How Buhari’s two magic words ignited Kwankwasiyya victory

During his campaign in Kano State on January 20 this year, the unprecedented crowd that graced the occasion at Sani Abacha Stadium overwhelmed General Muhammadu Buhari and his remark at the gathering could not even be heard except two words.From all corners, the stadium was filled to capacity, but General Buhari managed to amplify the […]

During his campaign in Kano State on January 20 this year, the unprecedented crowd that graced the occasion at Sani Abacha Stadium overwhelmed General Muhammadu Buhari and his remark at the gathering could not even be heard except two words.
From all corners, the stadium was filled to capacity, but General Buhari managed to amplify the two words and the crowd reechoed them. The words are the general’s magic wand: they worked in 2003, 2007, 2011 and have now worked in 2015.
For the forth time, the magic words are working not only in Kano and across the North, but this time around they have spread to the whole nation, especially in North and South West.  In 2011, the two magic words were re-coined as the Buhari’s tsunami.
The successful utterance of the two words by General Buhari at his Kano campaign sent shivers to the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. The development forced the PDP leadership to its political arsenal.
They went from post to pillar to erase the two words from the minds of the people of the state, but their machinations could not change the voting pattern of the people of Kano State.
What are the two words?  ‘APC SAK’, which literally mean ‘APC all through’. The general asked the electorate to vote for his party from top down. It was the same ‘SAK’ that he used to win the state in 2003 when Malam Ibrahim Shekarau won the governorship seat under the defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP).
Coupled with the Kwankwasiyya phenomenon, the APC recorded landslide victory in Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections in Kano State. The party swept all positions that were contested for.
In the presidential election, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan failed to secure the required 25 percent votes as Buhari swept all the 44 local government areas in the state.
Our correspondents report that General Buhari got 89.9 percent of the total votes cast, while Jonathan managed to get 10.1 votes in the official result announced at the INEC headquarters in Kano.
Buhari got a total of 1,903,999 votes and Jonathan got 215,779 votes representing 10.1 percent. It would be recalled that to get the required 25 percent in the state, the Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo spent four days in Kano early this month.
Also, a four-time senator, Bello Hayyatu Gwarzo, of Kano North Senatorial District was trounced by Barau Jibril, a former House of Representatives member. Gwarzo got 107,845 votes while Jibril, polled 381,483 votes to emerge winner as announced by the Returning Officer yesterday.
Our correspondent reports that Senator Gwarzo has been at the senate since 1999.
Similarly, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso coasted to victory when he defeated the sitting senator of Kano Central. Kwankwaso polled 758,383 votes, while Senator Bashir Garba Lado got 205,809 votes as announced by Professor Aminu Suleiman, the Returning Officer of the zone.
In Kano South Senatorial District, the sitting senator, Kabir Gaya thrashed Abdullahi Rogo of the PDP. Gaya has been in the senate since 2007.
Meanwhile, the APC has won all the 24 House of Reps seats in the state. Among the PDP members that suffered the casualty was a four-time member, Farouk Lawan, who has been at the National Assembly since 1999.
Also in the losing boat was the minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Aminu Wali who, aside from losing his polling unit like his education counterpart Shekarau, also has his two children losing in their bids to get House of Reps seats.
Wali’s biological son, Sadiq Wali was defeated at the Nasarawa Federal Constituency, while his nephew, Zakari Bashir Wali, was defeated at Kano Municipal.  
Our correspondents report that most of the winners in last Saturday’s elections are members of the  Kwankwasiyya movement.
For instance, Kwankwaso’s former commissioner for Information, Abubakar Nuhu Danburam won Kano municipal; former commissioner of finance, Alhaji Abdullahi Mahmud won Gaya Federal Constituency among others.
Kwankwaso had while staging a comeback in 2011 launched his movement known as the Kwankwasiyya to upset the then faction of the PDP in the state. When he was moving to APC, the members of the movement followed him.