Yes, Kwankwaso should correct wrong policies!
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- Category: Philosofaith
- Written by Lamido Muhammad
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The thrust of the writer’s apparent hatchet job was to predict a state of Hobbesian quagmire befalling Kano State in the event that Kwankwaso fails to “build on efforts” of Shekarau.
Surely, if the efforts of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau in the eight years he held sway as governor were so starling and dear to the minds of people of the state, such that Kano could be turned into a “negative territory” if they are expunged, then this claim calls for a review in this piece for the benefit of the reader.
But then, the writer has already drawn a line for the debate, by listing areas and achievements he thinks are part of Kwankwaso’s “destructive and revenge mission.”
Part of Aliu’s piece portrayed him as an ardent student of comparative history; especially where he relates that in 2007 Shekarau became the first governor in the history of Kano politics to win a re-election for a second term. Although that achievement has been announced and repeated quite often by thousands before Aliu, let’s still give him the credit for bringing it once again to the pages of newspapers.
The writer should not have stopped at that, as even more people will be interested in learning how Shekarau lost or stepped out of power, more than how he stepped into it. Power politics always has its interested fans. And it would have been simple to reveal to them that Shekerau was the first serving governor in the history of Kano State to anoint a successor and he was the first to suffer the agony of watching the successor’s woeful performance and defeat at the polls.
Secondly, and perhaps most interesting for historians and students of comparative politics, is the fact that Shekarau was the first serving governor from Kano to have contested for the presidency – add this first and then all the other firsts will follow. He was the first presidential candidate governor from Kano to have lost the contest. He was the first presidential aspirant from his party, the ANPP, to have polled less than a million votes in all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. I think Aliu should understand that history pays attention to how a leader falls.
And where Aliu talks about “rigging and corruption” as responsible for Kwankwaso’s victory in his party’s governorship primary election, you could still see the poor analytical mind at work. Everyone with the faintest understanding of the politics preceding the election knew what actually happened.
But when rigging played a prominent role during the last local government election under Shekarau, we all witnessed the consequences, where aggrieved youths torched several properties in dozens of local government areas of the state. And then if Kwankwaso had rigged the primaries, how come nobody was abused and neither a single property was razed in protest? How, for instance, was it possible for him to have galvanized all the aggrieved, against the background of the ‘rigged’ primary into a force that defeated ANPP’s Salihu Sagir Takai? Why did millions of people clad in white and red attended his swearing in, when they should have made the governorship election impossible in the first place? Why didn’t they abstain in protest or vote for Takai instead?
But then, the attacks against Kwankwaso leaves no one in any doubt of the attempt to force the new administration to hands off its quest of revealing the waste of public funds that was superintended by the previous administration.
The practice all over the world is, when a new administration is taking over, it sets up a transition committee to liaise with and get information from elements of the outgoing administration with a view to having idea on where to start from. If Aliu accuses Kwankwaso’s committee of embarking on a “fault-finding mission that will pave way for blackmailing” Shekarau, it is then obvious that he and his sponsors are aware of the faults that can be unearthed, as a Hausa proverb would say, ciki da gaskiya… . Alas as the committees got down to work, startling revelations started pouring out.
Instead of Aliu and his principals to hide their heads in shame, they resort to cheap obscurantism with a view to fooling the gullible ones and to create sympathy for the Shekaraus in the face of their wanton failure. Yet, with every bit of their reaction, they reinforce the allegations the more.
Aliu holds that the money said to have been spent on hotel bills, for instance, is part of a “cock-and-bull stories” that were “concocted” by the transition committee. Even a kindergarten child knows that cock-and-bull stories are simply lies. But Aliu would go further in his article to state that members of the PDP are part of the beneficiaries of the hotel largesse, “due to the considerate nature of the immediate past government towards the opposition parties in the state.” Now, how could anybody, no matter how generous, offer what he does not have or what is not real? In other words, how could the PDP benefit from the hotel bills that have ab initio been labeled as “cock-and-bull stories?”
Meanwhile, the most authoritative confirmation came from Shekarau’s media aide, Sule Ya’u Sule, who, in refuting the figure that was given by the committee, said the money was actually N3.5billion, not N4billion, which nonetheless, left people wondering about this world of difference between half a dozen and six, for which a press conference had to be addressed.
It has now been revealed that all the achievements of Shekarau in Kano’s ICT Park, was that, before Kwankwaso took over and promised to convert the building into schools, about half a dozen of computers had been installed. Yet the writer thought, by so doing, Shekarau has put the place “to good use” for the 15 million population of the state. The argument has been, since Shekarau could not provide learning facilities to students in the state throughout his eight years in power, even though he was a classroom teacher himself, there is urgent need to start addressing the most serious challenges and that is how the idea of converting the disused ICT Park came about.
One example will suffice to explain all this fear of purported “destructive and revenge mission.” In 2006, the government of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau revoked the allocation of plots in front of Suleman Crescent blocks of flats, which was done under the first tenure of Kwankwaso. To convey it seriousness, Shekerau’s government issued a whitepaper on the revocation.
But to the greatest surprise of every right thinking person, few days to the end of Shekarau’s tenure, his government cancelled the revocation, vindicating Kwankwaso’s earlier position on the plots and at the same time exposing the vindictive talents of their politics.
Therefore, while the people of Kano miss the “stability and genteelness” of Shekarau as Aliu posited, it is understandable that they relish such a loss. And that was why, both Shekarau and Takai polled poorly in April. The people have spoken.
Lamido wrote from Victoria Island, Lagos
Articles
Yes, Kwankwaso should correct wrong policies!
Category: Philosofaith Written by Lamido Muhammad Hits: 885
A major difficulty encountered by those seeking to demonize the new administration of Kano State governor, Engineer Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, is to tag their naked arguments with some facts, no matter how pallid – and or little this may be. And there have been many of such people of recent. The most recent of them all was poured in a piece written by one Aliu Ibrahim Aliu, with caption, `Should Kwankwaso seek to `correct’ right policies?’ and published in Daily Trust edition of Friday, June 24, 2011.The thrust of the writer’s apparent hatchet job was to predict a state of Hobbesian quagmire befalling Kano State in the event that Kwankwaso fails to “build on efforts” of Shekarau.
Surely, if the efforts of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau in the eight years he held sway as governor were so starling and dear to the minds of people of the state, such that Kano could be turned into a “negative territory” if they are expunged, then this claim calls for a review in this piece for the benefit of the reader.
But then, the writer has already drawn a line for the debate, by listing areas and achievements he thinks are part of Kwankwaso’s “destructive and revenge mission.”
Part of Aliu’s piece portrayed him as an ardent student of comparative history; especially where he relates that in 2007 Shekarau became the first governor in the history of Kano politics to win a re-election for a second term. Although that achievement has been announced and repeated quite often by thousands before Aliu, let’s still give him the credit for bringing it once again to the pages of newspapers.
The writer should not have stopped at that, as even more people will be interested in learning how Shekarau lost or stepped out of power, more than how he stepped into it. Power politics always has its interested fans. And it would have been simple to reveal to them that Shekerau was the first serving governor in the history of Kano State to anoint a successor and he was the first to suffer the agony of watching the successor’s woeful performance and defeat at the polls.
Secondly, and perhaps most interesting for historians and students of comparative politics, is the fact that Shekarau was the first serving governor from Kano to have contested for the presidency – add this first and then all the other firsts will follow. He was the first presidential candidate governor from Kano to have lost the contest. He was the first presidential aspirant from his party, the ANPP, to have polled less than a million votes in all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. I think Aliu should understand that history pays attention to how a leader falls.
And where Aliu talks about “rigging and corruption” as responsible for Kwankwaso’s victory in his party’s governorship primary election, you could still see the poor analytical mind at work. Everyone with the faintest understanding of the politics preceding the election knew what actually happened.
But when rigging played a prominent role during the last local government election under Shekarau, we all witnessed the consequences, where aggrieved youths torched several properties in dozens of local government areas of the state. And then if Kwankwaso had rigged the primaries, how come nobody was abused and neither a single property was razed in protest? How, for instance, was it possible for him to have galvanized all the aggrieved, against the background of the ‘rigged’ primary into a force that defeated ANPP’s Salihu Sagir Takai? Why did millions of people clad in white and red attended his swearing in, when they should have made the governorship election impossible in the first place? Why didn’t they abstain in protest or vote for Takai instead?
But then, the attacks against Kwankwaso leaves no one in any doubt of the attempt to force the new administration to hands off its quest of revealing the waste of public funds that was superintended by the previous administration.
The practice all over the world is, when a new administration is taking over, it sets up a transition committee to liaise with and get information from elements of the outgoing administration with a view to having idea on where to start from. If Aliu accuses Kwankwaso’s committee of embarking on a “fault-finding mission that will pave way for blackmailing” Shekarau, it is then obvious that he and his sponsors are aware of the faults that can be unearthed, as a Hausa proverb would say, ciki da gaskiya… . Alas as the committees got down to work, startling revelations started pouring out.
Instead of Aliu and his principals to hide their heads in shame, they resort to cheap obscurantism with a view to fooling the gullible ones and to create sympathy for the Shekaraus in the face of their wanton failure. Yet, with every bit of their reaction, they reinforce the allegations the more.
Aliu holds that the money said to have been spent on hotel bills, for instance, is part of a “cock-and-bull stories” that were “concocted” by the transition committee. Even a kindergarten child knows that cock-and-bull stories are simply lies. But Aliu would go further in his article to state that members of the PDP are part of the beneficiaries of the hotel largesse, “due to the considerate nature of the immediate past government towards the opposition parties in the state.” Now, how could anybody, no matter how generous, offer what he does not have or what is not real? In other words, how could the PDP benefit from the hotel bills that have ab initio been labeled as “cock-and-bull stories?”
Meanwhile, the most authoritative confirmation came from Shekarau’s media aide, Sule Ya’u Sule, who, in refuting the figure that was given by the committee, said the money was actually N3.5billion, not N4billion, which nonetheless, left people wondering about this world of difference between half a dozen and six, for which a press conference had to be addressed.
It has now been revealed that all the achievements of Shekarau in Kano’s ICT Park, was that, before Kwankwaso took over and promised to convert the building into schools, about half a dozen of computers had been installed. Yet the writer thought, by so doing, Shekarau has put the place “to good use” for the 15 million population of the state. The argument has been, since Shekarau could not provide learning facilities to students in the state throughout his eight years in power, even though he was a classroom teacher himself, there is urgent need to start addressing the most serious challenges and that is how the idea of converting the disused ICT Park came about.
One example will suffice to explain all this fear of purported “destructive and revenge mission.” In 2006, the government of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau revoked the allocation of plots in front of Suleman Crescent blocks of flats, which was done under the first tenure of Kwankwaso. To convey it seriousness, Shekerau’s government issued a whitepaper on the revocation.
But to the greatest surprise of every right thinking person, few days to the end of Shekarau’s tenure, his government cancelled the revocation, vindicating Kwankwaso’s earlier position on the plots and at the same time exposing the vindictive talents of their politics.
Therefore, while the people of Kano miss the “stability and genteelness” of Shekarau as Aliu posited, it is understandable that they relish such a loss. And that was why, both Shekarau and Takai polled poorly in April. The people have spoken.
Lamido wrote from Victoria Island, Lagos