The recent political crisis that erupted between the incumbent governor of Kano State Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and his predecessor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso is not a new thing in the history of Kano politics.
Similar incidents had happened in the 1970s between two prominent Kano politicians, late Malam Aminu Kano and late Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi when the former was the national leader of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and the latter Kano State governor under the PRP.
The political squabble started when the party directed Rimi to pull out of the Progressive Governors’ Forum which comprised the three governors of the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP), two for the Great Nigerian People’s Party (GNPP) and another two of the PRP.
This political crisis led to the resignation of the late Rimi from his position as governor of Kano State and subsequently joined the NPP. Upon his voluntary resignation, his deputy, late Alhaji Bibi Faruk who refused to follow him to NPP became the governor.
The development gave birth to another political row between Rimi and Faruk, the crisis that finally consumed the latter. Faruk was impeached by members of the state assembly for alleged ‘political misconduct.’ But some political analysts believed that his refusal to follow Rimi to NPP was the main reason that led to his sudden removal.
However, Rimi had again contested the 1983 governorship election under the NPP but was defeated by a candidate of his former party, late Sabo Bakin-Zuwo.
Coming to the recent crisis rocking the All Progressive Congress in Kano, the APC leadership in the state has been factionalised with Kwankwaso Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as leaders of the two groups.
The history of the crisis, Daily Trust gathered could be traced back to 1999 after Kwankwaso contested and won governorship election on the PDP platform. It was said that the ex-governor, now senator, became the party’s flag bearer with the help of three political camps of late the Rimi, Alhaji Musa Gwadabe and Alhaji Aminu Wali.
It was also gathered that Kwankwaso was said to have used the political structures of Alhaji Abba Dabo and Ganduje for his campaign in 1999.
But unfortunately for the PDP after Kwankwaso lost his second term bid to Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in 2003, the internal crisis between the camps escalated. Therefore, in the 2007governorship election, many gubernatorial aspirants emerged from the PDP camps. Four aspirants were said to have been sponsored by Kwankwaso who was then barred from contesting election by a white paper issued against him by his successor, Shekarau.
This political turmoil gave birth to what was at that time referred to as PDP Yan-Biyar forum. The forum was formed by five PDP governorship aspirants – Alhaji Yusuf Ado Kibiya, Senator Isa Zarewa, Alhaji Aminu Dabo, Alhaji Imam Buhari and Alhaji Ibrahim Little.
On the other hand, Kwankwaso, Ganduje and the present Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Engr Rabi’u Sulaiman Bichi formed another camp and Dabo and Bichi were also governorship aspirants.
The internal feud, it was gathered, continued until 2011. When the 2011 general election approached, the groups decided to bury their political differences in order to achieve a common political goal. And to achieve that they formed what is now called Kwankwasiyya Movement, with a view to getting rid of Rimi, Gwadabe, Wali, Yan-Biyar, Kwankwaso’s camps.
After the formation of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Kwankwaso being a former governor among the political actors was appointed leader. The politicians used the movement to campaign for Kwankwaso’s second term bid through the Dawo-Dawo ideology and he won the election under the platform of the PDP.
The incumbent governor, Ganduje whose political structures and those Dabo were used by Kwankwaso in 1999, was all along a deputy to the former and until the recent crisis, had never pointed accusing fingers at his boss.
The assumption of many people in the state was that after the completion of his second tenure in 2015, Kwankwaso would back the candidature of Ganduje for governor, but that did not happen. Ganduje campaigned alone and indeed won the election without Kwankwaso’s support.
Even at that, during his inaugural speech, Ganduje stated categorically that his administration would consolidation and continuation of Kwankwaso’s government. However, this did not stop politicians from insinuating cracks between him and his former boss.
However, Kwankwaso’s recent condolence visit to the governor over the death of his mother, Hajiya Fatima Umar Ganduje, in Ganduje town finally unveiled the long political crisis between him and Ganduje, the crisis that is gradually tearing the party apart.
Prior to the recent crisis, Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa, a Kwankwaso loyalist, was the chairman of the party but he was suspended on Saturday, March 19 and subsequently replaced with Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas as interim chairman, a person that is seen by many as Kwankwaso’s political enemy.
The suspension was announced after a special meeting of APC members at the party’s state secretariat in Horoto. The suspended chairman was accused of alleged violation of the party’s constitution.
The meeting was attended by many party members, including its local government chairmen, their secretaries, members of the state assembly, special advisers to Governor Ganduje and other stakeholders.
Also suspended at the meeting was party’s organising secretary Alhaji Sanusi Suraj Kwankwaso.
The party’s acting secretary, Alhaji Abbas Sani Abbas, who announced the suspension of the two executives, said the party’s state central working committee had approved the appointment of Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas as nterim chairman of the party.
Abbas also said a 7-man disciplinary committee headed by Alhaji Haruna Amadu Dan-Zago had been set up to review a series of complaints against the duo and come up with recommendations.
“The suspended executives if found guilty of the allegations leveled against them will be punished according to gravity of their offences. I implored members of the committee to review the complaints against the suspended executives critically,” he stated.
He said the committee was given only one week to complete its investigation and present its findings to the party.
Daily Trust observed that the suspension came up 24 hours after Gwanduje declared his intention to reconcile with his predecessor. The governor made the declaration in Abuja while answering questions from newsmen at the State House.
However, on Sunday, March 20, Kwankwaso’s faction reacted on the sudden suspension of the two APC executives. Former commissioner of for state affairs under Kwankwaso, Comrade Aminu Abdulsalam described the suspension as unconstitutional.
“The meeting held by a section of party members where the two executives were suspended has violated the constitution of the party and therefore the decision taken was not constitutional. That purported meeting was null and void,” Abdulsalam said.
He maintained that, Doguwa and Kwankwaso were still the party’s state chairman and organising secretary, respectively.
He pointed out that constitutionally, the chairman was the only person empowered by the party’s constitution to convene a meeting and anything short of that was illegal and unconstitutional.
“Even if the meeting is to discuss issues that affect Doguwa, he still remains a sole responsible executive to call for the meeting as far as the constitution of the party is concerned. During the meeting other members will raise the allegations leveled against the chairman and then allow him to defend himself.
“In the event where the chairman fails to defend himself then an emergency congress will be called to discuss the issue at a higher level. And even at that the chairman must be given fair hearing by allowing him to defend himself before the congress. This is the provision of the party constitution and until we adhere to these whatever decision one might have taken on somebody, such decision could be seen as unconstitutional,” he explained.
Abdulsalam lamented that the person who allegedly convened the meeting, Alhaji Abbas Sani Abbas, has no power whatsoever to do so not to talk of suspending the chairman.
He said Abbas does not hold any position in the party.
“Abbas was a former assistant secretary of APC in the state before he voluntarily resigned his position to contest House of Representative seat. His resignation letter was presented to the party national headquarters. So how can somebody that is not holding any position in the party summon a meeting of the party and suspend its chairman. This is childish and we will not accept it,” he stressed.
Abdulsalam therefore appealed to party members, especially Kwankwaso’s supporters to remain calm as according to him they will handle the matter appropriately.
“We have also learned that the state government has been intimidating and coercing the state, local and ward level party executives and other relevant stakeholders to declare support for the governor which manifested itself through various press releases from different quarters condemning the recent visit of Senator Rabi’u Kwankwaso without fair hearing as none of the said stakeholders bothered to hear from the side of Kwankwaso,” he noted.
“While calling on the elected leaders to hold on to their political leaning, we also call on those leaders who are being harassed to declare their support for the government; but note that at the right time, we shall call on our followers to make known their true political affiliation,” he added.
Abdulsalam pointed out that Kwankwaso deliberately stayed away from Kano in order to give the present administration time and space to face the enormous challenges of governance, saying “despite that it is absurd and shocking to read that government is accusing us of interference.”
Also reacting, Alhaji Sanusi Suraj Kwankwaso insisted that he is still the organizing secretary of the party.
“The APC national body knows only Umar Doguwa and Sanusi Kwankwaso as chairman and organizing secretary of the party in Kano. So we will not recognise Abbas as an interim chairman,” he told a press conference on March 20.
However, a member of House of Representatives from Kano, Alhaji Abdulmumini Jibril has appealed to the two politicians to as a matter of urgency sheath their swords and end the lingering political crisis. The call was contained in press statement which he signed and issued to pressmen in Kano on Thursday.
Abdulmumini said: “Having analysed the situation, it has become obvious that neither Ganduje nor Kwankwaso will stand to benefit from this row. The party will suffer. Both of you will be distracted. The masses will bear the brunt and our political opponents whom we defeated in the past will avail themselves of our differences to advance their political cause.”
He added that: “It is evident that the crisis has gone out of hand as supporters of the either camp have owned up and taken over the crisis, and in the process diminishing your capacity to decide on reconciliatory moves.”
He expressed fear that if left unaddressed, the domino effect of the crisis may spiral to other states, considering the fact that Kano is the nerve centre of the north.
The lawmaker therefore suggested that the two politicians should involve their key political allies and supporters in the process of reconciliation as according to him they were the ones who championed the course of starting, fanning and spreading the crisis.
“It is saddening that the crisis comes at a time when both of you have attained the pinnacle of your political careers and at the time both of you are grooming heirs to your robust political dynasty. But even more dismaying is seeing your political offspring, who were best of friends a few months ago, taking sides and quarrelling to crash the political empire you laboured to build for us,” Jibril concluded.
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