POLITICAL NOTES

Ganduje: Unpretentiously Primitive!

 If it’s about looks, then, you wouldn’t rate the Kano State Governor, Abdulhahi Ganduje. His look does not typify his very poor essence. Better described as unassuming, he is unfortunately, the opposite of his personae. Even for the optics, he can’t do better than himself.

Sadly, for a man who had spent roughly some 22 years in public office, both as deputy and substantive head, this Kano State governor has clearly learnt nothing about or admitted that power is indeed transient. He suffers sweeping insecurity as much as he boasts huge complex.

From his narrow and primitive mindset to his evidently vindictive disposition, how a character like Ganduje made it to such sensitive and high public office should elicit some interest in political science scholars. That education doesn’t reflect in his character is not even the problem but the fact that he isn’t pushing for attitudinal changes is confounding.

Thus, for anyone very much familiar with this side of Ganduje, it was a sure bet he’d come after some persons in the state immediately a Kano High Court, last Tuesday, sacked the governor-backed faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state and upheld one supported by a former governor of the state, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau.

Not long after, the campaign office of Senator Barau Jibril, the lawmaker representing Kano North, who is also an intending governorship hopeful in the state, was attacked and burnt by thugs, allegedly sympathetic to the state. Although the state government had denied this, expectedly, the police too have reportedly arrested some 13 people in connection.

And for anyone, who closely followed the governor’s feud with the recently deposed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, till he was removed from office, some of the current developments in the state are not too far from what he is capable of doing. His disagreement with Sanusi was purely one stoked by his inferiority complex – for Sanusi’s awesome, elegant and dignified carriage.

What’s even the more worrisome is the fact that Kano is volatile and a flashpoint state to watch out for in 2023 as with previous elections. Therefore, for the governor’s hands to be identified in some of these unsavoury happenings means the unfurling violence already has an official stamp, and that, definitely comes with a price for all. No thanks to a mind unable to live above its weakness.