The eight commissioners include the deputy governor Engr. Abdullahi Gwarzo, who doubles as the Commissioner for Water Resources, Commissioner for Environment, Alhaji Garba Yusuf Abubakar; Commissioner for Rural & Community Development, Musa Iliyasu Kwankwaso; Commerce and Industry, Ahmad Ibrahim Yakasai; Agriculture & Natural Resources, Musa Suleiman Shanono; Information, Sports & Culture, Barrister Haruna Idris Dederi; Local Governments, Alhaji Sagir Takai, and Commissioner for Science and Technology, Dr Bashir Galadanchi.
Heads of government agencies eyeing the plum office of governor include the Director General of the state Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Sani Lawan Kofar Mata, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Affairs, Alh. Abdullahi Sani Rogo.
HARVEST OF ASPIRANTS
Those members of Shekarau’s cabinet combine with numerous aspirants outside the state government but within the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to make a crowd which has been making well-wishers of the party restless.
The aspirants outside the cabinet include two serving senators: Mohammed Adamu Bello of Kano Central Senatorial District, and Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya of the Kano South Senatorial District. Other aspirants include two former council chairmen: Nasiu Guwara of Nassarawa Local Government Area and Alhaji Habibu Saleh Minjibir of Minjibir Local Government Area. There is the businessman, Abdulmannan Dantata; and an Islamic preacher, Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil.
Among the contestants in government, the Deputy Governor draws hope from the confidence that Governor Shekarau is said to have in him. Engr. Abdullahi Gwarzo is seen as a cautious politician who is not overly ambitious. People in the picture of contemporary politics in the state say he has earned the respect of many, mainly for his fabled loyalty to his boss. A fact stands out to everyone who knows how Shekarau served his first term (2003 to 2007). Gwarzo has made a difference from his predecessor, Engr. Magaji Abdullahi, whose term as Shekarau’s deputy was marked with rancour that degenerated over time, for which reason he was dropped for Gwarzo as Shekarau vied for and got his second term in 2007.
The additional responsibility of supervising the Ministry of Water Resources, a challenging ministry because of perennial difficulty with making water available to the highly populated state, is considered one of the vital proofs of Shekarau’s confidence in Gwarzo. A former Special Assistant on Research and Documentation to Governor Shekarau, Alhaji Hassan Indabawa says Gwarzo has done much good, considering what applied in the past in regard to water supply. He said, “Water is now readily available. You find tap water now even in rural settlements. It has never been so good since the First Republic.”
Gwarzo is known to be expecting support from most of Kano State’s 44 local government chairmen. This is chiefly because when you talk about politics in local councils, Gwarzo is an old hand. He was chairman of his home council area, Gwarzo, a couple of times. He consummated his years at that level of politics by emerging the Kano State chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON). He was holding those two offices when he was drafted in 2007 to run with Shekarau, reportedly on the strength of the goodwill of his colleagues.
THE KWANKWASO IN SHEKARAU’S CAMP
The state Commissioner for Rural Development, Engr Iliyasu Kwankwaso, is another top contender for the State House in Kano. Iliyasu is the relative of Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso who was the incumbent governor when Shekarau first campaigned for and won election as governor in 2003. Iliyasu left the former governor and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to pitch tent with Shekarau who hails from Nasarawa Local Government Area. He topped that patronage in 2007 when he reportedly contributed a good deal to the actualisation of Shekarau’s dream to be governor the second time. This, those who should know say, is not lost on the governor.
Iliyasu’s current position as Commissioner for Rural Development is strategic to his ambition to become governor. In the course of his regular schedules, Iliyasu networks with community leaders and rural folks who could mobilise the masses for him if he remains in the race to the stage when such an assignment will be necessary.
On his part, Alhaji Ahmed Yakassai sees his Ministry of Commerce and Industry ’s execution of the Kano International Market project as an achievement that should speak for him when the right time comes. The ‘Gentleman Commissioner’, as many call him, has faced with determination the task of remaking Kano the nation’s centre of commerce. And the Kano, nay Kanawa International Market, otherwise called Kano Economic City, an enterprise meant to be Africa’s biggest business centre, has been regarded as one bold step forward by the Shekarau administration.
THE ONE WHO TRANSFORMED QUARANIC EDUCATION
Dr. Bashir Galadanci, the Commissioner for Science & Technology is praised by many for helping otherwise helpless Quaranic school pupils through the state’s mixed Tsangaya Koranic/Western education system when he was the special adviser on Education and Information Technology. For a state that had a large share of children receiving Quaranic education in pitiable conditions because of the penchant by many parents to push their children to Quaranic schools with no provision for their welfare, Galadanchi’s efforts at addressing the situation are appreciated by many.
Alhaji Sani Lawal Kofar Mata, the Executive Secretary of Kano State Pilgrims Welfare Board, is seen as another serious contender. He is believed to be wealthy, generous, and wields much influence. He is credited with having done much to ensure Shekarau’s second victory in 2007. His reputation with the masses is rated high. His admirers say this reputation became the weapon he deployed to convince the electorate in Shekarau’s favour when he led the campaigns for him. He is said to be close to Shekarau and was rumoured at a time to be the governor’s concealed favourite for the ANPP’s quest to retain the state in 2011.
THE SENATORS WHO WANT TO BE GOVERNOR
A notable ANPP governorship hopeful vying from outside Shekarau’s cabinet, Senator Mohammad Adamu Bello, is a former ANPP chairman and Commissioner for Agriculture and Environment in Kano State. He is described as being a shrewd grassroots politician whose chances of becoming the next governor of the state are high. Some of his pluses, more so with the masses than the elite though, is a closeness to ANPP’s presidential candidate in 2003 and 2007, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), who is popular with Kano people and who was widely reputed to be instrumental to Shekarau’s emergence as governor in 2003. He is said to be upright and endowed with the qualities that will be necessary for ANPP to retain Kano State next year, except that, ironically, those ‘fine’ qualities may fail to count for him the way they failed to count for Buhari in the two times he has sought to become president.
Mohammed Bello’s colleague in the Senate, Kabiru Gaya, is a former governor of Kano State whose tenure should come handy as he makes his new bid. He, using his brief period in office as governor (1992 -1993) raised the status of many Kano people who will be happy to see him back. He proved that he actually generated much goodwill in his days as governor when he rode with little effort to his current office in the Senate in 2007. The advantage of having been governor of the state before places him above the others in the race.
Those are just some of the known prominent people in the ANPP jostling for the Kano State Government House come 2011. They are believed to be many more. The number is put at no less than 30, and it is deemed likely that many more will join the race as the elections come near. It worries the ANPP that this should be the reality. There is fear that pruning the large number to one would be a tough job.
The determination for the high office by so many aspirants is said to be taking a toll on the party already. Camps are reported to have sprung up behind some of the popular aspirants and they are said to be singing discordant songs.
But Malam Yau Sule Yau, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations to Governor Ibrahim Shekarau says the ANPP remains one united force.
He told Sunday Trust in a telephone interview, “No factions exist in the ANPP. There are many people seeking the party’s ticket for 2011 but this hasn’t affected the party’s unity. It is still one united family. There is no reason to worry that anything to the contrary will happen.”
