Shekarau alters political equation in Kano on January 31, 2014 / in Politics By AbdulSalam Muhammad The dynamism of politics played itself out in Kano midweek as what was once thought unimaginable happened in the conservative city to the utter consternation of the state’s political stakeholders. That was when the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP was flown over the home of the two term former governor of the state, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau in, Bompai GRA, Kano. The movement from the All Progressives Congress, APC, which Shekarau played a major role in founding was shocking to many. It, was, however, not totally surprising, given the crisis of confidence that arose after the defection to the APC of the incumbent governor of the state, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwanso. As he moved, Shekarau and his supporters catalogued the sins of the APC and agreed that the party can no longer serve the purpose it was formed to confront. To them, the mega-party has been hijacked. “We presented written petitions signed by over 250 stakeholders on 18 December, 2013. Today is exactly six weeks since we presented that petition, no acknowledgement, no contact, no one has referred to us to address the petition we have submitted,” Shekarau told thousands of cheering supporters who gathered in his expansive Bompai, Kano residence last Wednesday. Unconstitutional decisions “Within these six months, various unconstitutional decisions have been passed by a clique of the leadership of the party, and in our position as bonafide members of that party then, we challenged such decisions.” The Kano born politician in unmistakable terms further declared: “Failure to address these petitions is a clear indication to us that the leadership of APC has taken sides and is not prepared to listen to genuine grievances which are against the spirit of democracy; adding that it was against the spirit of fair hearing and against the spirit of social justice for which the party stands for. “ He further stated that “Up till this time, we are yet to receive any detailed programme of democratic elections to produce leaders of the party at various levels. To our dismay and to our surprise, within the six months which was the formal and official constitutional period given the interim leadership of the party, we now hear that leadership of the interim has no limited period.” Sardauna told his admirers that ”APC has nothing to show for these last six months, there is nothing on ground, not a single member of APC has been registered, not a single leadership structure exists anywhere within the states. No structure of interim leadership at ward levels, at local government levels, at state levels” Selfish interest As if adding salt on injury, the presidential candidate of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP in the 2011 elections revealed that the APC has been hijacked by a cabal whose selfish interest now violates what informed the decision for everyone to join the mega party from the scratch. “It is as a result of this very conspicuous display of injustice that the stakeholders of the ANPP of Kano assembled here today, moved a motion which has been passed, which has been supported, that we members of the defunct ANPP of Kano state do hereby denounce our membership of the All Progressive Congress, APC.” Apparently aiming to soothe skeptics of his past denunciations against the PDP, Shekarau said: “it is not the name of the party we choose that matters, but what is important to us here is the people we are going to work with in the interest of common man.” The scripted drama came to climax when the former governor declared to the admiration of his thousands of supporters that “We dump the party from this moment; and based on the motion moved and adopted and accepted unanimously, we the members of ANPP stock of Kano State are moving en mass and collectively into the Peoples Democratic Party.” He subsequently enjoined his teeming supporters across various divides to disassociate themselves with anything that has to do with the APC and “join hands with our brothers, our sisters and our fellow citizens of Nigeria to take the country to greater heights.” The decision to join the PDP was made possible for Shekarau by one of his staunch supporters, Hon. Shehu Maigari, former Chairman, Doguwa local Government area of the state who moved a motion on that occasion that everyone associated with Shekarau in the former ANPP “should collectively check out of APC to PDP”. The motion by the former ANPP stalwart which enjoyed the endorsement of the huge crowd of Shekarau supporters was supported by Yakubu Musa Hausawa, former Secretary of the party who said that “as it is now we have no choice to dump the party to PDP”. Interestingly, the event at the palatial building of the former APC stalwart was the climax to the political rivalry between Shekarau and his predecessor and successor in office, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. The two gladiators have between them been the recurring political personalities in the Kano gubernatorial landscape in the last 14 years. Kwankwanso was governor between 1999 and 2003 when he was succeeded by Shekarau who served till 2011 when Kwankwanso again took over from him. In between the exchange of baton have been deep seated hatred. Giving reasons for the move, Isa Musa, a staunch Shekarau supporter told Vanguard that “no one can nurse a legitimate ambition under Kwankwaso’s leadership, stressing that “Malam knows this too well and it will be counterproductive to give up the fight and pave way for his arch rival to swallow him with ease”. Shekarau’s defection inevitably reshapes the political equation in the state. It pits Shekarau in the same camp with Mohammed Abacha, Aminu Wali among other stakeholders against Kwankwanso now settled in the same camp with his one time mortal foe, Muhammed Buhari. Okey Goodluck Nwankwo Sent from my iPad
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:17:57 +0000
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