KANO GUBER 2023: Intrigues of Multitude Aspirations
By Bashir Kabir
The sought-after side of the population bulk of Kano state is crucially important to, for example, winning the presidential election. This is similitude phenomenon to Florida in the US where no president can win polls without conquering the state.
It is the same numeral determining factor of Kano State that could lead to problems and chaos of multitude aspirations at the gubernatorial level and, more importantly and of particular interest, at the federal party level.
For a good reason, the state ought to be secured in order for any party to have hopes for securing the country’s poll victory. The party electioneering always put that into consideration in making and unmaking of high-end decisions.
This gently brought us down to the issue of the nomination of a gubernatorial candidate in the state by a party. What are the factors governing the nomination? Who has the power to? Based on what criteria and what is generally taken into consideration?
Unsurprisingly, the journey to accomplish these determining conditions would stretch beyond the geographical borders of Kano state, far and beyond Abuja to Lagos in the Southwest where federal influence can still manifest in parties like the All Progressive Congress (APC).
To understand how this works, let us go back to Ganduje’s nomination by his predecessor in the year 2014. Kwankwaso, seen as a charismatic populist, had in 1999, contested the PDP primaries alongside Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Mukthari Zimit and Kabiru Rabiu. The Tsantsi/PSP were behind the candidature of Ganduje but they lost to Kwankwaso in the primaries (Well, that was the outward result. From within though, it was said that Ganduje was actually prevailed upon to allow Kwakwaso get the governorship ticket and was himself rewarded with the deputy.)
The duo, Kwakwaso/Ganduje, would preside over Kano State for two tenures, interrupted though by the eight years of the Shekarau administration.
The relationship looked cordial through the ordeal of losing election and making a come-back, until it was nomination time in the following election in 2015.
Perhaps the apparent ‘cool’ relation between the former governor and his deputy wasn’t always ‘cool’ because the former governor showed resistance to back Ganduje’s nomination at the beginning. It was reported that some key party members threatened to defect from the party if the governor refused to pass down the baton to his deputy. That was in addition to other pressures, probably at the national level, making Kwankwaso succumb to nominating Ganduje as his successor. The decision he later explicitly regretted as a capital mistake.
Back to the present. There is quite enough number of gubernatorial aspirants surfacing in the APC at the moment, each having a unique reason to present as motivation for his bid to be the possible candidate of the 2023 guber election. However, analysis of what would warrant who to become what is crucial before time finally declares the winner.
On the other hand, PDP has a more narrowed number of candidatures for the governorship seat, at least for now. It is generally believed that Abba Kabir will once again match muscles with whoever surfaces from APC. Nonetheless, there is the possibility of seeing a new name as a new party’s candidate. Between the prominent factions in the party in Kano State, Kwankawso and Aminu Wali would either work together to bring forth a formidable candidate or tear at each other’s throat to shred their chance of grabbing the state’s number one position.
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