Kwankwaso’s disruptive moves; Consensus; Mutfwang’s ‘vexatious’ visit; CDS and ‘prodigal sons’

Nigeria is like a movie. New episodes emerge every day. These days, the frequency of the episodes does not take up to a day. Before you finish with one, another has propped up. Those who go to the cinema, most times, do so for relaxation. They go to kill boredom by laughing, giggling and smiling. But the theatre in which Nigerians find themselves now is a  bloody one. The movies to which they are treated are the types that induce high blood pressure, trigger adrenaline rise and evoke goose pimples. These episodes ooze from bad politics to well-choreographed anti-people socio-economic activities, official bad behavours, and to worsening insecurity in the country. Everywhere one turns, it is horror films that offend one’s sensibilities.

 

The Kwankwaso aura

At last, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano State, has anchored at the African Democratic Congress (ADC) after a seemingly uncertain voyage.

At his defection Monday, after collecting his card and officially registering as a member of the ADC, he advised members of the Kwankwasiyya Movement to register with the ADC.

He was received by a mammoth crowd that observers described as “organic,” and a foretaste of what is to be expected at the 2027 general election.

The defection ended months of speculations over where the founder of the Kwankwasiyya Movement was headed.

Before his defection Monday, he had been pulled by all manner of forces coming from the APC and the ADC. His moves will, no doubt, alter the power equation in the state in 2027. Although Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf is in the ruling APC, observers say that he would not be able to withstand the bulldozing power of Kwankwaso, who has for many years determined electoral outcomes in the state.

In the run up to the 2023 general election, he had declined to collaborate with Peter Obi and others to do battle against Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Since after the election, pressure has continued to mount on him from the APC. While the wooing was going on, he made his intentions known, saying, “I will not go to the APC blindly. I must be clearly informed of my role, the direction of the journey and the fate of our plans for the common people.”

When he lingered, Abuja decided to pull his political godson and governor of the state, Yusuf, to the APC.

Rather than being coerced into joining the APC, he now decided to explore the possibility of working with the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate in 2025. Those who have critically followed the talks and body language of the dramatis personae believe that there may have been some form of rapprochement.

But one man that appeared very sad at the development in Kano is Alwan Hassan, a stalwart of the APC.

Hassan regretted that the APC missed a great opportunity by allowing Kwankwaso to join the ADC. He spoke on Channels Television Tuesday, saying that the defection of Kwankwaso from the NNPP to the ADC may have changed the political equation in the country ahead of 2027.

“I don’t think that Governor Yusuf has the power to win Kano for the APC. We can’t win Kano without Kwankwaso.

“The political termites around Tinubu prevented him from seeing Kwankwaso, who was on standby in Abuja for a very long time to see the President,” Hassan said.

He also accused the governors on the APC platform and some ministers of hypocrisy. According to him, “a lot of the governors and ministers do not like the President. They do not like him for who he is, but what he is.”

The APC man also said that sabotage against Tinubu’s re-election bid would come from inside the party, the way it happened against Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

When sometime last year, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, suddenly resigned as the national chairman of the APC in what seemed a controversial circumstance, many speculated that the president was trying to woo and headhunt Kwankwaso to step into that position.

Kwankwaso is a pillar in the Kano politics. He has a huge electoral capital and value for any party that gets his support.

For those who did not know, Kano State has 44 local government areas, with estimated population of 16,253,549 (Sixteen million, two hundred and fifty-three thousand, five hundred and forty-nine) people. Its population is about that of five to seven states put together.

Its huge number of LGAs make Bayelsa (eight), Gombe (11), Ebonyi (13), Nasarawa (13), Niger (15), Abia (17) and others grin with envy.

It is believed that the political juggernaut would not have just jumped on the wagon of the ADC if there had been no concrete promise about a strategic role he would play. Let the politicking begin!

 

The coronation of cronies

Nigerian leaders say the country is in democracy, and all the political parties operating therein also claim that their activities are in line with democratic principles.

But in practice, it does not synchronise. Undemocratic activities and behaviours are on display all over the place.

Democracy is a representative form of government. Leaders are supposed to emerge through a process seen to be democratic.

But Section 84(2) of the new Electoral Act (2026) passed by the National Assembly, and hurriedly signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, stipulates that the procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for different elective positions shall be by either direct primaries or consensus.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has since put this to use during its state, zonal and national conventions, where no proper election was held.

The Nyesom Wike faction of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) also adopted the method to select  members of its National Working Committee (NWC).

In the case of APC, some party members who had paid for forms for certain positions, are screaming blue murder, alleging a rip-off.

What happened last week at the APC and the PDP conventions where certain officers were foisted on others, including those who had even paid for forms, was a mockery of democracy. They were brow-beaten to withdraw willy-nilly. This is purely an imposition.

It is sad that at 65, Nigeria is not making any progress, but rather retrogressing. When the country should be learning good things from forward-looking nations on how to improve on leadership recruitment processes, we are imposing all sorts of cronies on the people.

This is also the undemocratic process through which those who will fly the flag of the parties in the 2027 election will emerge.

What has emerged in our type of democracy is that many of the party members who are angry at the way things are going in the party have decided to keep quiet. No one wants to question the ‘orthodoxy’ as it were, for fear of a possible backlash.

 

Blood and Mutfwang’s Armoured tank exhibition

To put it pointedly, Nigeria is perhaps, at its lowest ebb and worst situation at the moment, especially in matters of security. It would seem that the country has relapsed into a nation where death evokes no sympathy and brutal killings seem to have become a new normal.

It is now normal for Nigerians to wake up every day to hear and read about 30 killed in Benue, 40 killed in Plateau, 100 killed in Borno, bandits kill 50 in Kwara, 60 in Katsina, 35 in Nasarawa, 60 in Niger, 200 abducted by terrorists in Kwara, 250 kidnapped in Borno. And the beat goes on!

Government’s action has remained, at best, castrated. A rash of verbal condemnation; press statement condemning actions, feeble threats to bring perpetrators to book, drafting of security personnel to troubled spots, and half-hearted visit of government officials to the scene where they shed some crocodile tears. How long must Nigeria continue to sing this song of blood?

One cool evening, when the people were celebrating the Palm Sunday in Gari Ya Waye community in Angwan Rukuba, Jos, a band of Killers moved from house to house killing the people. Reports had it that the Police and soldiers only arrived the community at about 8.30pm; a clear one hour, thirty minutes after the attack.

The reaction of the government to the unprovoked attacks has followed the usual pattern. While the dust is gradually settling, the killers are planning a fresh attack. Even if security agents get wind of such plans, nothing happens to nip it in the bud. Intelligence has proven ineffectual in Nigeria!

Meanwhile, Nigerians have not been told what is happening to those who take joy in drinking the blood of innocent citizens. Only one person is said to be in the police net. The question is, was it only one person that carried out the killings?

Unfortunately, when Governor Caleb Mutfwang visited the community, he worsened the feelings of the people by arriving the place in an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC).

The Number One citizen of the state arrived the scene triumphantly. He majestically opened the lid of the APC to demonstrate that no matter how ferocious the attackers were, they would not get at him.

Apart from addressing the people from the hole of the APC, he was surrounded by security officers in an area where people were apprehensive. If the governor could be so fearful, what message of protection is he delivering? Or was he trying to tell the people that he needs protection, but the people don’t need it?

Perhaps, he may not have alighted from the Armoured Personnel Carrier if not that the angry crowd literally forced him out of the tank. Leading from the front indeed!

 

CDS Oluyede’s infantile prescription on terrorists

It is sad that Nigeria has reached a point where those who should lead the charge of driving away wolves that devour our sheep are now the same people that make case for the wolves to graze on a herd of sheep.

Or how else can anybody situate the statement by General Olufemi Oluyede, chief of defence staff (CDS), that repentant terrorists should be seen with the same eye the father of the ‘prodigal son” saw the returnee vagabond.

He called for the rehabilitation and re-integration of killers into the society. This only shows that there is no genuine effort at ending the ravaging insecurity in Nigeria as insurgents are not only treated with kid-gloves, but also pampered.

Comparing violent and killer terrorists with a young man (prodigal son) who left home as a result of domestic misunderstanding, and had to return on his own accord when hunger and homelessness taught him a serious lesson, shows the shallow understanding of the magnitude and seriousness of the monsterous situation the country is up against.

How rational is it to re-integrate killers into a normal society? Killers who have left many families desolate; created an army of orphans, motherless, fatherless, childless, widows and widowers, and have also left them stranded.

These killers have graduated from the university of crime and have gone past rehabilitation!

In the last 10 years, the wanton killing and general insecurity in the land, especially in the north, has become a bargaining chip for politicians.

During the late Muhammadu Buhari administration, the then president believed that ending the murderous activities of Fulani herdsmen would affect his political control of the north. That was why he was at loggerheads with the then governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom.

In the present dispensation, observers believe that the alleged refusal of the powers that be to end insecurity was because of the re-election ambition of the president.

The thinking in the corridors of power is that the Aso Rock should just be managing the situation and continue with the lukewarm attitude of responding to the bloody attacks.

The president appears unwilling to rock the boat so as not to be seen as an enemy of some established and entrenched interests that could jeopardise his re-election bid. Too bad.