Kano: Between APC and PDP “Islamiyya”

Thank God 2013 ended with the open letter drama between the President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan. These letters between a former and serving president will continue to generate great anxiety and interest for a long time. Do not forget the letter of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo to her father, and the two letters by […]

Thank God 2013 ended with the open letter drama between the President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan. These letters between a former and serving president will continue to generate great anxiety and interest for a long time. Do not forget the letter of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo to her father, and the two letters by Chief Edwin Clark and Asari Dokubo from the Niger delta. This is the seasons- of letter writing that unfortunately is not our focus today.
Our objective today is to assess and acquaint you with the political wrangling in my native Kano State in the last few weeks.   Let us start with the “birth” of PDP “Islamiyya” in the state or the “Islamic” PDP to be practiced in Kano State, while Abuja continues with its version of the PDP! Why the “Islamic” PDP? This is a platform being prepared for the entrance of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, the Sardauna of Kano! But let us turn to the tug of war between  Malam Shekarau, the former Kano State Governor and the hitherto undisputed leader of the APC in Kano State during it formation as he led the ANPP to merge with the CAN and CPC of General Buhari.
But that was before the five PDP rebellious PDP governors joined the APC. But since Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso joined APC, things no longer are at ease as their old rivalry re-emerged. Governor Kwankwas claimed to be the automatic leader of the APC taking the party away from Shekarau. Expectedly, those from ANPP affiliated with Shekarau, rejected the claim describing iy contrary to the constitution of the APC. But while the streets are still quite, devoid of any violent confrontation between the “Kwankwsiya” adherents of governor Kwankwaso and the Malam Shekarau supporters, a petition was written by the ANPP to the National Chairman of APC on December 14, 2013 complaining about their apparent down grading. The petition, entitled “Observations on the way forward for building a formidable ALL Progressives Party (APC) in Kano State” signed by the former chairman of Kano State ANPP, Alhaji Sani Hashim Hotoro, and Co. signed by several other ANPP stalwarts, complained of “a lack of communication from the leadership of the party at the National level to the State level of the merging parties concerning and about actions that directly affect them.
This has led to the failure to implement the transitional provision of the constitution of our great party as it affects the states. Specifically, the merging parties in our State have since sent names of members of the state harmonization committee as directed by the Interim NEC, through the National vice chairman Northwest, t his , however is yet to be inaugurated. (B)  The media report of MOU signed on the 26th of November, 2013 between our great party and the “new PDP” governors. Although we have not seen the MOU, media reports have it that the MOU has vested the leadership of the APC of the states of the five defecting New PDP governors.  Mr Chairman, as a consequence of these powers alleged to have vested on the governor of Kano state most members and supporters of our great party in the state are voicing their worry and vehement opposition.
They are saying that the APC National Executive had been so fixated in its desire to have in its fold the five defecting governors of the new “PDP” that it ignored the peculiarity of Kano State and the pre-eminence of other founding leaders of the APC, influential party members and their supporters in Kano State, where the defunct ANPP was firmly entrenched, Officials of the state Government are already making utterances that the APC has been handed over to the State Governor by its national leaders and that members of the defunct ANPP who toiled to bring forth the merger and the subsequent registration of the APC should serve under his leadership. Mr Chairman Sir, our understanding is that the leadership bestowed upon governors of the merging parties was not because they were governors, but because they were the foremost leaders of the merging parties in their states.
In all fairness, we cannot fathom parity between the state leaders from the founding parties and any other leader or governor that joined the party only after it was founded. (C) Registration of members of the party that is yet to begin and the lack of any fixed data of doing so. While anxious about the delay, we also have cause to be worried about the policy framework around which the membership registration will be carried out. In our opinion, every member of the merging parties must be registered because APC fundamentally belongs to them first, having made all the necessary sacrifices for it to be the founded. This should be the case everywhere in the country. In Kano State however, going by recent happening and statements credited to an official of the Government, in a Radio political programme in which he was quoted in Hausa language announcing that “all members of the merging parties of the APC in the State should be silent, listen attentively, stop all activities, and await directed of His Excellency the Governor of Kano state”. … Should this be the case, APC may be heading for the rocks.
Mr Chairman, this does not mean, however, that others must not join APC as new entrants. Every Nigerian has a right and is welcome into APC. Mr Chairman, it is important to reiterate that APC members from the merging parties in Kano State constitutes a great majority of the voting populace and have made great sacrifices by surrendering their party in order to get the APC registered. Hence the purported handing over the leadership of Kano State APC, including handling of the party registration of members, to a defecting PDP Governor who only recently indicated interest to join the APC would be political suicide”.
Finally, this is where we are as the clock continues to swing in Kano. Nothing is rule out and anything is possible. The leadership of PDP in the state under Ambassador Aminu Wali has already visited Shekarau and invited him to join them. The rumour mill is heavy with many fanciful offers to the Malam. So the stage is now set in Kano state for a tango between APC and PDP “Islamiyya”.

Shariff wrote from Kano, <[email protected]>;