I believe the kanawa will find this interesting.It is not a campaign of any sort.Your comments will be appreciated.SHEKARAU, ALLAH YA MAIMAITAMANA AND THE SECOND TERM JINX IN KANO POLITICS
BY - ALIYU ABDULLAHI YARIMA
yarimantalakawa@yahoo.com.
Kano, one of the most homogeneous states in the country remains the most complex political miluie to most political analysts in Nigeria and the world over. It is a state that is yet to be ruled twice by any executive governor since its creation in 1967. Although, the state witnessed more military administrators than civilian governors, the few civilian governors that ruled the state and sorts re-election lost to their opponents despite the incumbency factor that usually work in their favour. The 2007 general elections as far as the intrigues surrounding the Kano politics is concern will serve as a case study to students of politics.
One of the leading contenders to the Kano government house is the incumbent Governor - Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau who is determined to alter the proverbial jinx ?Nobody Rules Kano Twice?. Apart from Shekarau, there is the former governor and immediate past minister of defence - Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who is as well very much in the race. But whether Kwankwaso will make it at the PDP primaries and later the general is a topic of another day, what we are most interested in here is to examine the chances of the incumbent governor in a mist of other gubernatorial aspirants in the state. Let it be observed that this piece is not meant to serve as a campaign tool for Shekarau, but rather an Independent-minded analysis of the issues on ground after all, the writer is neither a Bakano nor an ANPP member.
Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau was until 2003 a permanent secretary in Kano State where he served diligently and meticulously first, as a class-room teacher and later rose to the rank of a Principal through Permanent Secretary. He held various position where he set a good track-record that is yet to be surpassed by any public servant in the state civil-service. With his emergence as the Executive Governor of Kano State after the 2003 gubernatorial election, there was high degree of relief among the Kanawas with the believe that ?the enormous problems militating against the progress of the state shall soon be a thing of the past?. No sooner had Shekarau stepped into the driver?s seat than he began to impact on the lives of the Kanawas on areas that affect their welfare and social well-being. It is no longer news today in Kano that the Kanawas are better off than they were prior to his coming as the Executive Governor of the State.
When Mallam Shekarau assumed the saddle of leadership some three and a half years ago, Kano State as he met it was characterized with poverty of morality and ideas, lack of basic social amenities such as potable water, descent hospital, roads and adequate learning materials in most public schools etc. The Kwankwaso administration, despite the billions of naira it received throughout the four years in office, it rather left more problems that it met. With fairness to the Kwankwaso?s administration, he tried to improve on the dilapidated road-networks within the municipal as well as some other minor projects that his administration undertook for the welfare of the Kanawas. But it is a fact that the projects he successfully executed were not in consonance with the billions of naira he got from the Federation account and the internally generated revenue.
One of the policies of the Shekarau government that distinguished it from other state governments is the ?Adaidaita Sahu Project? the state policy for social re-orientation. Shekarau believes that if the society is in order, the government will surely find it easy and possible to achieve other objectives of state growth and development. The government has truly achieved so much in the areas of enlightenment and educating the Kanawas, poverty reduction, security and what have you. The Kanawas have therefore being rightly placed in a position to initiate personal development strategies in order to live an accomplished and fulfilled life.
It is the same Shekarau that has succeeded in settling the backlog of pensioners arrears to the extent that the state owes no single pensioneer in the whole of Kano State , no wonder, the decision of the state union of pensioners to purchase the ANPP nomination form at the cost of Five Million Naira for Mallam Shekarau. This action of the pensioners has given so much credence to the Shekarau?s quest for Allah ya maimaita mana. With the support of the pensioners, Shekarau has already secured about fifty percent of the Kanawas? votes. Remember, their children and grand children will surely support this matured decision.
Mallam Shekarau remains the most prudent and accountable governor in the country. He always make the state revenue base and its financial strength known to the Kanawas. No local government can claim any form of interference with the way it handles its finances by the State Government apart from the clarion call by the Shekarau regime on the local governments to be prudence in their spending. Given his land mark achievements in most segment of the Kano economy which space constraint would not permit us to critically examine and discuss them in a detail manner, Shekarau stands ahead of all the gubernatorial aspirants in both his party - the ANPP and the opposition parties in the state. The more you look at his achievement in the areas of health, education, agriculture and infrastructural development, the more you rate his chances higher. With the fresh memories of the Kwankwaso?s government poor performance, coupled with seven and a half years of devaluation of due process and good governance by the PDP government at the national level, one is rest-assured that the floor is set for Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau come 21st April, 2007, to break the proverbial ?Nobody rules Kano twice?. As the battle gets hotter by the day, only time can tell who the cap fits most between the people?s oriented governor and the Abuja induced aspirants.
YARIMA, a political scientist and a social critic
wrote in from Jos, he can be reached via:
yarimantalakawa@yahoo.com.
