By Nathaniel Ikyur
An interesting political war will be fought in the ancient city of Kano in the 2019 general elections. And this will be centered around three leading lights in the politics of State.
These are the incumbent governor of the state, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, his predecessor, Sen Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and another former governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. The three have had a close working relationship with each other. These relationships may not have been the best in the circumstances but they worked all the same.
HERE IS HOW:
In his first tenure as governor between 1999-2003, Sen Kwankwaso had an altercation with Malam Shekarau, who was then the Permanent Secretary in the Kano state civil service. That was at the time the public launch of Sharia Islamic legal system in Zamfara State began to gain currency across northern states.
Shekarau is a man versed in Islamic tenets. He was said to have defied the directives of the governor to address the Muslim Ummah in the state on the benefits of Sharia as an important part in the lives of Muslims. The governor won’t have it. Pronto, Shekarau was first redeployed and later demoted to a classroom teacher.
Luck however smiled at Shekarau in 2003. Even after losing the ANPP gubernatorial primaries to youthful Alhaji Ibrahim El-Amin, aka Ibrahim Little, the Council of Ulama in the state prevailed on the ANPP presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari to get the ANPP national leadership to give the ticket to Shekarau. It was somewhat messy but the Islamic leaders had their way and Shekarau was presented to INEC to fly the ANPP’s governorship ticket where he defeating Kwankwaso.
Supporters of Kwankwaso have consistently alleged that Shekarau used his eight years as governor to harass their leader and his supporters thereby widening the enmity between them.
In 2011 general elections, Sen Kwankwaso staged a comeback by defeating Alhaji Takai, the ANPP candidate sponsored by Shekarau to win the governorship elections with Dr Ganduje in tow as deputy.
By the time the legacy parties merged to form the All Progressives Congress, APC, Shekarau was a key member in the merger arrangements playing vital roles as one of the leaders of the ANPP. Along the line, leaders of the legacy parties decided that state governor’s who decamped should become leaders of the party in their respective states. This didn’t go down well with people like Shekarau, Ali Modu Sheriff from Borno and Attahiru Bafarawa from Sokoto state. They protested and because their grievances were not attended to, they left the party in anger.
Shekarau joined the PDP and was appointed a minister by the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
But three years down the line as a member of the APC, Kwankwaso is unable to hold his membership of the party due to irreconcilable differences with his successor, Ganduje. Reports from Kano shows that the seeming robust relationship between these two former political associates turned sour immediately Ganduje took over power. Much of what may have given rise to this remains speculative except the duo volunteers information.
Now, Sen Kwankwaso has rejoined the PDP where Malam Shekarau is one of the key leaders. And the statement credited to Shekarau indicates that much of their grievances will still play out in the coming months as the nation goes to the polls in 2019.
The departure from which the duo may give Ganduje an upper hand against their ambitions to be president of Nigeria. It then means that the likelihood of coming together may be a tall dream that may never materialise.
The question then remains: will Kwankwaso and Shekarau now close ranks and work together for the success of the PDP in the state against a common foe or will it provide a fertile ground for the APC and Ganduje to maximize the moment and use it’s advantage as party in power and reap from the possible cracks? Time. Just time will provide the answer.
And as it stands now, the followership of all these three gladiators should begin to stick to their lanes and discharge their responsibilities accordingly.
Ikyur lives in Makurdi