Kwankwaso’s Imposition Of Candidates Is Recipe For Failure

It was Graham Wallas, a political thinker, who once said that politics without the study of the psychology of the individual is meaningless. Though I am not going to get academic in this article, but I will just try to give an opinion on how the dictatorial tendencies of former Kano State Governor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso in imposing candidates at all levels will spell doom for his party, the PDP in Kano State in the general elections that will hold early 2019.

Some months back, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso defected from the ruling party, the APC, to opposition  PDP. Since his defection, the former Kano governor has shown his age long political behavior of non-compromise, he has succeeded in dismantling the elected leadership of the party in his home state, Kano, through the connivance of the national leadership of the party. As a result, Kwankwaso’s take-all orientation has succeeded in dividing the Kano PDP, as they now have two party chairmen, the substantive chairman Senator Mas’ud El Jibril Doguwa, and Kwankwaso’s factional chairman Engineer Rabiu Suleiman Bichi.

However, the recent imposition of a not popular governorship candidate by Kwankwaso, his son in-law, Alhaji Abba Kabiru Yusuf has brought to open the cracks in the Kwankwasiyya camp, this selection has been tagged by many political commentators as a clear case of nepotism. He was selected ahead of more competent, popular and renowned Kwankwasiyya foot- soldiers like Rabiu Suleiman Bichi, Dr Yunusa Adamu Dangwani, Alhaji Aminu Dabo, Professor Hafiz Abubakar, Aliyu Madaki among others.

There is no any other known quality, apart from Abba Kabiru Yusuf being a son in-law to Kwankwaso, that made the Senator to anoint him as his preferred governorship candidate for Kano state governor in the 2019 general election.

Democracy is about mutual discussion and persuasion, so Kwankwaso cannot eat his cake and still have it. He should rather serve as a true leader and provide a level playing ground to all his followers to contest for primaries and then give them   his full support to whoever emerges winner in the primaries, he has served twice as the number one Kano citizen, so for him to long for total control of the state is not something that is possible again.

The governorship ticket was not the only one that was imposed by the senator, in fact his people were prevented from buying forms except he approved that in a very autocratic manner. As a result, all the positions to be contested for the senate, House of Representatives and even the state assembly had anointed candidates handpicked by Kwankwaso, with further two in-laws of his selected. This is not democracy!

In conclusion, it is apparent that the selfish imposition has created cracks in the Kwankwasiyya camp, as this will be the first time the members of the cult-like political movement came out openly to go against their leader, there are insinuations that the governorship candidates will soon write a protest letter to the national headquarters of the party. Furthermore there is the Salihu Sagir Takai camp still in the PDP, not to talk of the original leadership of the party led by Doguwa who are all against the perceived injustice perpetrated in selecting an unknown candidate to contest against Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in the 2019 governorship election. Except a miracle happens, Kwankwaso’s nepostic imposition of candidates is a recipe for failure for the PDP in Kano.

Rabiu Shamma is a Civil Right Activist and a Public Commentator who can be reached on shammajnr@gmail.com or 07035504982.