Tinubu, Kwankwaso And Politics Of Who Gets What, When, How? -By Abdu Abdullahi

Eventually, the France political encounter had come and gone, except for the emotional turmoils and political dislocations it has generated. Mixed reactions will, therefore, continue to trail the talk to unravel its mysterious content.

Getting the president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the NNPP presidential candidate Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso engaged in a four hour tete-a-tete in far away France would not have been a raw news for its own sake. If it were an interaction between Tinubu and any other APC stalwart, nobody would have raised an eyebrow. It is therefore not erroneous describing the France meeting as a ‘ political capital’ for the two politicians, for they know where to reap to enhance their political investment. In political terms, they have their want, when and how to achieve it is just a matter of time.

Consequently, there were and still are unfolding occurrences in vehemence to this political amalgamation. Expressed dissatisfaction by some APC members who will never welcome Kwankwaso back to the APC is putting party members in disarray. Already, they have now drawn a battle line to wage a war against this bewildering fraternity if it is not cut off. As a result, Tinubu is seen by some party  members as sending a wrong signal ahead of his inauguration.

But Tinubu may not find his way between the devil and the deep blue sea because it is a well orchestrated political plan that will work in favour of each side. Tinubu has political power at the centre while Kwankwaso has an influence on the political power in Kano State. The last presidential election results show the political relevance of Kwankwaso in Kano politics and how it will be harnessed to benefit Tinubu whose unimpressive performance in Lagos leaves much to be desired. In a way, it is partly a projection of the next election. Recall that a philosophy has it that an average politician always thinks of the next election. 

Already, Tinubu had defined his incoming government as not unity in form but competence in overall outlook. If, therefore, it is the question of unity, other political actors from all the parties that fielded presidential candidates would have been invited to join the meeting. What then was the real motive behind the closed door discussion? For instance, if Atiku Abubakar had been the winner of the presidential election, would Kwankwaso have extended a similar hand of political cordiality? 

Sometimes, circumstances outweigh the dynamics of politics. Thus, the prevailing circumstance has given Kwankwaso the opportunity to hit the nail on its head to confer credence to his  emphatic and enigmatic political ambition. In this case, political dynamism has, therefore, been defeated by the forces of opportunism to elavate self esteem.

It has always been suggestive that in contemporary politics, what mostly gingers the political spirit of the  elites is power control, distribution and application to make  ends meet. This dictum has been occupying the central stage of politics of the political elites. That is why politics is rapidly dwindling towards ideological disorders and the elites use the spoilage to boost their political empire of self-indulgence. And this is why the masses are always the victims of political monopolisation of the elites.

In his work, ‘Politics: who gets what, when, how,’ Harold Laswell updates us with the standard definition of politics and elaborates the negative pattern politics is manoeuvred to yield a badly end result. It has to do profoundly with the prime variables of influence, influencer and the influential and how they corroborate with the consistent overzealousness for power control, governmental impacts not on the people but on the political elites’ interest. The consumption of ideas for the politics of what to get, when and how to get it has been the universal message the political elites have been obsessed with for quite a long time. Their political odysseys have substantially and ultimately attained the status of ego-centrism.

 Kwankwaso with an NNPP Kano government at his disposal wants to be a new political friend to Tinubu to kill two birds with a stone. First assault is dislodging Ganduje’s political remnants. The unity of Tinubu and Kwankwaso will be like a political cancer in Ganduje’s heart. While Ganduje accuses Tinubu of abandoning him after making things possible for his political aspirations to scale through, Kwankwaso is now like a new bride in the continuous restructuring and consolidation of Tinubu’s politics.

 Second, Kwankwaso’s presidential ambition can only be sustained through going back to the APC. Having calculated his performance in the last presidential election, the NNPP and any other small party will never be the platform for achieving his political dreams. Being a prominent northern politician, it is only in the APC that he will have less challenges. Going back to the PDP means fighting to dismantle the structures of Atiku Abubakar, Sule Lamido, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki among others 

Both Tinubu and Kwankwaso are building the political blocks to consolidate their future politics. Reinventing Kwankwaso back into the APC will be of immense political value for Tinubu in the next election. This is because of Tinubu’s unsatisfactory performance in Lagos State in the last presidential election. To bridge that political gap, he will look for a formidable force as in Kano through Kwankwaso. They may be undertaking the journey of a political lottery but what matters in the end is personal fulfilment, a political chemistry through which they know what to get, when and how to get it.

If Abraham Lincoln emphasises on the people’s government to give popularity to his idea about democracy, then Harold Laswell is spelling out a new version of politics that ensures politics as the practice of the elites to own government and all its apparatuses that may have a direct bearing on their political interests. This protruding conflict of ideas between Lincoln and Laswell about politics and democracy is consistently presented to showcase the prosperity of the political elites and the adversity of the political masses.

Call it political craftsmanship. Tinubu and Kwankwaso have the capacity to exhibit their political ingenuity. They did it in the past. They are now enacting it in collectivity. Their companionship may puzzle many of us, but they know the inner side of their political romance and how it will gather political fortunes for them now and in the future. They are indeed succumbing to the real politics of who gets what, when and how.