By Charles Kumolu, Deputy Editor

Ganduje: You may not be his supporter but you can’t afford to ignore him.  The more you attempt to disregard him, the more interested you become in his affairs.

He may lack the charm of Alhaji Abubakar Rimi nor what is regarded as the astuteness of Rabiu Kwakwanso, yet, he is one of the mavericks of the Muhammadu Buhari era.    Being the governor of the commercial nerve centre of northern Nigeria could effortlessly earn even the most reclusive leader fame.   It is not so in the case of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who is as popular as the state he governs.

Dissenting voices should carry out a five-minute popularity test for All Progressives Congress, APC, governors and make public the result. He may not emerge the first but would definitely rank among the first three.

Aura of self-assurance

Whatever presence he has across the country is neither because of service delivery nor political ideology, but what Sunday Vanguard identified as hidden aura of self-assurance.

This virtue which requires an eagle eye to see, accounts for his political relevance since 1979 when he vied for the House of Representatives on the platform of defunct National Party of Nigeria , NPN.

This has seen Ganduje commanding nationwide attention with issues and events he associates with.

For instance, the dollar bribery allegation, his re-election process and the split of Kano Emirate Council, all crashed the social media. Even the declaration of assets before his second term inauguration didn’t go unnoticed.

Judicial pronouncements

The bribery allegation which emanated from a leaked video purportedly showing the governor receiving wads of dollars from a contractor was one controversy that many had thought would consume Ganduje.

A man purported to be the Kano State governor was seen collecting the dollars before putting them into his white dress, in one of a series of questionable deals allegedly struck over a span of several months.

READ ALSO: Almajiri: Ganduje constitutes committee to reform system of education

The 15 clips were published by online-based Daily Nigerian.

The two minutes video was recorded in 2017 in what Daily Nigerian described as a sting operation aimed at beaming a spotlight on the governor’s alleged penchant for contract racketeering.

Describing the matter as scandalous even though he survived through judicial pronouncements is to say the least.

Till date, the split of Kano Emirate Council into five is still largely regarded as a vindictive act against the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi.

The vociferous leader’s sin was said to have been his alleged sympathy for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the last governorship election in the state.

Though the state government had said the move was made to expand the emirate, critiques dismissed the reason.

“We will now have development close to the people. The traditional institutions are indeed partners in progress, especially in the area of security, health, education, environment and social development. With this new arrangement, all hands will be on deck to take Kano to the next level, “ Gaduduje said while justifying the action.

In the news today

He is in the news today not for irrepressible abuse of power that political elites are known for, but for moves on Ruga settlement for herdsmen—an issue that seems very threatening to Nigeria.

The governor wants President Buhari   to abolish the movement of herdsmen from the north to the south   in order to end farmers-herders conflicts

Ganduje, who is also a Fulbe, Fulani, in an interview with Channels TV, said:   “The federal government should abolish the movement of herdsmen from the northern part to the southern part of Nigeria because it creates a lot of problems and the only way to do it is the Ruga issue.

“This settlement is a must and for us in Kano State. It is a task that must be done, because we must improve the quality of lives of the herdsmen so that they can become full Nigerians and behave like any other good Nigerian, so that the conflict we are having all over the country can be reduced and at the same time, they can improve the way they breed their cattle.

“We have trained 72 of the herdsmen children in artificial insemination and we have constructed two insemination centres in Kano and with this Ruga settlement which we are starting now so that the breeding system of the cattle will be according to the modern system.

Infrastructure for grazing

“That is where we are heading to, and that is why we are calling on all herdsmen all over the country to come to Kano, we are getting assistance from the Islmic Bank so that we develop infrastructure for grazing areas and we believe when they converge, it will be a good omen for the state.

“We are already planning to build an ultramodern abattoir here so that the chain can be built right from bottom to top.”

This is not the first of such a call as he had done so last year. However, the escalation of the crisis lately, makes his intervention apt and unignorable.

You only needed to read the reactions that trailed the development last week, to realise how germane the Ganduje call is to the crisis that further widens Nigeria’s fault lines.

Courage and true leadership

Surprisingly, the statement by the Kano helmsman created a common ground for many who had been so divided by the matter.

To a lot of people, Ganduje’s submission illustrated courage and true leadership in the face of a national security challenge.

Though not the only northern governor to have supported the proposed Ruga settlements, acknowledging nomadism to be at the core of the crisis endeared him to many.

Little wonder, comments like these from the online community: “God bless this man. I hope you will achieve this golden goal to save many Nigerians from untimely death.”

Apart from, those, opposed to the Ruga, other sections regard the Ganduje model as heartwarming, timely, and tenable.

The singular move depicts the governor as not just clairvoyant but a trendsetter.

He has succeeded in identifying opportunities amidst crisis at a time his peers prefer positions that are only pleasing to the central government.

Investment opportunity

Put differently, instead of just viewing the crisis through an ethnic prism, he found it an investment opportunity for the state.

In the light of this, Sunday Vanguard can’t agree less with Maria Langan-Riekhof, Arex Avaani, and Adrienne Janeti, who titled one of their works: Sometimes the World Needs a Crisis: Turning Challenges into Opportunities.

An excerpt that speaks to what Ganduje seeks to achieve, reads: “Crises and extreme threats can be useful for directing individuals, a country, and even the world to a solution. As President Kennedy suggested, out of crises can emerge   new and incredible opportunities, particularly if traditional approaches and paradigms are questioned and challenged.”

By and large, the governor’s stance strengthened the often ignored truism that crises offer benefits.

Now, beyond being the at the helm of affairs in Kano State, how much of Ganduje do you know?

Trained in Islamic knowledge

Wikipedia provides this insight: “He started his early education in Qur’anic and Islamiyya school at his village Ganduje where he became trained in Islamic knowledge. He later moved to headquarters of his local government where he attended Dawakin Tofa Primary School from 1956 to 1963. Ganduje attended the Government Secondary School Birnin Kudu from 1964 to 1968.

“Ganduje attended Advanced Teachers’ College, Kano between 1969 and 1972. He then attended Ahmadu Bello University, located in Zaria, Kaduna State, where he graduated with a Bachelors in Science Education in 1975.

In 1979 he obtained master’s degree in applied educational psychology from Bayero University Kano and later returned to Ahmadu Bello University from 1984 to 1985 for a Master of Public Administration degree. He got his doctorate in Public Administration from University of Ibadan in 1993

“He joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and aspired to be the party’s gubernatorial candidate but lost the primaries to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Tony Momoh chaired the Committee that screened the candidates and conducted the primary election, other members included Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila and Senator Bala Tafidan Yauri. Ganduje was later picked as the deputy to Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso between 1999 and 2003.

“In addition to the deputy governorship, he was also appointed as the Commissioner for Local Government. From 2003 to 2007 he served as the Special Adviser (Political) to the Hon. Minister of Defence, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Ganduje also served as a member of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

Ganduje was appointed the chairman of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti in 2008 and was later appointed as the executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission at Ndjamena, Republic of Chad. He participated in the 2006 Nigerian Political Reforms Conference.

Ganduje was a Deputy Governor of Kano State Governor Kwankwaso between 1999 and 2003, under the flag of the PDP. They lost re-election to Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. They were re-elected on 27 April 2011 and sworn in on 29 May 2011 for a second term in office.

Ganduje was conferred the national honour of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in September 2012 by   President Goodluck Jonathan. He was also conferred with the honour of Fellow National Association of Educational Administration and Planning (FNAEAP) on October 13, 2016, in Bayero University, Kano.

VANGUARD