Abdullahi Ganduje’s Flights Of Fancy -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

Abdullahi Ganduje became the national chiarman of the All Progressives Congress after eight years of being the governor of Kano State. In many ways, he is the poster child of the patronage system inherent in Nigeria’s politics.

He became Governor in 2015 having been deputy governor for two terms of four years each, though not consecutively. During his time as governor, he removed Sanusi Lamido as the Emir of Kano, split the hitherto single emirate into five emirates. He also quarreled with Rabiu Kwankwaso, his long-time boss and benefactor, and largely trod where angels feared. Maybe it was because he was no angel himself.

He was caught on video stuffing dollars in the pockets of his babariga. Elections conducted in the state while he was governor were like war where voters and opponents were to be vanquished. Under Ganduje,Kano knew fear as familiar as the night is to owls and bats.

For all his flaws, and fault for having conceded his state to the NNPP during the last elections, Ganduje was made the Chiarman of the APC as compatible with his new role as flies are with feces.

Like a woman in purdah, Ganduje may be shuttered from the reality of daily life in Nigeria. His position of extreme privilege ensures that he is not living the hardscrabble life of many Nigerians. But even this power-induced hardness of hearing would have been penetrated by the protests that have wracked the country because of hunger and hardship – which indict the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. However, Ganduje can afford to ignore everything else and continue the power play he is so versed in. Some days ago, he travelled into the future to declare that there will be no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2027, a blatant endorsement of the Tinubu administration. Insensitive and premature surely, but Ganduje would not care. He was addressing Kwankwaso -his arch enemy and chief nemesis- and his irksome supporters.

But he should care. Rather than deliver applause that is at best undercooked and undeserved at this stage, he should focus on governance. Rather than power, he should court the provision of democratic goods to the people.

As the leader of the APC, he should preoccupy himself with reminded those elected on the platform of the party of their responsibilities to those who voted them. Rather than preempt democracy, a man in his position should be heard pronouncing its preeminence.

He may pride himself on being irrepressible—his hard-won political battles support him—but the line between irrepressibility and irresponsibility is razor-thin, and he may just have stepped an inch into the latter.

The arrogance of power usually lures those in its thrall to think they can control the present and the future before fooling them to manipulate history by attempting to rewrite it. But history is a jilted, vengeful and vindictive lover who indelibly smears those who attempt to rewrite it in indelible infamy.

Ganduje may be a key player in the power game Nigerians would rather not play as it is played, but to think that he holds all the aces is a grim misjudgment. For all its flaws and foibles, Nigeria remains a democracy, and democracy is all about decentralizing power.

For eight years, Ganduje disregarded the delicate designs of democracy in his state. He ran roughshod over his people, terrorized his political opponents into submission and balkanized the state along political lines. Given his antecedents, especially his unflinchingly crude disposition to life and politics, it is no surprise that he has chosen to look away from the struggles of the Tinubu presidency elected on the platform of his party to predict a smooth sailing for his party in 2027. The best politicians project power, while the best leaders project people. It is not in Ganduje’s place to say there won’t be vacancy in Aso Rock in 2007.

Democracy automates vacancy no matter how brief in the office of the president every four years no. It is for Nigerians to decide how and who fills that that vacancy.

Ganduje’s single-mindedness is legendary. The lengths the APC went under him to retain power in Kano State during the last election showed a man at his ruthless best in the pursuit of goals he is convinced about. There is nothing that convinces the Nigerian politician like the pursuit and acquisition of power. But nothing convicts him as much too. If Ganduje had his way, there would be no election in 2027 since his party is in power.

But despite his vacuous grandiloquence, it is gratifying that democracy operates to vacate every office in the land every four years, vanquishing in the process the vainglory of those who balk at the transience of power. In an imperfect society where democracy is a flawed prize, this is a victory on many levels.

President Tinubu will be best served concentrating on Nigeria’s multitudinous problems, lost in the puzzle of how to solve them rather than hanging his head in the clouds of illusory success conjured by party men like Ganduje whose costly miscalculations often turn them into party poopers. Anything else will be the president’s loss.

Nigerians of every stratum must also learn to take men like Ganduje as the jokers that they are who constitute a significant threat to democracy in the country. Conspicuous and insufferable, these men having tasted power are determined to cling to it, no matter what it takes. Democracy insists on reposing power in the people and those who wish to wrench same from them are enemies of the people, simply put

Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com