Battle for Shekarau's honour (II)
By Garba A. Isa
yekuwa@yahoo.com
Malam Shekarau cannot be against Buhari and yet choose to be by his side at every opportunity. But truth be told, both Buhari and Shekarau must do more than the symbolic appearances to disabuse the minds of those genuinely concerned about their political cordiality. His enemies for sinister reasons considered even Shekarau’s ubiquitous opposition to President Obasanjo’s third term plot, which was believed to be responsible for the selective ban on Kano state Hisba, not loud enough.
The governor’s recent hosting of the hugely successful AC presidential campaign launch of Vice President Atiku Abubakar in Kano may have added to his ‘sins’ before President Obasanjo whose other name seems to be vengeance. Also Shekarau’s storming of Kano and pulling unprecedented crowd in recent memory after receiving his party’s certificate of 2007 gubernatorial contest, may have jolted some powerful forces.
The governor must however, carry along his traditional constituencies such as the teachers, independent Shari’a implementation campaign groups and the Da’awah organizations among others. The minority groups in Kano were assured of their security in the hitherto volatile state.
The governor is thus engaged in a delicate balancing act of satisfying the positive wish of the indigenous majority while at the same time protecting the rights of the minority, which should be the trait of any credible leadership. Some of the noticeable grumblings by the masses against the governor though, was attributable to the existing communication gaps; it is curious why Shekarau abandoned his Peoples’ Forum or Dandalin Tattaunawa through which he used to parley directly with the people. He must graduate from the position of a relative political newcomer to an astute politician able to tackle political storms with tact and commitment to principles and always be ahead in the propaganda war as is always ahead in delivering the dividends of democracy to the people.
To assess Shekarau better, one must look beyond the political “madding crowd”. This is because much as he is at the head of the political storm in a politically charged state like Kano, he was yet to for instance, acquire the political abrasiveness of one of his political mentors, Muhammad Abubakar Rimi, a former governor of the state with whose political party AC, the ANPP must work out a sort of understanding or alliance formula to avoid the possible exchange of “Friendly (Political) Fire”.
The Kano state governor has set up the first ever Kano state Shura (Consultative Council) made up of all the notable Islamic, communal and political stake holders to thrash out issues of particularly Islamic and Shari’a importance. Although it may be too late for Shekarau to get rid of political liabilities in his government, the current political romance between him and the masses must be sustained.
Also pending the coming on stream of the highly welcomed Tamburawa Water Works project, it is considered worth restating that the Kano state government must urgently put in place, interim measures to mitigate the effects of the existing gap in water supplies to the various communities particularly in the state capital. In a country where most state governors have literally domesticated local governments’ money to themselves, Governor Shekarau releases their due share and discloses the state revenue and expenditure profile on a regular basis. No wonder though, Kano is only one of the two or so states in the country that had established Anti-corruption Agencies.
The recently held, first ever Kano State Economic Summit spearheaded by the very energetic and innovative commissioner of commerce, industry and cooperatives, Alhaji Ahmad Ibrahim Yakasai in concert with among others, the deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, an indigene of the state, was historic. The government should set the relevant machinery in motion to implement the Blue Print produced by the economic summit particularly given the great bashing suffered by industrial and commercial activities in the state in recent years. Government’s support to distressed market traders is commendable as was the plan for a gigantic ultra-modern market along the eastern bye-pass in Kano.
Despite the environmental sanitation efforts of the government, street cleaning exercises are only limited to few major roads and there are very few organized litter collection tanks. Kano is still a relatively dirty city with the random littering of sachet water and other polythene bags and the rampant blockage of drainages. The state government must therefore sit up to repossess the environmental sanitation initiative.
The street and traffic lights in Kano have remained largely non-functional even along the vital state road that leads to the Government House and even its landscape, carvings and other street furniture remained largely unfixed. The Badawa-eastern bye-pass road has stuck somewhere close to completion. These among others have the potential to becloud the government’s gigantic efforts in reconstructing several other vital roads that were neglected for years by the previous regimes such as Nassarawa Hospital, Lamido Crescent, Alu Avenue, Sabon gari roads, Jakara, Kwanar Danja-Zakirai, the state of the art new roundabouts and a host of others. Land use planning is again, an area where the government needs to be well focused. Kano State Urban Master Plans were long overdue for reviews. Kano is also overdue for Urban Renewal or Upgrading.
In the final analysis therefore, the state government under the leadership of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau has so far lived up to the expectations of the people amidst the machinations of opponents. In his pursuit for a second term, the governor nevertheless needs not be too desperate given his background and excellent performance. He must not be derailed from rendering selfless service to the under his current mandate, irrespective of the outcome of his political battles.
This writer concurs with a former governor of the old Kaduna state, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa who once declared, “It is not how long you served, but how honourably you served”. But when did this country become so ‘clean’ that we ferociously target right honourable gentlemen such as Shekarau while hundreds of international crooks basking under apparent presidential protection, are breathing political and economic freedom? For enduring democracy, justice and fair play in this country, we must draw a line between scoring genuine political goals and outright character assassination.

Garba A.Isa is with Yekuwa Communications, Kano.