By Bala Ibrahim
Kano is facing a heavy political storm that could make or mar the future of the state, depending on the action or inaction of the electorate. The need to understand the situation, alongside the imperative of doing the right thing cannot be over-emphasized.
Everyone is crying about the misgovernance of the state, pursuant to the perceived poor foresight of the man in charge now, but no one is talking about the right thing to do in order to correct the corrosion.
Amongst the two major contenders for the governorship of the state, one is a game changer, while the other is restrained by an albatross. Yes, there is an albatross that could hold back the performance of the other.
Indeed in the search for the new governor, the electorates in Kano are faced with the storm of having to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. The people must decide who to pick between Abba Kabiru Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Dr. Nasir Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is akin to the conundrum confronting a student with limited money, where he has to choose whether to buy food or a bus pass to school.
The state is faced with the storm of making a choice between two people, where one is likely going to be remotely controlled by someone, and the other is feared to continue with the poor programs of a pathetic principal. Paulo Coelho, the Brazilian lyricist, and novelist said, “Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path”.
Going by the submission of Paulo Coelho, the storm steering at the people of Kano now is a storm to make them shine their eyes, in order to see between a game changer and a man manacled by an albatross. Between Gawuna and Abba, one is more disposable to the independence of mind, because he has the advantage of working with all the gladiators. And that person is Gawuna, who, unlike Abba, had worked with Kwankwaso, Shekarau, and Ganduje. All three had given him the certificate of good health, in public administration.
As a human being, Abba is not a bad person, even though some say he is arrogant. But according to my late father, it is the freeloader that knows the attitude of the arrogant. Since I don’t go to him begging, and may not ever do that, the chances of having a personal feel of that arrogance, if indeed he is arrogant, may never come to light. However, if he becomes the governor of my state, even if we don’t meet one on one, he would be in a position to take decisions that would affect my destiny and the destiny of my family. Hence, the need to arrest all the aberrations that may play the albatross in his administration.
Because he is relatively deficient in administrative experience and perceived as too subservient to the person that is pushing for him, the biggest albatross to Abba’s administration if elected, is the lack of tact and sense of independence. This would rub off negatively on him and the government he would form.
Going to Gawuna, I know him personally, interacted with him severally, and have reasons to say he has what it takes to be the game changer. In all my discussions with people that have cause to meet him, none, I repeat none, mentioned his name among those with unpleasant behaviours, or one with an overestimation of his importance. The show of modesty is always ascribed to him and to his credentials. He is also said to be a workaholic, sometimes working all through the night and the early hours of the day.
Also, because Gawuna has made a promise, that when elected, he would improve on the construction and renovation of school structures, as well as the provision of instructional materials and sustenance of the training of teachers on modern educational management, as someone with a special interest in education, I raise my thumbs up for him.
Equally, he said, he would improve the effectiveness of the Civil Service, Agriculture, Environment, empowerment of youths and women, and also boost the internally generated revenue of the state. As a former local government chairman, Gawuna even promised to give financial autonomy to the 44 local governments of the state. He had talked about revisiting the blueprint of the old Kano and implementing it with the special bias of taking Kano out of the woods.
Anyone with interest in the interest of Kano would agree with me that whoever thinks like this and promises to act like that, having had the record of performing according to the task he was assigned, is eminently qualified to be called the game changer, and Gawuna is so qualified.
All things being equal, in three days’ time, the Kano electorate would be out in the battle for a change. Let’s make it a battle of the ballot, and not the battle of the bullet. While I am trying to convince my fellow electorates in Kano to see the game changer in Gawuna, the choice must not be done by violence, or be seen as a Do or Die affair.
Both Abba and Gawuna are our own, and none amongst them would be happy to get to the Government House through vicious hatred and violence, that could spit blood on the streets. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate”.
An election is a war that should be fought with the ballot and not the bullet. May Allah give us the change that we can cherish to cheer. Ameen.
