Rays of Light in the Midst of DarknessKano’s Emerging Democracy in a Repressive NigeriaBy Satatima Quarters Kano Municipal Local Government Area
Nigeria is a federation of thirty-six semi autonomous states that are mostly dependent on federal handouts from oil revenue. The local government councils are the third tier of government and are less autonomous because state governments largely control them. Kano State is the most populous and most prosperous state in the generally on the breadline northern part of Nigeria. During the second republic (1979-1983) the state was under the banner of the leftist Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) while the conservative National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was controlling the central (federal) government. And during the experiment that led to abortion of the June! 12 1993 elections the people of the state voted for Chief MKO Abiola instead of their son Alhaji Bashir Tofa chiefly because the former was considered the progressive candidate. In 1999 Kano State and most of northern Nigeria voted for Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who was considered friendlier towards the north than Chief Olu Falae. Another very important reason was that all the main political groups in the state arrived at a consensus of working within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) instead of the All Peoples Party (APP).
Four years later the consensus was broken largely because Chief Obasanjo the leader of the PDP did not perform as expected, nothing has improved in the life of Nigerians since he came to power. All the services offered by the Federal Government collapsed under that condition only nepotism could sustain such a bankrupt administration and it became more associated with ethnic Yoruba business interests. The Kano State PDP government was also alienated from the people because of its intransigence and blatant insensitivity to people’s welfare and aspiration. That PDP government refused to support the Shari’ah and denied the workers their welfare by sacking many of them and refusing to pay their benefits. It went ahead executing cosmetic projects such as painting of buildings, renovation of governor’s official residences in Abuja and Kano and other trivialities that gulped billions of naira while pensioners were dying of hunger and diseases. Then Muhammadu Buhari joined the Presidential race under the banner of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP formerly APP). The oppressed peoples of Nigeria saw in him a ray of hope because of his impeccable record as the head of the Petroleum Trust Fund the only government agency that was ever successful in Nigeria’s history. Buhari’s last campaign point was Kano where he told an unprecedented crowd of people to vote for SAK meaning only ANPP in all the elections of 2003.
Luckily for the ANPP in Kano State it was also blessed when it made Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau its gubernatorial candidate. So far in Kano’s political history he has been the most experienced candidate ever fielded in a gubernatorial election. He rose from the position of a schoolteacher to permanent secretary the highest civil service position. His predecessor reverted him to the position of a schoolteacher because of his pro-Shari’ah position when the former was trying by all means to kill the Shari’ah in the state. Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau accumulated enough goodwill from his secondary school days as an active member of the Muslim Students Society and during his twenty-five years of decent public service. He successfully led the Association of Secondary ! School Principals of Nigeria one of the largest group of professionals in the country. He was also one of the promoters of the Inuwar Jama’ar Kano (Kano Forum) the most successful non-governmental organization in Kano’s history. With this golden background it was not easy for the PDP despite its wealth of material resources to defeat him. Above all those who served as ANPP agents worked because they considered it as a matter of their survival since they know the tyranny of the ruling PDP. The elites mobilized the people and they refused to be intimidated. In every location every box was well guarded by the people. The PDP was defeated fair and square. And Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso the PDP incumbent governor behaved in the manner of a good sportsman when he accepted defeat and congratulated his opponent. And since that very day he began plotting how to remain politically relevant in the highly sophisticated Kano State. The ANPP was thrashed in most other states and it even lost two other state governors.
Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau was sworn in as the Governor of Kano State on the 29th of May 2003. During the handing over ceremony Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso a very cunning politician made a tactical mistake when he gave false information that he is leaving a clean treasury with some weird figures while in the actual fact there was nothing and the state was indebted. This led the new governor who is a more seasoned administrator to quickly respond that lissafi baya karya meaning figures never lie and that everything will be sorted out. The best way to sort out is to commission an inquiry since the claim of the previous government were quite outrageous.
As a goal-oriented person Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau started executing his human development agenda. In a state that has suffered mass unemployment with teeming restless youths, some of whose parents were retired civil servants whose benefits were never paid by the previous government, the first priority was obviously to create new jobs. In an unprecedented move over three thousand jobs were created. This has never happened in the history of Kano. One thousand skilled workers were employed while the remaining two thousand were unskilled workers who are responsible for cleaning the town. This has also never happened in the history of Kano. He ordered the payment of pension arrears and so far N900million (nine hundred million naira) has been paid which the previous regime refused to pay. The previo! us regime had spent over N1billion (one billion naira) to build governor’s lodge in Abuja and make the Kano Government House more comfortable for the governor while at the same time it blatantly refused to pay the poor pensioners. These are just a few of what Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau did to get into the hearts of the people of Kano.
A few days to the local government elections Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his cronies began a smear campaign of public incitement against the government led by Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. In a shameless and godless propaganda some of the cronies of the former regime even claimed that Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau’s administration is not implementing the Shari’ah. And even the former indolent deputy governor claimed that the present government is tyrannical. Nobody can ever play on the intelligence of the people of Kano. How could the people that vigorously fought against the Shari’ah now claim that others are not practicing the Shari’ah? What is the most important purpose of the Shari’ah? It is social justice. If providing people with employment and paying them their retirement benefits is not social justice then what is social justice? It is not the responsibility of the governor to personally execute penal laws but to make the environment conducive so as to reduce the occurrence of crimes. The crude propaganda of the PDP rogues failed because nobody in the whole of Nigeria has ever given more to the welfare of his people than Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau who provided more jobs than any other governor. With the failure of this propaganda they turned violent and a PDP member of the House of Representatives organized a mob with the intention of murdering the governor. It must not be forgotten that Nigeria has now become famous for politically instigated killings.
Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau was the only governor in Nigeria that did not play any role in the emergence of any local government elections candidate in his party. He allowed the elders of the party to conduct primaries and seek consensus where necessary. He was also the only governor that did not a make it a policy that his party must win the local government elections. Hence he left members of the state electoral commissions who were appointed by the previous regime. He also appointed civil servants as the local government administrators some of whom were even sympathizers of the previous regime. According to a BBC Hausa Service a senior member of the PDP in Katsina pettisioned the PDP governor of the state who removed a local government sole administration some hours before the election to facilitate injustice in the e! lections. Kano State is the only state in the federation where members of the opposition parties won elections in about 20% of the LGs where elections were held (ANPP 32 LGs, PDP 5 LGs and PSP 1 LG). For example in Makoda Local Government Area, the ANPP won nine out of the eleven councilor seats while PDP won two but still the PDP won the chairman’s election which clearly shows that Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau’s government allowed the people to make their choices.
In all the states of the federation the party of the ruling governor cleared the so-called polls. According to a BBC Hausa Service morning report of Sunday 4th April 2004, the correspondent confirmed that he was in Ingawa town of Katsina State on the day of the elections and there were no elections materials in fact, nobody was allowed to vote because the police terrorized the people. But shamelessly PDP the ruling party of the state announced that its candidate has won the election. The story is the same in all the states were in some cases the opposition parties boycotted the elections. Kano State now remains the shinning example in this ocean of darkness this is because the governor has re mained steadfast despite intimidation by the opposition that even attempted to take his life and now they are after his Aide de Camp (ADC) who carried out his duties diligently when the governor was attacked by the PDP mob. They are now mounting serious pressure on the ADC, if they succeed governors of opposition parties will be at risk.
Kano’s exemplary democratic leadership in the midst of darkness in Nigeria is the result of both history and the commitment of the current selfless leadership. It is as a result of sacrifice by many people hence the state is under intense pressure and blackmail by the repressive leadership of the federal government. They refused to allow Kano to host the football matches of the All Africa Games so that the state does not benefit from the material gains that will accrue from such games. Despite the fact that it has more attendance than even Lagos in previous international football championships and shamelessly when the country was in need of fans for the Olympic qualifier they brought the! game to Kano and the football loving people ably supported the national team. Kano is the only place in Nigeria that has Durbar a cultural display, which is second to none in the world this is because it is the largest single gathering of horses anywhere in the world. Every world leader wants to witness the once in a lifetime occasion and they constantly make the request whenever they intend to visit Nigeria. The irresponsible federal government always promises and twice in less than one year it stopped the intended visits by two leaders: Queen Elizabeth II and the German President. This is the price Kano State is paying for its democratic steadfastness. If other states will follow Nigeria will be a better place and a shinning example for other African countries
April 2004
|