Kwankwaso’s Huge Task of Rebuilding Kano

29 June 2011

analysis

Dr Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso makes the list of the few that life endows with leadership and his name echoes amongst the fewer granted the chance to retrace any missteps. Kwankwaso’s second coming therefore could either offer him the opportunity to stretch out the crisps or the risk to mar his remarkable political career.

Kwankwaso was relatively unknown when he won the ticket to the House of Representatives to become Deputy Speaker. He came to limelight when he first won the Kano governorship in 1999. His current historic victory came as a rude shock to the opposition and a pleasant surprise to his political camp, the PDP. In contrast to Shekarau’s two term stretch, which was an incumbency influenced victory, Kwankwaso’ feat has broken the Kano jinx that no leader could return to power after vacating the throne.

In spite of his long political standing and several electoral victories, Kwankwaso, like his politics, remains an enigma. His ideology is neither with the anti-establishments nor with the reactionaries, although at his inauguration on May 27, 2011 he was seen his supporters dressed in white with red fez caps, suggestive of democratic humanism, the political ideology coined by the late Mallam Aminu Kano.

In all his gallops to victory, he had never blurred the vision of the electorates with the unholy dust of religious bigotry nor with the destructive carnage of ethnicity. He had never relied on a godfather who would lift his hands up to lure the electorates. Likewise, there was no political band wagon that hiked him to any of his positions. As far as Kano politics goes, he is considered the only political gladiator standing, roaring like a lion on the complex canvass of Kano politics. He had often walked the arduous tracks of politics alone equipped with only his deft and unique political strategy. This may sound all the way complimentary, but analysed further, it is double edged; a crushing will strength against political opponents but a political weakness against a political ideology.

For clarity, Kwankwaso tasted gubernatorial power in 1999 defeating four other contestants and during his tenure; he accepted full responsibilities of governorship that left no one in doubt about where the buck stops. He performed credibly in terms of physical developments, earned kudos for incurring no debts to Kano State and left the treasury with treasures. Kwankwaso always a first amongst equals established Kano University of Technology. However, for a second term bid, he battled and lost to a group that hyped on Islamic reform and heaped all the blame for moral decadence and unrests on him. The opposition cashed on his lack of a defined political philosophy and guised in religious toga sent him out of the government house by promising the populace an Islamic brand of social engineering.

It is testimonial that Kano is neither easy to win nor to rule, either in battle or by wits. The chain of Kano leadership starting from its formidable kings, to colonial, military and civilians governors is characterised by assertive leadership. The erstwhile governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, a mathematics teacher summed it all wrong and became an exception. For eight years Shekarau governed Kano rather lackadaisically, suppressed Kano’s renowned cultural heritage, embarked on a spending spree as if he was on a mission to crush the economic potential of Kano State forever and succeeded in leaving behind a hurricane of socioeconomic problems. The challenges Kwankwaso is inheriting are to say the least complex and their list is criminally long but if his comeback motive is to reposition Kano, there is always that enviable socioeconomic foundation on which Kano State was built to fall back on.

Today, these structures are mostly collapsed; not from overuse but from neglect as government and the governed have degenerated to mere commission agents of the Nigerian oil assets. However, a negligible few of the populace who have no access to the easy money sustains a trickle of the structures which are gasping under a population that has boomed far above the census figure due to the influx of displaced persons from crises areas within and outside Nigeria.

Next to agriculture are the industries which have become a ghost of their old selves. Factories that were the life wires of millions of families have been overtaken by weeds, a situation making Kano a flash point due to the jobless millions aimlessly roaming the streets. The closest cousin to joblessness is certainly youth restlessness which in Kano is further aggravated by the destruction of the school system and structures for both western education and the traditional Qur’an learning assemblies.

Paradoxically, Shekarau was educated courtesy of free education sponsored by the government and the community and he was a school teacher in his entire career. He enjoyed free and qualitative medical care all his life but he tried to break the bridge that crossed him and left both the educational and health sectors worse off. It was only in Kano that portions of school layouts and designated play grounds/open spaces were curved out and converted for other uses such as residences and corner shops. What was left of the schools was a clear betrayal of trust. He neglected youth development and made no impact on moral and social rejuvenation which formed the back bone of his entry into politics as manifested by the multitude of unguided and restive youth that rejoiced the defeat of ANPP by Kwankwaso.

The industrial base was developed through partnership with foreign investors and their exit due to the indigenisation policy which was botched by shills was the first blow toward its collapse and the precursor to the present day mass unemployment. The issue was worsened by the relaxed importation policy and excessive excise. The collapse of national refineries leading to high price and shortage of industry fuels added salt to the injury. Probably the inadequate power supply released the blackout punch but the virus leading to their moribund state is misappropriation of oil money in concert with corruption that made imported goods affordable engendering a consumer culture.

To reposition Kano, a paradigm shift from the present economic drift and the dependence on government to productivity calls for a consortium consisting of all the three tiers of government, the governed irrespective of cultural, political or religious polarities, the academia, all levels of the legislative arms and all ranges of the private sector wholesomely coordinated through a broad based sustainability scheme.

In this light, the assertive leadership quality of Kwankwaso must come into play. He must keep his promise to take every good fellow along, define a clear ideology and create a team for the sake of continuity.

Dada wrote from Port Harcourt

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