On Kwankwasiyya Rubble-Rousing Short-Wave Politics
By Aliyu Dalhatu Adamu
The construction of 85km rural roads was flagged-off by the Governor of Kano State, Abba Kabir Yusuf, on Monday 17th June 2024 at Madobi Local Government. The occasion afforded Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 2023 elections, an opportunity to ventilate his feelings on the forces in political contest in Kano State. Many people believe that Kano is suffering great abuse in the tight grief of Kwankwaso as an alternate, if not the real, governor in his illegal Third Term.
In his emotional outburst, the former Presidential candidate alluded to a number of issues, which many see as pointers to the inner workings of his mind, suggesting his political fortunes in the State are nose-diving or in the least taking a big hit. For instance, from the vituperations of Kwankwaso, one can easily understand that, the NNPP, as a political family, appears to be in a state of weakness and on the verge of being either defeated or seriously overpowered.
Kwankwaso reportedly said his Kwankwasiyya political sect is not unaware of subtle moves by the Federal Government, being instigated by those he called “enemies of Kano State,” to impose state of emergency in the State. He also alleged that the Tinubu administration is “fostering a new breed of Boko Haram.” Similarly, Kwankwaso boasted that, those of them in the NNPP are not afraid of losing power through the imposition of a state of emergency in Kano State. However, he further assured his audience that in the event of such unjustifiable imposition both the Gandujiyya and the Kwankwasiyya will definitely go down the drain. The issue for him, is not the fear of falling down, but gauging who will rise first between his group and his opponents’ after falling down.
A coalition of Northern youth groups known as ‘The Arewa Youths Merger Group’ called for the immediate arrest of the Kwankwasiyya supremo. The group averred that Kwankwaso’s allegation that the Federal Government is breeding a new Boko Haram has many security implications and, coming from a former Minister of Defence, should not be overlooked.
In his response, the Kano State Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Abdullahi Abbas also urged security agencies “to arrest Kwankwaso.” Like the Arewa youth group, the APC Chairman was emphatic that Kwankwaso should be honoured with the opportunity to identify those recruiting the potential members of the new Boko Haram.
A public commentator, Garba Kore Dawakin Kudu, suggested in a radio programme that Kwankwaso’s apprehension of the alleged moves by the Federal Government to impose state of emergency in Kano State indicates that the Kwankwasiyya and its leader are jittery. Thus, indirectly admitting a possibility of defeat by their arch-rivals. For Kore, the signs for the sect’s impending crash are ominous and obvious for careful observers to see.
Beyond these simplistic vituperations, it needs to be stated that the Kwankwasiyya phenomenon, as promoted by its Chief Priest, is no more than a rubble-rousing, impressionistic, populist mobilization strategy, a braggart containment tool. Give or take, the so-called movement started to take shape in the years 2010 – 2011 when Kwankwaso was working desperately to return to power as Governor of Kano State, having lost the opportunity for eight years to Malam Ibrahim Shekarau in 2003−2011. In fact, at its embryonic stage, Kwankwasiyya movement was known as “Return Trust to its Owners,” (Hannun Karba Hannun Mayarwa). This slogan, has truly exposed the essential nature of Kwankwaso as an unrepentant kleptomaniac and a tyrant!
Certainly, Kwankwaso had proven to be an effective grassroots mobilizer in the context of Kano State. Those close to him admit that he is averse to engagement in any literary discourse. Still, it is evident that he must have had some casual survey of the history of political mobilization in Kano – from which he uses his mental arithmetic to steal some disconnected ideas and tactics of political mobilization.
Kwankwaso understood that mobilizers like Malam Aminu Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi and Senator Sabo Bakin Zuwo deployed rubble-rousing strategies, which were sometimes even vulgar and loose, in order to mobilize the masses of Kano State voters. The trio had effectively mobilized and organized the people of Kano to stand firm as loyalists and activist members of some ideologically-inspired political movements such as the Northern Elements Progressives Union (NEPU) and the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) in the First and Second Republics, respectively. They had also succeeded in convincing the masses through exciting oratory, inciting propaganda, and grassroots organizational politics. As a matter of fact, their followers, supporters, and sympathizers were recruited on sound political praxis, exemplary leadership styles, with sufficient synergy between the leadership and the followership. The masses, therefore, believed in them, submitted themselves voluntarily in a sincere and mutually beneficial partnership with the leaders, in community, local, regional, and national development projects.
Having clearly understood that their future and that of their children and those yet unborn, was tied to their struggle against all forms of injustices, the masses were totally committed to the command and requests of their leaders, especially in opposing any form of injustice, with the hope to establish an egalitarian society leading to the evolution of an equitable social order and economic freedom. The ideological commitment to the political movements the trio led, in partnership with others, was phenomenal. The trio deployed all forms of populist propaganda, suitable strategies and tactics, but always hinging these on a liberation ideology. The dividends that accrued from such a noble exercise were reaped by all those who participated in the struggled for same. There were no double standards among political leaders in those days.
The Kwankwasiyya brand of politics attempted to borrow a leaf from the mobilization strategies of the trio of Aminu Kano, Abubakar Rimi and Sabo Bakin Zuwo. However, regardless of adopting the dress code of the late Malam Aminu Kano – Red Cap, White Gown and Black Shoes, there is nothing visionary, revolutionary or sincere in Kwankwaso’s approach to leading a political movement for genuine societal transformation or liberation. Besides creating a semblance of promoting the interests of the people, there is no synergy in the lifestyles of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and the blind, fanatical, and misled members of his fraudulent Kwankwasiyya movement. Kwankwaso is the direct opposite of whatever Aminu Kano stood for and represented in the political tradition and history of Kanawa.
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It is on record that Aminu Kano resisted any attempt to personalise the struggles he led. He fought against putting his personal stamp on any facets of the struggle except when it came to emphasizing the simplicity and decorum that won the hearts and minds of the multitude of his followers, just like what Mahatma Ghandi of India, Chairman Mao of China, Mualimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, and many other contemporary revolutionary leaders did in their respective societies. Aminu Kano cautioned and fought those labelling the NEPU and PRP movement as ‘Aminiyya’. Rimi also rejected the label “The Rimi Generation” to symbolize the personalization of the rebel movement he led. Bakin Zuwo never attempted any personalization of his participation in the struggle of the PRP. He was simply praised, continuously, with his nick-named “Fire!” by enthusiastic party members whenever he spoke fearlessly and fiecely at mass meetings.
Aminu, Bakin Zuwo and Rimi were confident and transparent in their participation and management of the political movements they led over time. Not so with the Kwankwasiyya supremo. He is fake! He is fraudulent! He has inferiority complex resulting from his profound deficiency in ideas and knowledge. Kwankwaso cannot survive in an open political contest. He is a coward! This is why he created a cult of unruly characters to protect him in all the political parties he joined: PDP, APC, and NNPP.
The difference between this attempt at a ‘look-alike’ and the genuine radical, liberation movements that Aminu Kano and others led, is that, in the case of the three leaders, now late, their platforms were based on the pillars of ideological clarity while Kwankwaso’s is crudely self-centered, which was built and promoted, as it were, by crass personal ambition for power and absolute control. In addition, while the antecedents of the trio can be accounted for on the scales of ideological convictions, strong moral credentials and symbiotic relationship between what they preached and their personal lives, the same cannot be said on the relationship between Kwankwaso’s pronouncements and his lifestyle, which is characterized by greed, primitive accumulation tendencies, despotism, and open tyranny.
It is not out of place when many have suggested that the Kwankwasiyya phenomenon lacked any clear ideological focus. As a result, Kwankwaso, the political maverick tried bridging the gap by manipulating the critical question of the delivery of dividends of democracy as the foundation for mobilizing support. In this regard, he cashed on issues dear to the vulnerable youth whose population in especially urban Kano is of big political advantage.
The youth, as the most politically active segment of the population were, therefore, enticed with some poisonous ‘sweet’ carrots. We take just one example among several others – award of foreign scholarships, which not a few observers thought was a big fraud. Though from inception, the foreign scholarship scheme created windows for some lucky youth to have propelled life afterwards.
Some of those who benefited from the early hours of the scheme, got some forms of life elevation. The lucky ones amongst them were able to get PhDs. As many of them flew out of the country, looking for greener pasture. Some still believe that, the extremely expensive scheme is not a progressive policy in any sense, considering the dilapidated schooling structures and facilities at all levels in Kano State, due to government neglect leading to the dearth of basic funds required to effectively run the State’s education sector.
Faulty or not, progressive or not, this policy proposition, and such others like it, appealed to the youth in particular. They went agog and so queued up behind the Kwankwasiyya sect and its incompetent candidates presented during elections. This enthusiasm is further assisted by the crushing economic challenges in Nigeria. Many youths who believe that their future in Nigeria is bleak, thought that, the sham foreign scholarship scheme provides an ample opportunity for them to “check-out-of the- country.” In other words, they eagerly want to play ‘Andrew’ of the General Buhari’s WAI fame. They thought such an offer will provide an escape route for them from the harsh economic realities in Nigeria. In their naïve thinking, they regard Kwankwasiyya’s questionable programme, as an avenue to taste better life overseas, even if temporarily; not minding the long-term negative implications for taking such a decision on them and the society at large.
Kwankwasiyya focuses also on divisive tendencies by instigating and inciting hatred and venom, positing Kano’s main challenges as ‘we’ versus ‘them.’ The ‘them,’ adherents are misled to believe, are those ‘others’ who stand in opposition to the Kwankwasiyya menace; they are projected as being responsible for the economic hardships and other challenges that the youth are facing.
Kano people are historically anti-establishment. So, any attempt by any politician to pitch elements of the disadvantaged groups against the establishment, such a politician has the high probability of succeeding, even if only in the short-term. There is no evidence of any coherent set of principles and values on the basis of which the Kwankwasiyya sect articulates its positions and defines its visions and missions (if it has any at all). It appears to most sensible people that Kwankwaso’s hocus-pocus political ideas are more like a mere set of half-hazard mobilization strategies to achieve his immediate personal political ambition and economic benefits, as the sect’s Chief Priest, and nothing more. This is what seems to be playing out with the Kwankwasiyya sect in the context of contemporary Kano’s political space. This is why Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso does not tolerate critical thinking from any of his followers. It also explains why many self-respecting individuals, including those that were his most trusted allies and deputies, such as Engr. Rabiu Sulaiman Bichi, Alhaji Ibrahim Danazumi Gwarzo, and Dr. Yunusa Adamu Dangwani are now at daggers drawn position with him. He has betrayed all of them in one form or another.
Personalization of struggles, bad governance, and the control of naked power without accountability occupies the centre-stage in Kwankwaso’s political dictionary, as the only credible ideology his followers can have, should have, and must have at all cost. As such every step, big or small in the contest of any political space is given a personal label – ‘Kwankwaso’ versus his so-called “enemies” instead of opponents. And since Kwankwasiyya is in charge of the machineries of governance in Kano State, any opposition to it is taken to be ‘enmity’ or ‘betrayal.’
This undemocratic proposition, polluting the political space of Kano State, cannot stand and should not be allowed to define the character of Kanawa, who were once regarded as the most sophisticated politicians with radical credentials and tradition in the whole of Nigeria. The import of Kwankwaso’s ‘Madobi Declaration’ is no more than a short-wave political brand that is bound to crush. A timely disintegration of the useless Kwankwasiyya movement will set free the multitude of ignorant, greedy, and fanatical followers of a fraudulent, shameless, and wicked Madugu. This will, certainly, happen sooner than later, in sha Allah.
Aliyu Dalhatu Adamu, a Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Federal University of Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, writes from Kano. Can be reached at [email protected]
