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•Key Kano politicians move en masse to APC, but will that guarantee victory for ruling party?
By Desmond Mgboh
In a few months, Kano State would surely be Nigeria’s hottest political battleground. The epic contest will not just be fierce, it will involve an alliance of super gladiators coming together to unseat the godfather of Kano politics, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
At this moment, opponents of Kwankwaso are grouping under the All Progressives Congress(APC) which has President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as its presidential candidate in 2027.
All together, the gladiators against Kwankwaso and his continued dominance of Kano politics include the Kano State Governor, Abba Kabiru Yusuf, who exited the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) earlier in the year; former Governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau who dumped the PDP for the APC, another former Governor of Kano State, Senator Kabiru Gaya and Bello Haya’atu Gwarzo, North –West National Vice Chairman of the PDP, who dumped his party for the ruling APC just a few months ago.
The list has even grown longer. Prior to the recent times, legislators such as the Senator representing Kano South Senatorial District, Abdulraham Kawo Sumaila, Kofa Abdulraham, representing Kiru/ Bebeji Federal Constituency and Kabiru Rirum representing Rano/ Bunkure/ Kibya Federal Constituency have dumped their respective parties for the APC.
Indeed, to duly appreciate the audacious implications of the current pull to the president’s party in Kano State, one must take proper and judicious notice of the calibre of the legacy members of the APC in the state. They are by no means a cast of walkovers in the politics of the state.
Top on the roaster is the former National Chairman, All Progressive Congress and one time Governor of the state. Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jilbrin, the House of Representatives Chairman on Appropriation, Abubakar Bichi, the current Deputy Governor of the state, Murtala Sule Garo, and Chairman of Hadejia Jama’are River Basin Development Authority and 2023 President Tinubu Campaign Organsiation Chairman in the state, Rabiu Suleiman Bichi.
Very recently also came the decision of Senator Rufai Sani Hanga to renounce his membership of the NDC for the APC. In his resignation letter to his Dakata Ward, dated August 3rd and sighted by this paper, the lawmaker noted that his decision was driven by the need to pursue other commitments and career paths.
Hanga, who was days ago, presented to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the Villa, urged the NDC ward leadership to formally remove his name from its party’s register at the ward level.
His defection has been nothing but a thrill to the APC, both in the state and at the centre. Together, they assumed that his defection has finally completed the poaching game, which has since become a trademark of the ruling APC across the country. They also assume that Kwankwaso is done with politically.
Rabiu Suleiman Bichi reflected this mindset in his interview. He reasoned that Hanga and Kabiru Gaya’s return to APC has effectively depleted the NDC’s base in Kano Central and in Kano South Senatorial Districts.
Bichi insisted that Kwankwaso has lost all the political heavyweights in the state and in Kano Central, adding that he was no longer in the position to determine the direction of votes in the state.
He described Hanga as a political force who has exercised this force since 1992 and who has an overarching political influence in 15 local government areas, including eight in the metropolis.
“Kano Central alone controls more than one third of the total votes in Kano State, and with Senator Hanga joining the APC, I think the victory for the party in the district is already assured.” he stated. .
“From Kano South with 16 local government areas, Gaya has a lot to deliver in the next general elections,” he stated, noting that the task ahead of the APC was now simpler and easier.
Insiders told this paper that a cardinal focus of President Tinubu 2027 campaign strategy was to secure a majority of the votes from some swing states, Kano, Lagos and Rivers State inclusive.
Statistics from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) indicated that Kano, based on figures from the CVR of 2023, has a total of 5,92 1370 registered voters while valid votes in the 2023 elections stood at 1,746,525.
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The assumption is that, irrespective of what happens in other smaller voting states, the votes from Kano alone, if properly harvested will swing an easy victory to the president
“That is why the loss of Kwankwaso to the ADC and then the NDC was considered as a big loss to their original plan. And that is why they had intensified the lobby for Shekarau and others that have joined them – as a substitute to Kwankwaso ” said the insider who begged not to be mentioned.
In his reaction to the loss of many politicians in the state to the APC, Buba Abubakar, a university lecturer, believed it was a reflection of the lack of principle among the political class.
For most of them, It is all about survival, about how to make money, about how to retain their seats across the next four years, about how to promote the president and how the president will protect them.
He, however, remain assured that the governor and other big names do not win elections in Kano, adding that it is the voters that decide the polls in the state.
He cited the recent past where many top associates of Kwankwaso had parted with him, yet like a phoenix, he resurfaced, overcame the storm and picked up the trophy.
“Have you forgotten when years ago, when Aminu Dabo, the former boss of the Nigeria Port Authority, led a group of politicians away from Kwankwaso? What about Sulieman Rabiu Bichi? What about when Ganduje parted ways with Kwankwaso as a sitting Governor? We had all assumed that his political career had come to a shocking end. But he waded through it all and grew even stronger politically while those who sought his fall fell into the ditch or simply diminished from the political space.”
He added that: “There is no way President Tinubu can get 50 per cent of Kano votes in 2027. It is a fairly tale. Kano people are bitter, very bitter with the APC and the President and no matter what they gift out or who is moving to their platform, APC cannot now change the unpopular narrative and their discomforting image in the eyes of our people,” he added.
He also cautioned that what the APC has successfully assembled in the name of gathering supporters for Tinubu is a rainbow coalition of divergent political characters, some of whom are old enemies and nurse deep uncommon grudges against each other on account of past sins and misgivings. .
“There will certainly be intra- party disputes and anti- party misconducts within the Kano State APC and this will affect President Tinubu’s dream of harvesting the mass votes of Kano State in one basket,” he stated.
Kwankwaso is still very strong among the ordinary people of the state even though he would have to deal with the fact that he is running on the ticket of an Igbo man.
However, a growing number of Kano people are gradually coming to terms with an Obi Presidency and may not be bothered about voting in his direction despite the narratives peddle against the ticket
Speaking to the reporter on the defection of some key members of NDC, the spokesperson of the Kwankwassiyya Movement, Dr Habeeb Mohammed believed that their departure to the APC will not halt their growing spread and acceptability, even as he instead that these politicians have no significant current political value.
“The departure of Senator Rufai Sani Hanga, who was simply handed over the ticket in 2023, would not amount to any loss to the NDC in Kano Central Senatorial District.
On Kabiru Gaya, he recalled that he joined the ADC and then APC largely to be given a ticket to the Senate and he departed once the ticket was not given to him.
Mohammed noted that even the political party that he left for the NDC did not see a reason to give him the ticket to the Senate.
“Remember, It is Kwankwassiyya that makes people and not the other way. As such we do not lose sleep when a member decides to walk away from the movement. If any member moves, we always have a ready -made replacement for whoever feels that he has moved out of the party.”
