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.
