Politics and the monkey-man in Kano Municipal
MUHAMMAD NASIRUDDEEN

THE title of this piece may strike one as a misnomer of a sort but before, I am accused of inventing a new world in the English lexicon, let me explain thus: The monkey is one of the smallest of all the animals known to man and is adept at using all the tricks available to help himself and only himself, sometimes to the detriment of some other creatures, notably man.
The farmer may bear an ample testimony to this fact. Okay, if one will allow me the liberty of joining the name monkey and another name man; one could start to see the line of my reasoning. Simply put, monkey-man in our contemporary politics is that kind of person who goes to politics the same way a monkey goes to the farm.
He is not really a politician per se, neither is he willing to get himself properly acquainted and duly acclimatized to the nuance and the dynamics involved in politicking, nor is he really ready to invest his time and energy in order to lean the rope. He is there as a new convert struggling to take the pulpit. He is only in there to make fame and fortune. This kind of people now sees democracy as the fastest route to money, real money.
Take an example of a certain self-promoted western-educated elite now desperately seeking to represent Kano Municipal Federal Constituency as a case study. Here is an Abuja-based ‘Danboko’ who abandoned his people longtime before now. Even after the society has invested enormous resources for him to become what he is and rightly expecting that he give back to the society that nurture him, only for him to ran away to exile in Abuja.
One only sees them pontificating on this and that; largely on issues not even remotely connected with the immediate needs of his community. One only see this kind of people only writing fallacies that eventhough they do not really believe in them. They sing democracy while in actual sense they mean anarchy. They cry justice only for them to mean mock-justice. They preach free and fair election only for them to turn to rigging at the slightest chance. Why? Because they are masters of double speak.
Now as luck would have it, this ‘Danboko’ exiled in Abuja saw a chance a convenient chance to further his personal ambition. He now dons the garb of democrats and is even aspiring to represent the people he ran away from. And as typical of opportunist, he is now busy campaigning for justice and equity; qualities he has not known, not even in the party primaries that produce him. I mean he could not even boast of winning the primaries in his party fairly. But these kind of new political converts are now busy asking for people’s mandate to continue living in Abuja but now at their expense. I urge every one to ask him these posers: What is their real contribution towards the development of their constituencies before now? How many lives were positively affected by their contribution, what stake do they have in those constituencies. What are their antecedents, what meaningful achievement can they boast of; how and in what manner do they hope to add value to the lives of the people in the constituencies that they are struggling to represent. Are they really going to represent people or their self-interest.
I am sure by asking these and many other questions, people will unmask them for what they really are. I will only add that fortune-seekers have always been the bane of our development of our great country. They always use whatever diabolical means available to achieve their selfish interest. Let us all open our eyes and shame all those opportunist by sticking to those people that we have known over the years as trustworthy. The people that will not just toy with our lives or the future of our children. Let us, honestly seek to enthrone democracy by being alive to our responsibilities as free citizen by electing from among us not some smart monkey-man.
MUHAMMAD NASIRUDDEEN is of No 534 Yakasai Quarters, Kano City.