Why Kano PDP is doomed
Aided and abetted by some key officials of the national headquarters of the party in Abuja, mainly Alhaji Danladi Sankara, who has just been awarded a senatorial seat in Jigawa State by Governor Lamido without any open competition for the position, the former Defence Minster has crushed all legitimate dissenting voices by packing the party […]
Aided and abetted by some key officials of the national headquarters of the party in Abuja, mainly Alhaji Danladi Sankara, who has just been awarded a senatorial seat in Jigawa State by Governor Lamido without any open competition for the position, the former Defence Minster has crushed all legitimate dissenting voices by packing the party leadership with his yes-men. Some of these national officers of the party are helping politicians like Kwankwaso to undermine internal democracy in return for favours. But are governors and former governors the only stakeholders in the PDP that the national headquarters can take the risk of conniving with them to stifle the legitimate rights of other PDP stakeholders? The reality is that those who don’t belong to the Kwankwaso faction are being deliberately frustrated.
When forms were recently released by the national headquarters of the PDP for the conduct of delegate elections for the party’s primaries, the Kwankwaso faction took all the forms and denied members of another faction loyal to Alhaji Aminu Wali and other founding fathers of the party access to the forms. The leadership of the PDP chapter in Kano State, headed by Alhaji Faruk Iya, has handed over the party to Rabiu Kwankwaso.
For some time, the former governor was pretending that he didn’t want to contest the 2011 gubernatorial election. However, deception has short legs; it can’t run far and fast without falling by the way side. The scales have finally dropped from the eyes of PDP members. Now it is clear even to a beetle-eyed observer that Kwankwaso installed the leadership of the party with the purpose of advancing his own ambition. He has practically made it impossible for anybody to aspire for the governorship seat except himself. And that was precisely why he installed his minions, led by Faruk Iya, to frustrate all aspirants in order to make the coast clear for the former defence minister to run again in 2011.
Despite his defeat in 2003, Kwankwaso has never given up his efforts to return to the Government House. In 2007, he was for the second time, taken to the cleaners by Ibrahim Shekarau of ANPP. After being defeated twice, one would have expected Kwankwaso to retreat to the background to support any other candidate that has bright chances to help the PDP recapture power in 2011. Unfortunately, the former Governor is so sturborn to accept his own dispensability.
Which rational and humble politician should bind the fate of his party to his own narrow and stubborn ambition? kwankwaso is yet to come to terms with the reality of losing power to a man he had underrated but who eventually became his giant killer in 2003 and 2007. If truly the larger interest of the PDP is more important to him, why has kwankwaso failed as yet to find the “right” aspirant to become the party’s gubernatorial candidate in 2011?
All the current shenanigans by the leadership of the PDP in Kano State is designed to scheme out other aspirants and impose Kwankwaso as a fait accompli on the party.
The danger of arrogance is that it leads to stupid decisions, which produce unpleasant and embarrassing outcomes. It is impossible to accept the argument that nobody is good or popular enough to qualify as PDP gubernatorial candidate except the former defence minister.
Kwankwaso’s politics defy reason and common sense. He is obsessed by the myth of indispensability and if he is not stopped, he will lead the PDP to another humiliating defeat in 2011. In fact, he doesn’t want to hear that anyone else can be as good or even better than him. Therefore, he is not interested in supporting any aspirant to get the party ticket except himself. Kwankwaso’s seeming lack of humility to accept his own limitations is the foible that imprisons his mind.
Already, the consequences of kwankwaso’s arrogance is taking a heavy toll on the PDP support base in Kano State. Thousands of party supporters are now leaving in droves to join the two main rival parties, mainly ANPP and the new Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). The former defence minister is pushing his luck too far.
The impunity with which Kwankwaso is behaving makes nonsense of Chief Nwodo’s declared commitment to restore internal democracy in the party. How can you have internal democracy when you frustrate all aspirants in order to impose one man as the inevitable choice? Gen. Obasanjo, Col. Ahmadu Ali and kwankwaso are notorious enemies of internal democracy. With the kind of influence they still exert in the party and with their open disdain for transparent process, Kwankwaso will take the PDP nowhere in 2011.
Durbunde wrote in from 101, Isa Kaita Road, Kaduna