AFRICA HOUSE AND THE POLITICAL VOLATILITY OF KANAWA.

AFRICA HOUSE AND THE POLITICAL

VOLATILITY OF KANAWA.

BY:

MUDASSIR ALIYU YUNUSA

NTA ZARIA

mudassiray@gmail.com

     Kano, the city in Northern Nigeria, capital of Kano State, the most populated and a very powerful economic city-state of the country.  ‘Centre of Commerce’ is the city title where for long, large caravan of traders from within and outside the country including Arab and European merchants usually come to Kano for their business transactions, Kano is one of the Nigeria’s leading industrial centers with specialization in Tanning, oilseed processing, meatpacking, and the production of furniture. The city is also known for its handicraft industries, including the production of leather shoes, metalworking, weaving and dyeing of cloth.

       Politically for several decades Kano has been an important political centre where the pattern of politics in the state is highly dynamic, vigorous and harmonious with pious conviction at the minds of the people, this made the political atmosphere in the state very difficult to predict a victor or a loser particularly in governorship election. This trend has a bearing right from the past political experiences. The political episode of first republic, the time when Nigerians were allowed by British colonial masters to oversee the socio-economic and political affairs of their own country, at that time, in Northern Nigeria there were two regional political parties i.e. the Northern People Congress (NPC) and Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU), even though NPC was in the control of the Northern region, yet NEPU secured  supportive base in Kano mostly from talakawas (masses) that depends mainly on farming and other menial jobs.

    The political scenario of the first republic was replicated in the second republic in Kano where NPN the ruling party then was highly incapacitated to conquer the state from Aminu Kano’s PRP in both 1979 and 1983 elections. In 1979 Dr Muhammad Abubakar Rimi was elected as the first civilian Governor of the state under the platform of People Redemption Party (PRP). But in 1983 because of the nature of the state’s political uncertainties with all the efforts made by his led administration as well as his esteem and recognition over and above all other contenders in 1983 poll, Abubakar Rimi was voted out of power by Kanawa. This clearly proved how shaky and tremble the Kano politics is.

     History will also remember the political scene of 1990 – 1993, the period when military decided to hand over the political power to the civilian. This led to the creation of two political parties’ i.e Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC). In Kano the political settings was very tough as so many contenders were strived to won the race for the single seat in the Africa House. SDP then was composed with the state’s most prominent and renowned political magnates, it also registered massive grass root support in almost all the local Governments in the State, but with all these strength and substantive support coupled with the high up and popularity of their gubernatorial aspirant but incredibly they (SDP) lost the election of 1991 where NRC won and clinched the most apex seat in the state and control the Africa House for 2 years.

      However, 1999 marked another fresh democratic dispensation in the country and in Kano the political setting was seen similar and also the pattern of kanawa’s political beliefs appeared to be the same with those of the previous time. PDP and APP was the two major political parties that contested for the race of Kano Government house, on that very time APP candidate was considered as the most popular and would have had a better chance to win the election compared to that of PDP, but PDP won the election with landslide victory and got the opportunity to control the state for 4 years.

    In 2003, the political encounter between the ruling party and other opposition parties has obviously confirmed the erratic nature of Kano politics, this was because with all the power of PDP at the State and National level they were forced to vacate the Africa House by the then ANPP who broke the incumbency strength and won the 2003 election hands down.

Moreso, the 2007 transitional era came with a clear difference as history was made in Kano Government House where the incumbency jinx was broke in which same person and same party was re-elected to govern the state for the second consecutive term. Likewise, the political history in the state has shown that it was only in 2007 transitional period that the Africa House did not registered any shift of power from one person to another even though in 1983 PRP was re-elected for the second term but with different individual contender.         

       April 2011 poll completely shows how wobbly the scenery of politics in Kano is; the result articulated how swing Kano people  are particularly when it comes to governorship elections. The reason why I said that is we all know PDP was out of power for 8 years and it was also considered by some Kanawa as numb and irresponsible, some of the contenders in 2011 got connections of god fatherim, some are very rich while others were anointed but with all these privileges the unwanted PDP of 2003, the same candidate with the same running mate that were voted out of power were given another mandate credibly to rule the state again for another 4 years (2011 – 2015). So in respect to this, it is optimistic to say that, in Kano only people’s votes can determine and decide who will take the control of Africa House no matter the manipulation, the political anointment and how powerful one political party has over others. As we are approaching the next  transition time [2015]

     Therefore let the politicians in the state know that money politics, political god fatherism, political anointment, political power and incumbency factor does not fully work in Kano. This is the reason why the political action in the State is tagged with a Hausa Jargons ‘Siyasar Kano Sai Kano’, (Kano Politics is only for Kanawa). And Kanawa ba’a muku dole (No compulsion in Kano Politics).

MUDASSIR  writes from NTA Zaria Channel 32.