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The New Military Government Of Kano State By Nura Nasir
Just some few days ago, the people of Kano State found themselves reminiscing those days of military regime.
Somebody outside of Kano may likely ask; has religious or ethnic crisis resurfaced in Kano again? If not, what could be so critical to have gone beyond the control of the police - and obviously required a military intervention? Is Kano (politically) going anti-clockwise? What would have caused such chaos in the first place? The answer is simple. People have never revolted against justice, but history has shown that many people died striving for it.
Kano was the first State that conducted the 2007 Local Governments elections. Already, long before the election, everybody was doubting if any other political party could actually contend with the ruling party (ANPP - due to its popularity). Perhaps the people of Kano were tired of the PDP, and therefore wholeheartedly embraced the newfound ANPP (that was since 2003). Unfortunately, this time around, everybody was proved wrong. It appears like (Kano) ANPP was well-prepared to win the elections by hook-or-crook (not with the confidence it has in the people of Kano). Perhaps this is evident from the way their primary elections were said to be conducted, in which the party was allegedly reported to have imposed its PETS in various places to bear the flag (not through the standard protocols - though that was not the case).
On the election day, I can attest that there was low turn-out to the polling units, many people did not go to vote (not even the opposition party supporters). This could be due to the serious loss of faith in democracy by many Nigerians, since after what I call ‘electoral robbery’ that took place in mid April this year. But surprisingly, the (Kano) Local Governments election has not been what it was thought to be. Guess what? While the election was going on, the greatest opposition party (PDP) was allegedly reported to be on-the-lead in some places. What is wrong with Kano people? So unpredictable and highly volatile!
I am sure security report must have highlighted the possibility of chaos - if the election is rigged. But to our greatest surprise, the Executive Governor ‘silently’ walked out of the State at such crucial moment (at the eve of the elections) - perhaps to give the hardliners a good chance to manipulate (I don’t know).
But what’s the big deal? In the 2003 elections, the (then) young and handsome ANPP snatched away most of these ‘beautiful’ LGAs from the PDP. We were made to believe that it was a kind of divine intervention, otherwise the PDP would have at all cost rigged the election. Now, what have they (ANPP) done? This justifies a statement I made sometime - that people like Muhammadu Buhari do not perfectly fit into any political party (it is just too bad that our democracy is not mature enough to warrant an individual to be elected on an independent platform).
The conduct of the elections took longer time than necessary, (some) results were not announced in good time. This suddenly provoked the opposition party supporters in anticipation and the fear of electoral rigging. Tension continued to mount. Suddenly, some Local Governments delved into violence. Loss of lives and properties with so many people injured was the outcome (as usual).
As already anticipated, most of the results were in favour of the ANPP, and this triggered and rekindled the chaos once more. “In the interest of fair play, peace and justice, people should simply be given what they voted for.”
The next thing was the return of the Executive Governor from the ‘Short-Service’ - coming out as a full-pledged military General, and immediately ordered for military intervention. Kano is back again, after quite a long period of calmness. Though it is so interesting at this millennium for Kano to discover yet a new system of government which I want to tag “Democra-Military” System of Government.
The machineries that were allegedly used by the ANPP to perpetrate violence during the previous election are now revolting against it. They are just so sophisticated and versatile that they always tend to serve the highest bidder. And this is one of the greatest challenges to Shekarau’s administration, (having promised to embark on rigorous societal re-orientation). It is almost five years now, (all things being equal), with careful review, planning and implementation, we should have started seeing these re-orientations translating into action - changing behaviours of individuals and the society at large. Any input without an output and an impact is a waste and delusive.
Therefore, I want to use this medium to express my sincere and heartfelt sympathy to Governor Shekarau over the loss of his (political) glory in Kano. I can not conclude without passing my condolence message to the entire members and supporters of the ANPP for the ‘sudden’ death of their dear party in the State, while urging them to quickly ask the party’s (personal) physicians to cross-examine the corpse before finally going for burial.
We look forward to seeing a new political party that would reign in Kano for the time being.
Nura Nasir (nurnasisa@yahoo.com) writes from M/Murtala Kano
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