The election of Governor Ibrahim Shekarau to fly the flag of the ANPP in the April  presidential election is most timely, appropriate and a cheering news to all lovers of democracy across the land.

Shekarau has a rich pedigree and a great reservoir of democratic experience.  He shot into political prominence and national limelight when, against all predictions and permutations, he defeated the then incumbent governor of Kano State, Dr. Kwankwaso, to emerge the  state’s number one citizen.

Kano has had the distinguished feature of political progressivism. It has refused to follow the mainstream political parties, rooting only for progressive-minded leaders and political icons. In the first republic, the NPC held sway in the north under the charismatic and service-driven leader, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. However, Kano rooted for Mallam Amimu Kano, a dogged political fighter of no mean repute.

During the second republic, Kano again decided to be self-assertive. The NPN was the popular party in the north but Kano stood solidly behind its tried, tested and trusted leader, Mallam Aminu Kano under the PRP.

Kano joined the mainstream political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), upon the advent of republican democracy in 1999. This political love affair between the PDP and the good people of Kano was rather short-lived for, in 2003, the ANPP took over  power in Kano under the leadership of Shekarau.

It was in the course of his stewardship in the state that the governor tackled  governance with uncommon ease. He turned around Kano in a no distant time. He built roads, opened many schools, hospitals and health centres. Shekarau provided the much-need infrastructural facilities in Kano State.

The governor affected the lives of the residents positively and constructively.

Kano assumed a new status under Shekarau. Many tourists and travelers made Kano a city of choice in the northern part of Nigeria. The governor  made the people of Kano to be tolerant and receptive to strangers. Kano became a microcosm in a macrocosm. Kano became a mini-Nigeria and a  cosmopolitan society of sorts. To Shekarau’s  credit, Kano became modernized, transformed and industrialized.

Shekarau was at home with every strata of the society – the poor, the rich, the wealthy, the disabled, the civil servant, the businessman, the mogul, the merchant and the flotsam  of the society.

Shekarau tried admirably to integrate the youths into the society, to care and provide for them and to make them useful and effective leaders of tomorrow. Indeed, he bestrode Kano like a colossus. This is not because of his sheer political and administrative acumen, his sagacity, his uncanny and uncommon ability to transform poverty and create wealth and his penchant for justice and fairness.

It is because of his unique nature, his humble mien, his servant-leadership, his desire to provide, especially for the poor and weak, his love for all concerned irrespective of ethnic, religions, tribal and other sectional consideration, and, above all, his natural flair for service, to put smiles on  all faces and to make the society a better and pleasurable place.

Shekarau’s mantra is service, the belief that the people should come first and it is the principle of using the instrumentality of politics to do good, to transform lives and to better the lot of the masses. While other politicians think of the next election, Shekarau is a statesman who thinks of the next generation.

The political climate in Kano was a training ground for Shekarau. He is ready, able and willing to replicate what he did in Kano in Nigeria in the capacity of  president. As he vies for the office of president, Shekarau is doing  so from a position of  great strength and courage.

He is marching out in the field with gusto. Shekarau has no skeleton in his cupboard. He has no excess baggage.
Shekarau is indeed God’s gift to Nigeria; there are few  achievers like him. Today, Kano is no longer the same.

Today, Kano is a different, salutary place. Shekarau will do what he has done in Kano for Nigeria and the generality of Nigerians will be fully blessed to have a man of his competence and pedigree who is ready to offer his services to our beloved country in order to take her to the next level.

OLIVER Okpala  is  a political analyst.