RABIU MUSA KWANKWASO: The Man Seeking Your Mandate
By Folami Mustafa
In the wider social life of Egypt, there was always a fascination with France – what might be called the Napoleon-De lesseps-Aida complex. De lesseps was the engineer who designed the Suez Canal. It was opened in 1869 by the Empress Eugenie, consort of Napoleon III.
The Khedive of Egypt to celebrate the opening of the canal, commissioned Guisseppeerdi to compose an opera. The masterpiece was Aida, produced in Cairo in 1871.
The Kwankwaso Phenomenon
After the Sam Omatsaye’s diatribe, the bumpy road to the 2023 election will not be the same again.
The arena of ideas has turned into a cesspit of ethno-religious conflagration. In all of this, one candidate stands out, brandishing the logic of Daoism, showcasing why neither tribe nor religion should be the yardstick of a new Nebula within the political space.
Who is Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso?
He came to limelight after the Tsansi/Tabo conciliation of the progressive School of Aminu Kano. He was elected as the executive Governor of Kano State between 1999 and 2003, where he was known as the water man (Mai ruwa) after his laudable water project.
He met his waterloo in the Shariah debacle of what constitute the Hudud punishment under the constitutional Law
This triumphantly brought in Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau who rode into the Government House. His 2003 bid to serve for a second term was unsuccessful, despite his tremendous achievements in the area of education, rural electrification and health.
He was able to establish a state University of Technology at Wudil and the Northwest University (now YMSU). He introduced free feeding of primary school pupils for which he was given a UN recognition.
His electrification of the rural area was next to non in the federation. It was to his government the credit of the roll back on infant mortality rate having introduced free natal programme for the pregnant mothers.
On losing his bid for a straight second term, President Obasanjo cabinet appointed him as the Minister of Defence. He not only canvassed the re-training of the Army, he championed the payment of commensurate allowances and bonus for soldiers on special Military campaigns. This earned him the post of a special presidential envoy to Somalia and Darfur.
On this ground, having given a good account of himself, he was recalled to negotiate peace on the Niger Delta crisis and the formation of the Niger Delta Development Commission.
On his re-election in April 2011, he settled down to re-integrate Kano to its fate as the commercial hub of Sub-Saharan Africa.
This is the man seeking your mandate.
He was the only governor whose policy on the economy had an interface with the socio-cultural setting of the people, but this was short-lived as the people’s Emir was dethroned by a subsequent regime.
So, like the Khedive’s of Egypt, Kwankwaso wants to create a Suez Canal of opportunities starting from the Hadejia-Jam’are to the tributaries of the Gulf of Guinea.
The arrowhead of this programme will be a green Eco system that will galvanise to life the agro industrial revolution of Nigeria that will create jobs for the teeming youths and roll back the Sahel as a solution to the rampaging tides of banditry owing to long days of economic deprivation.
With regards to infrastructure and economic growth in Nigeria, he was the first governor, North of the Niger, to power an independent power project that was commissioned by the President Jonathan administration, using power as a catalyst of economic growth and in turn accelerating industrial growth in the sub region.
In one of his classical works, A Political Economy of Africa, the social scientist, Professor Claude Ake said: “I am by no means claiming to have discovered the laws of motion of Africa, the best that can be claimed for this work is that it tries to clarify some problems, to show how we might profitably proceed.”
In like manner, the cap revolutionist is saying listen to me and let us sit down and work out what works for us into the future.
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