Kano: Abacha as game-changer

That is why beginning from newspapers, to the mix-up electronic and social media, all chats are dealing with whether or not Muhammed Sani Abacha, the eldest son of the late Head of state, General Sani Abacha, would ever preside over the affairs of Kano State. The way we debate this rather mundane political issue makes […]

That is why beginning from newspapers, to the mix-up electronic and social media, all chats are dealing with whether or not Muhammed Sani Abacha, the eldest son of the late Head of state, General Sani Abacha, would ever preside over the affairs of Kano State. The way we debate this rather mundane political issue makes one to think that the whole world resides in the ancient city. It is amazing that our sanity is intact.

Before I met Alhaji (his pet-name) I wondered if I was meeting the same rambunctious, self-absorbed and aggressive lad that he was reputed to be. I also wondered if the venue would have a Gestapo-like milieu as he was said to have operated. But I met none of both, except a man who did not have a supermarket in his home. Perhaps humbled by his prison experience, I saw a resolute man who seems equipped to stare injustice in the face and say, ‘enough.’ Looking slightly elderly, because of his graying beard, Muhammed Abacha exudes both confidence and compassion in equal measure. He also supplicated to his creator at the end of each sentence.
But it is Kano that brought me close to this politician and not his characterization. Kano is about to receive the topmost echelon of PDP politicians in the country in a matter of days. The occasion is the formal entry of former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau into the PDP from APC. The type of event that a few weeks back ushered Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa into the party in Sokoto but sadly left casualties in its tracks.
A similar event is about to take place in Kano. What happened in Sokoto reduced the occasion to rubble because it lacked the appropriate fanfare and the occasion was somewhat tense. Bafarawa was only able to bring along a residue of followers. The likes of Umarun Kwabo and Maigari Dingyadi have all shifted loyalties. The atmosphere at the venue was so charged that speaker after speaker jumbled the order of protocol, by saluting the vice president anywhere but after the president. But if the preparation and mindset of some of the people involved with the event is anything to go by, that catalogue of misadventure is not likely to repeat itself in Kano.

Not hiding his passion for his city, Muhammed Abacha said, ‘that kind of atmosphere does not define our people’. Kano is home to everyone and in the city’s quest for peace its people are united so ‘if we don’t do it for anything, we will do it for Kano.’ While many of Kano’s politicians are already saying that the president is coming to the city for few more than just Shekarau, including Muhammed Abacha who defected from the old Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, to the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Muhammed Abacha has concluded plans to make the president’s coming to Kano something to remember. He said that even if the party was receiving Shekarau alone, ‘we shall treat the event with open arms because we in Kano PDP are one big family. It was as if he was borrowing from the ‘Warri no dey carry last’ figurative.

Kano politics we all know is as volatile as its Harmattan. In a blink it is in the mud and in another it is slippery as mollusk. Each time you begin to foretell its shape and structure it springs a surprise. Once considered the bastion of Talakawa and sole custodian of leftist politics, Kano had denied that nomenclature by opting for the PDP, once before Shekarau 1999 to 2003 and once after him – both times with Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso at the heart of the matter. However, Kwankwaso has turned out not to be the only compassionate conservative in Kano, since today, even Shekarau has gravitated towards compassionate conservatism and joined the PDP apart from going ahead to call the opposition APC ‘a cult’ which, and this is debatable, ‘has lost its soul’.
However, even an atmosphere that is free of acrimony can never be totally devoid of competition. Those who share the sentiment that Muhammed Abacha should be welcomed alongside Shekarau are not just flippant or simply emotional. They have their reasons. Most of them have been in the kitchen with Muhammed enduring the heat and now they desire for him to stand shoulder to shoulder with the high and mighty under the umbrella. One good turn, they say, deserves another. One observer described the decision by their new party to host anyone but Muhammed a fool’s gambit.
‘Abacha controlled over a million votes when he ran in the primaries of the CPC,’ the man who pleaded for anonymity began, ‘and if Shekarau whose support base is the civil service (now they all have red headgear) would get a grand reception, Muhammed Abacha the beautiful bride of Kano politics who garnered support strictly on the basis of his popularity, personality and the goodwill of a deceased dad, deserves same.’ This view alludes to the ‘injustice’ done to Muhammed Abacha as the reason for the failure of the CPC to capture the governorship of Kano in 2011. When he was substituted with Lawal Jaa’faru Isa, the seemingly winning team collapsed like a pack of cards. It establishes Muhammed Abacha as the game-changer because if PDP repeats that unfortunate mistake in 2015, the same fate may, without doubt, also befall the party.