Like most dances that occur in Nigeria, many people are just watching the dance between President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano state. Like two testosterone-strung alpha monkeys trying to outdo themselves, the president and Mr. Kwankwaso seem to be trying to see who has the highest ability to cause
the most damage and still remain standing.
the most damage and still remain standing.
It is said that they were never warm to each other in the way friends are, but what warmth was there was swiftly converted to the coldness of a witch’s tit when Kwankwaso left the auspices of the PDP. That seemed like the thin line that was finally crossed. From that point on, the president and governor have been trading shade shots at each other.
The president has been more civil in the epic dance between them, but it seems Kwankwaso is set to continually draw blood. A massive smear campaign in Kano is being done against the PDP on various radio stations in Kano, and it is most especially geared at the president. It then feels as if Kwankwaso has a personal grudge to settle. What could the president have done to warrant this deep disrespect of his person by the governor of Kano state? It must be the president that is in the wrong because he always seems to be trying to extend a hand of friendship (albeit a desperate one at that) to the governor and the governor seems to derive ecstatic pleasure in rebuffing the white flags raised.


When a governor shows such disrespect to a president, it goes a long way to show the decay with which the nation is characterized. Nowhere in the world will an appointed governor deliberately throw shade at the president to the tune which Kwankwaso has done and is doing. A governor has no right to refuse to receive the President when he makes a visit to his state. Just the knowledge of hierarchy tells you that the president should be received by the highest ranking officer of the state: the governor. Even Admiral Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, who also has as much axe (if not more) to grind with the president as Kwankwaso, respected the laid down leadership and socially accepted hierarchy by receiving the president when he visited adamawa state to commission the newly established Air Force Comprehensive Secondary School in Yola. He might have been frowning all through, but he will never be faulted for not following protocol. The disrespect in Kwankwaso’s behavior to the president is a disrespect of everything ethical in leadership.
Now, Kwankwaso is an APC stalwart, in the very same party as Major General Muhammadu Buhari. Over the recent months, Buhari has been the epitome of a good statesman, attacking (correctly) the poor policies of the administration and not the individual themselves. He channels his comments to mentioning what is wrong and not who is wrong. At a point, he realized that continually attacking the government about the issue of insecurity was not in any way helping the issue. He, like all true leaders, decided that if one is not providing solutions to a problem, it is best that one should shut up. It wasn’t a wonder then that he said Nigerians had to join hands with the present administration to ensure that the issue of insurgency was cut at its head. He still went further to attend the All Political Parties and Political Stakeholders Summit held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, held on the 13th day of June, 2014; an event called for by the President. Based on political troubles, no one in the entire country has as much issues to sort with the PDP as Buhari. If Buhari can bury his hatchet for the greater good of Nigeria, why can’t Kwankwaso do so too (even if it is just for the cameras)?
It is quite surprising that the APC has not called Kwankwaso to order. This, and other rantings from the APC camp, is beginning to make Nigerians a bit wary of the newest political party. Is this the ideology on which the party is built on? Is the party a tear-down-the-person-instead-of-the-policies kind of party? Why are they not curbing this continual disrespect of protocol shown by their card-carrying member? Are Nigerians to expect similar show of disrespect when the APC takes over the helm of affairs? And if the PDP is receiving a lot of backlash for breaking protocol, what difference is there between the PDP and the APC? Why should Nigerians trust that the APC, who allows such blatant disrespect, will show some form of respect to the Nigerian populace? These are burning questions that need to be answered by the APC to calm the nerves of the everyday Nigerian.
The latest Kwankwaso arrow fired is the statement he made where he blatantly accused the President of attempted murder. That is a statement that shouldn’t be made lightly, but that didn’t stop him from making it. When he made this statement in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, he must have known that many Nigerians would take him seriously and literally. This in turn would mean that if anything happened to him in the near future, whether natural or otherwise, the President will be blamed. He extended this blame to cover anything that happens to his family or even the people of Kano state…….a broad responsibility for one shoulder to carry. And knowing the people of Kano, if anything does happen to Kwankwaso, his family or as he said, the people of Kano, there will be bloodletting in retribution against the President. Is that what Kwankwaso is gunning for? One cannot help but ask this question.

Nigeria needs to be a country whose leaders tackle problems not people. And since newspapers are reporting that Kwankwaso is aspiring for president, he should remember that karma has a way of throwing a person’s face in the dung, just when the public is watching.
4 Comments
thanks IBKINGS
WoW! I Like that..
NEXT….
Well…….thanks *blushing furiously
Beautifully written. You're improving dramatically!! Keep it up!