Re: We have humbled Shekarau

Let’s assert, from the onset, that Kwankwaso has emerged victorious in an election that did not feature Shekarau as a contestant.  The outgoing Governor of Kano State is serving out his second and last constitutionally-allowed term of office.  To win a first term of office in 2003, Shekarau defied all powers of incumbency to roundly […]

Let’s assert, from the onset, that Kwankwaso has emerged victorious in an election that did not feature Shekarau as a contestant.  The outgoing Governor of Kano State is serving out his second and last constitutionally-allowed term of office.  To win a first term of office in 2003, Shekarau defied all powers of incumbency to roundly defeat the boastful Kwankwaso. The man was only saved further defeat and humiliation by his own PDP in 2007, which stopped him from contesting, when Shekarau was running for a second term.  But Shekarau defeated Bichi, Kwankwaso’s protégé, in that election, even in the face of all the force and might of Obasanjo’s federal government.

Contrary to the impression created by Kwankwaso in the interview, he did not allow Shekarau a free and peaceful reign after vacating the scene.  The records are there to show that he worked behind the scene to undermine the Shekarau administration right from its inception. As Minister of Defence and member of the Federal Executive Council – a position he assumed after losing the governorship – Kwankwaso did everything to deny Kano State lots of privileges, just to get back at Shekarau.  A case in point is the large expanse of land located opposite Kofar Na’isa, on BUK Road in Kano metropolis, which was abandoned by the federal government, because it had no further need for it.  Kwankwaso is on record to have written a lengthy letter to the then President, Chief Obasanjo, passionately asking that federal might be used to deny Kano State the use of the land.  He presented very spurious and childish arguments.  It took Shekarau years before he could reclaim the land, part of which has been allocated to some organizations and individuals.  For eight years, right up to the election, Kwankwaso is on record to have undermined the legal authority of a serving government by threatening allotees of the land not to develop them, vowing to revoke the allocation once he comes to power.

In the same interview, Kwankwaso also claimed to have introduced the Shari’a in Kano.  But it is also on record that he did nothing to further its cause, apart from caving to intense pressure by the people to reluctantly launch the Islamic legal system.  As Minister of Defence, he was said to have been instrumental in Federal efforts to kill the Sharia by arbitrary arrests of its top functionaries.  Indeed, Sheikh Yahaya Faruk Chedi, the then Commander-General of Hisba, later died of ailments he contacted in Obasanjo’s gulag.

Little wonder that when Kwankwaso was pronounced as winner of the latest election, his supporters wildly rolled out the drums, condemning the Islamic legal system and attempting to attack some leading Islamic clerics in Kano.  A case in point is that of the respected Sheikh Umar Sani Fagge, whose house was attacked by Kwankwaso supporters.  He and his family were condemned and insulted for being at the forefront of the Sharia campaign.  I also saw, with my very eyes, how some women of easy virtue, all of them Kwankwaso supporters in Sabon Gari celebrated his victory, dancing almost naked (with only bra and pants), abusing anyone that had ever supported the Sharia.

One of Shekarau’s major achievements in government was the effort to institutionalize morality in the society, through social re-orientation.  When Kwankwaso held sway as Governor between 1999 and 2003, hundreds of young girls, many of them in their teen age, have left their homes in other states of the north, some even from as far as neighbouring Chad and Niger Republic, to partake in Hausa films – what later became known as Kannywood.  Many streets of Kano metropolis, such as Sabon Titi, Zoo Road, were virtually taken over by these young girls, many of who forcefully divorced their husbands just to come to Kano and feature in Hausa films.  Before long, many of them had turned themselves into prostitutes, with some people taking full advantage of their vulnerability.  One of them, who engaged in a hot sex-session with her boyfriend, had the whole thing filmed and circulated like a blue film to thousands of people.

Worse still, in many cases, the films being produced by these youngsters, majority of who were uneducated, were crude lessons in immorality. When Shekarau came to power in 2003, he felt that these were our sisters and daughters who should not be allowed to waste away.  He set up a film censorship board and charged it to ensure that only those films that conform to basic standard of morality were allowed to be produced and sold to the public.

While Kwankwaso can typically make any wild claim, the fact is that he cannot fool all the people all the time.  Arrogance is one vice that has never been associated with Shekarau. I am sure most Nigerians know this.

Suleiman, author and publisher, runs the Insight column published by Leadership and Daily Triumph newspapers.  He sent this piece from Kano and can be reached on [email protected].