By Nnamdi Uganwa

WITH the People’s Democratic Party, PDP,  national convention slated for Friday October6 in Port Harcourt, River state capital, the stage is now evidently set for this crucial  political exercise designed to elect the party’s presidential flag bearer in the 2019 presidential election. Although over seventeen aspirants are jostling to clinch the party’s presidential ticket to challenge the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari in an epic political battle, one aspirant stands out as one who holds a strong ace and therefore greatly dreaded by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. He is Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

The ruling APC government recently demonstrated its fear of Kwankwaso when last month the Federal Government denied him the use of Eagle Square to undertake his declaration for the presidential race on the platform of PDP. This was after the Federal Capital Territory Administration had acceded to granting him the use of the place and payments accordingly made. The ruling APC’s fear is manifestly borne out of the belief and rightly too that out of the   band of contenders pushing to clinch the presidential ticket, Kwankwaso is most highly positioned to wrestle power successfully from APC’s Presidential candidate, President Buhari

Kwankwaso

The reasons for this view are not far-fetched. Kwakwaso’s  achievements as a two-time governor of Kano state are legendary, unprecedented and profound. Apart from establishing two universities, he built over 460 ultra-modern technical secondary schools, offering thousands of students from Kano and other parts of the country scholarships abroad to study medicine and other disciplines. Besides, his accomplishments in infrastructural development and youths empowerment are verifiable, profound and unsurpassed.

The result is that Kwankwaso boasts of larger than life political showing and followership that pervade and resonate in Kano, North West geo political zone and indeed greater part of the country. Within the North Western geo-political zone where Buhari comes from, Kwankwaso is a household name in the political firmament and power intrigues. He is loved by incredible hordes of people particularly the ordinary people who constitute the grassroots base of the region. At any given opportunity, they stop at nothing to demonstrate their passion and support for him. This explains why the ranks of ‘Kwankwassiya’, platform inhabiting the political disciples of Kwankwaso are on an unbelievable rise in the region and other parts of the country

Given that Buhari’s  political base is in the North West evidenced in the 2015 presidential election results; Kwankwaso therefore remains PDP’s ace to deflate Buhari in the 2019 presidential election among the political gladiators shoving to fly the PDP presidential flag. It is in this realisation that the APC’s fear of Kwankwaso’s presidential ambition is apparently located. To many APC faithful, the  fear of Kwankwaso is fundamentally the beginning of wisdom if the party must retain its hold on federal power.

However, Kwankwaso’s colossal locus in the race for PDP’s  presidential ticket appears to have intrinsically exposed him to all manner of erroneous but tissue of false allegations bandied about in the media which are obviously baseless. First is that he  is a religious zealot that sees nothing good in any other religion except Islam. Anyone who has been following the religious and political activities of Kwakwanso since his first stint in 1999 as Governor of Kano  would easily understand the immense level of falsehood and mischief inherent in the comments.

Although Kwankwaso himself has ignored the peddlers of the allegation and the narratives believing perhaps that the issues and their imputations are not worth reacting to, as a keen observer of political events and one who has been following the fascinating political  records of Kwankwaso, it is crucial to underpin the conspicuous  mischief  intentions  and brazen witlessness  of those behind the comments.  As governor of Kano state between 1999 and 2003 when sharia politics was at  its crescendo with most of the Northern governors playing the sharia political card,  Kwankwaso was one governor who refused vehemently to dramatise and showcase the sharia politics. He refused to yield to the pressure of implementing sharia in Kano as  governor because of his commitment to the secular nature of  Nigeria. This principled position caused his re-election  in 2003 as his political enemies cashed in on it to move against him

Besides, during the first national convention of PDP in 1999  to elect the presidential candidate of the party, Kwakwanso as a matter of belief supported former President Olusegun Obasanjo in preference to his kinsman and fellow moslem, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi. Obasanjo eventually clinched the ticket. He also appointed non Kano indigenes and Christians  into his cabinet as governor. While he made Chief Chukwuma from South East his Special Adviser; Dr. Tajudeen from South West was appointed Commissioner for Education. These realities are demonstrable and instructive of Kwankwaso’s nationalistic disposition and suitability for presidency in a multi-ethnic nation. The elevation more importantly debases the wicked claims against Kwankwaso.