TV on Sunday, the northern electorate believes in one Nigeria and will always vote for northern presidential candidates. But was MKO Abiola a northerner?
The answer is no.
Kwankawso said, “Unfortunately, there are many issues in the South-East, and a northern voter is the worst-hit in this issue of maladministration in this country.
“But even under that circumstance, a northern voter also believes that he is better with one united Nigeria.
“Therefore, most of the things that are happening in the South, especially in the South-East; people are not comfortable with that and as long as you have somebody from there (South-East) in any party, it will be very difficult for the northern voters to vote, and that’s the situation now.”
Are northerners comfortable with occurrences in the north? Here are composite images of the uncomfortable Kuje Prison attacks freeing hardened terrorists in the north.
There has been a prison attack and outbreak at Kuje prisons in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja. All the incarcerated Boko Haram terrorists there have escaped. President Muhammadu Buhari’s convoy was equally attacked by northern insurrectionist terrorists. Or would Kwankwaso engage in a double speak without mirth that ordinary northerners who are suffering from terrorism that prevents them from traveling by rail, road and air in the north happy with the condition?
Kidnapping of school children, mindless murder of citizens in the region, massacre of farmers on their farms leading to massive hunger and lack in the land under leadership that is northern occurs daily in the north.
Is Kwankwaso saying that the people are comfortable with their condition where their daughters are abducted daily with the security forces incapable of guaranteeing reasonable security?
Kwankwaso’s sophistry is clearly mind boggling.
