Will chain of endorsements deliver Kano for Tinubu?

• It won’t lead to victory – Opposition parties

The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, left Kano State last week with chains of endorsements from business, religious and political groups, hopeful that they will deliver the second largest vote bank in the country for him come 2023.

From October 22–24, the former Lagos State governor turned his attention to Kano, calling for support from all those who had at one time or another promised him their backing if he became the presidential flag bearer of his party.

Politicians in different support groups, including religious leaders, ethnic leaders that cut across the federation, as well as the business community and other social groups, all domiciled in the commercial centre of northern Nigeria, took turns to have audience with the former Lagos State governor and most ended their sessions with both sides smiling—endorsements from most of the groups and promises from the candidate.

Tinubu is not a stranger to Kano, a state second only to Lagos in terms of voting strength with its over six million registered voters.

Long before he formally declared his interest for the presidency, he had frequented the state for different reasons, with almost all seeing him holding consultations with different groups.

The first of his many visits was in December 2020, when he was a guest at the wedding of the daughter of the popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Bin-Uthman and subsequently met with top Islamic clerics in the state.

During this meeting, the clerics told him they would have no problem “repaying” him for his support for President Muhammadu Buhari, and he (Tinubu) had told them he would be back at the right time to ask for this favour.

He, therefore, made good his 2020 promise when his first round of consultations was with the leadership of the three Islamic sects in the state – Tijjaniyah, Izala and Qadriyyah. He later met with imams of Friday mosques in the state.

Tinubu also met with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the state.

He used Saturday for the commissioning of three campaign offices for his election in the state and also for a dinner with the Kano business community.

At the dinner, the leader of the business community, Alhaji Rabiu Isyaka Rabiu, presented several requests to the presidential candidate, which include provision of steady power supply for industrial growth, completion of Lokoja Port, and replication of the Lagos success strategy in Kano.

“I like your style and humility while you show leadership, role model, heroism and all the requirements, the traits we need in leadership.

“We pray and beg that you remember when you get into office, we will come back to this same place and remember when we stood here and presented our requirements to you and you will look back at us and say ‘I’ve fulfilled all my promises to you.

“We know there are other political parties, it’s a political game but we are happy with what you have said. We are happy with your manifesto and we are looking forward to the time we will all get together and celebrate and make Kano one of the best states in Nigeria,” he said, confirming the community’s endorsement of the APC candidate.

Elated with the endorsement, Tinubu had promised to meet their demands and also donated N100m to victims of flood disasters in the state. The beneficiaries include textile marketers in the popular Kantin Kwari.

During the meeting with Tijjaniyyah, the leader of the sect, Sheikh Tijjani Usman Bare-Beri, said the adherents of the sect are about 60 million, representing 2/3 of Nigerian Muslims and they are happy and support the selection of Kashim Shettima as the vice-presidential candidate.

While the Tijjaniyyah leader avoided using the word ‘endorsement’ during his speech, the state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, seized the opportunity while speaking to get commitment from the group when he said, “I can see you smiling. It is a kind of endorsement, isn’t it? Do you offer prayers for these two brothers (Tinubu and Shettima)?” to which the group responded, “Yes”.

Ganduje then went further to say, “It (the yes) means you have endorsed these two brothers.” And the group again responded in the affirmative.

This strategy was deployed by the governor in all the interactive sessions to confirm where the groups stood.

And while the answers to Ganduje’s question of whether the groups have endorsed Tinubu received a resounding ‘yes’ in most of the sessions, a deafening silence followed the question when it was put to the leadership of CAN.

The chairman of CAN in Kano, Pastor Adeolu Adeyemi, while addressing the presidential candidate, avoided speaking on endorsement, but simply said they came because of the respect they have for Ganduje and promised to always “pray” for Tinubu for “journey mercies” in all his campaign tours.

He said the Christian community in Kano has two responsibilities: first, to pray for safety in Kano as well as peace and security for Nigeria, and to pray for journey mercies for Tinubu, and also to tell Christians to exercise their civic responsibilities.

Tinubu, who knew the position of the Christian group was not unconnected with his Muslim-Muslim ticket, took a long time to explain to the Christian leaders in Kano the reason for his choice.

“I am married to a pastor and when I am at home, she is the boss, and I didn’t try to Islamize her,” he stated. Telling them further that, “You don’t want to be an enemy of what God has ordained. I am a politician, and politicians’ strategy and formula is to win.

“How can I be a minority Yoruba Muslim and go and take Emmanuel in Sokoto; I have gotten the result of the election then. Fail. I must design a formula that will make me win, and it is only after winning that I can change the character, content and approach of governance that you can participate,” he said.

Whether or not his explanation resonates with the Christian leader remains a debate, but the awkwardness at the end of the meeting was as loud as Tinubu’s parting words to the Christian community.

“I have not been able to see anybody who has been able to stop the storm of water, flood. Don’t let us deceive ourselves; Nigeria is going to remain one, one under God.

“It’s left for you to believe in the fact that our diversity in faith, culture and languages should be used for our prosperity, not for division and adversity,” he said.

And while the interaction with the Christian community may not have gone the way he had envisaged, analysts believe that Tinubu left Kano a happier and more confident candidate with the endorsements and can only hope the leaders of the different groups will make good their words on the ballot in February 2023.

Nothing to lose sleep over – Opposition parties

But the opposition parties in Kano said the APC presidential candidate would be mistaken to go to bed with “these endorsements”, saying the people will make their choice with the ballot paper.

They said people would vote out the ruling APC and that the chain of endorsements was nothing to lose sleep over.

The New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), whose presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, is a former governor of Kano, said it was not worried at all with the “so-called endorsements”.

“This same group of people (religious bodies) are the ones that endorsed former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 and I don’t know how much he benefited from their endorsement.

“We are not worried at all; everybody knows Kano is NNPP. Kano is Kwankwasiyya. Kano is for Kwankwaso,” the deputy governorship candidate of the party, Comrade Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo, who doubles as the spokesman for the Kwankwasiyya Movement, told Daily Trust.

For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano, it’s deputy gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Suleiman Yusuf Dambatta, told our correspondent that Kano citizens “are wise” and will always welcome anyone to the state, but that should not be misconstrued as endorsement.

He said the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, enjoyed massive support in Kano and therefore stood a better chance.

On his part, the gubernatorial candidate of Labour Party (LP), Engineer Bashir I. Bashir, told Daily Trust that the leaderships of the religious groups do not carry the weight to mobilise support for any candidate, adding that they are mere “opinion peddlers”.

He said the people are tired of the ruling party and as such, they would vote against APC.

He also said for every religious sect in Kano, he and the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have those that will vote for them, which in the end will ensure their victory.

Analysts say, however, that the views and moves of the opposition parties aside, the fresh crisis within the party that came to the fore with the clash between the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa and the deputy governorship candidate, Murtala Sule-Garo, if not properly handled, may make the endorsements of little value by the time the citizens make their choices.