KANO 2023: APC’s ‘Unsurmountable’ Huddles

….The Crises That APC In Kano May Not Survive

By Mike Odeh James and Maryam Musa

Immediately after the 2019 General Elections in the country which saw the reelection of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (though in a very controversial circumstance) and other stalwarts of the All Progressives Congress, APC returned to their respected offices, internal crises broke out between major stakeholders of the party.

For the major stakeholders in the Kano APC, the stakes are very high and the actors are willing to go to any length to achieve their goals. Thus they are ready to play a club and dagger games with one another. While the dream of forming another government that will rule for the next 4 years has been achieved by the Kano APC, intra-party intrigues, political power-play has since begun between major forces of the party, all in an attempt to succeed Mr Ganduje in 2023 and to ensure the control of the party after Ganduje’s exit as Governor though he may likely contest for the senatorial seat of his zone.

Formation of the four Groups

The APC in Kano has split into almost four major groups namely, the Ganduje group, the Ibrahim Shekarau camp, Salisu Sagir Takai camp and the camp of the Deputy Governor.

The first noticeable clash is that involving the former Governor Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau who is currently a senator. The shrewd Shekarau took advantage of the crisis between Ganduje and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso which forced the later to decamped to the PDP prior to the 2019 election. Shekarau has then bargained his condition of leaving the PDP to join forces with the APC to defeat the governorship candidate of Sen. Kwankwaso, Abba Gidagida. That was how he was bankrolled and easily became a Senator elect under his new party, the APC.

Before the 2019 General Election, Shekarau, who was in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, though not a serious candidate wanted to run for the Presidency, but was lured by the presidency for the purpose of getting the strategic votes of Kano which will be big enough to determine the reelection of President Buhari. Despite what political pundits see as an unholy alliance, it took lots of rigging, ballot box snatching and deployment of a willing Police DIG for both the President and Mr. Ganduje to win Kano.

Amongst the promises given to Malam, as he is fondly called, was that he can vie for Kano Central Senatorial Seat and nominate 5 people for appointments as commissioners in an incoming Ganduje cabinet after the polls.

During the senatorial election, the hitherto bankrupt Malam Ibrahim Shekarau who received huge financial support deployed all his political arsenal for the APC and he won his seat comfortably.
However, during the governorship election, the APC suffered a scathing defeat which some analysts said the Presidency had to pull some strings within INEC in order to save Ganduje from an embarrassing and impending defeat.

Considering how strategic Kano is politically, the source told DESERT HERALD that the Presidency informed some persons that Kano must not fall, so a rerun for some polling units was drawn up leading to the questionable defeat of PDP.

After the conclusion of the poll, a postmortem of the process was taken, and Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s loyalists concluded that Malam deliberately held back his supporters so as to allow Ganduje to be defeated.

Ganduje supporters also alleged that Malam Shekarau had never really liked Ganduje and that he had not severed his links with his former party- PDP.

They also alleged that Malam Shekarau saw Ganduje as a hindrance to his ambitions of becoming the political leader in Kano so he instructed his supporters not to vote Ganduje.

Informed sources told DESERT HERALD that after Ganduje got the report, he sat down for about ten minutes without saying a word and after he recovered, he swore by Allah that he will obliterate Malam’s political career forever.

The source further added that an enraged Ganduje was said to have vowed by “Allah”, come rain, come sunshine, he would make Malam pay a hefty price for his actions, and according to credible sources, the Governor set out to work quietly against the senator.

Firstly, all Malam’s nominees were made to swear an oath of allegiance to Ganduje alone.

By appointing them, the Governor felt that he would over gain their loyalty over Shekarau, even as pundits believe a deft move by Ganduje was the ‘capturing’ of Salihu Sagir Takai to the APC camp.

Having worked with Malam since the days of APP, Takai was regarded as Shekarau’s strongest arch and knows everything Shekarau knew.

However, when Shekarau moved back to the APC prelude to the 2019 election, Takai stayed back and later moved to the People’s Redemption Party, PRP.

So in order to run down Shekarau’s camp, Ganduje sent emissaries to Takai dangling the Governorship ticket in 2023, and an ambitious Takai went for it and today he is firmly in the camp of the incumbent Governor.

Not done with withering of his political allies, Ganduje has also drawn up an ambitious plan to make sure that the ex-governor did not make it back to the Senate a second time.

However, sources also said that Shekarau, who is very much aware of Ganduje’s actions and plans, has commenced his countermeasures by talking to some allies of Ganduje who are interested in being the Governor in 2023 and promising to help some of them to the juicy post.

While the last plan that Malam Shekarau has up his sleeves is to move back to the PDP, another huge conflict that is threatening to tear the APC to shreds is the battle for Kano North Senatorial District.

Like all ex governors when their tenures expire, Ganduje who is from Kano North, is interested in the Senate seat albeit secretly.

The snag therein is that Senator Barau Jibrin, another astute and grassroots politician, occupies the Kano North Central District as the Senator. According to information made available to DESERT HERALD, Ganduje has been making overtures to Barau to go for the governorship seat so that he can go for the senate. However, Barau is not fully convinced that the Governor would not backstab him.

Sources are of the opinion that Barau is actually rated high on the governor’s list for governorship seat since both him and Barau were from the same political camp- Rimi Camp of the 90s.

But the Senator from Kano North is said to be in the know of the Governor’s overtures to some other individuals.

As the Governor is fighting Senator Shekarau, while trying to gain the confidence of Barau Jibrin, Nasiru Aliko Koki, Ganduje’s Campaign Director since 1995 to date, and a member of the Abubakar Rimi political group, is also said to be secretly plotting to unseat his boss- Ganduje.

Koki is not working alone. The APC chairman, Abdullahi Abbas, Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Murtala Sule Garo and the State ALGON chairman, Lamin Sani plus influential members of Kano State House of Assembly, KNSHA, are in the deep, dark and murky silent plot to undo Ganduje’s works and bring in their own candidates not only for the governor seat but for all the political posts in the state.

As their plot progresses, it is said that the Commissioner for Local Government Affairs is the most influential of all of them as well as the wealthiest.

Garo is said to be interested in the Governorship ticket and he has not hidden his intention right from the word go.

His position and intention also ran parallel to that of Lamin Sani, the ALGON Chairman in the state.
Sani would actually prefer that the Deputy Governor, Nasiru Yussif Gauwna, succeeds his boss.

Even as the plot by the Koki group thickens, Sagir Takai, a member of the Ganduje group, also upped his plot for the Governorship seat.

Knowing fully that he cannot go against Ganduje, he had stepped up series of blackmails against the Deputy Governor. His aim is to make sure the Deputy Governor is impeached so that he can become Ganduje’s assistant.

According to DESERT HERALD’s sources, surprised by magnitude of the moves against him, the Governor initiated moves to whittle down the powers of those involved in the plots.

This culminated in the invitation of the commissioner of Local Government Affairs by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to Abuja to answer for alleged financial infringements.

Another group working separately and assiduously to achieve its aim is the Gaya Group headed by a one-time governor of the State and a Senator since 2007.

Senator Kabir Gaya, who is one of the oldest political players in Kano politics today, is also interested in grabbing the governorship ticket in 2024.

Being by far one of the richest politicians in the APC, Gaya has left no one in doubt that he would do everything possible to clinch the seat.

What is worrisome to party officials is that his loyalists have threatened that they would move out of the party if their principal is unfairly denied the ticket. Gaya is by no means a pushover in the state.

Many see Sen. Gaya as hugely unreliable and one that can betray any kind of trust so long as his ambition can be achieved. They gave many examples of the typical Gaya to that effect. He was very loyal to the then Governor Kwankwaso during his first tenure as governor. That loyalty was shifted to Shekarau when he defeated Kwankwaso in 2003 to become the Governor. Shekarau as Governor supported Sen Gaya to retain his senate seat throughout his tenure as Governor because of Gaya’s deceptive ability to be ‘loyal’. But immediately Shekarau finished his tenure that ‘loyalty’ was shifted backed again by Gaya to the incoming Governor Kwankwaso. The ‘shrewd’ Sen. Gaya having done with Kwankwaso and when he is no longer useful to him politically left Kwankwaso for the incumbent Governor Ganduje who has assumed the new powers that can determine Gaya’s return to the red chamber, and he did returned to the Senate by showing same fake loyalty to Ganduje and also by penetrating the powerful wife of Governor Ganduje allegedly with heavy cash gifts. Sen. Gaya according to pundits can do anything and can spend anything for his ambition.

Certainly, there is political time bomb within the APC family in Kano. The explosion may not be immediate but it is certain as the 2023 politics gradually approaches. Governor Ganduje is likely to suffer the worse form of political betrayal within members of his own political family when the time comes.