By Bala Ibrahim
The President of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, has added his voice to the appeal made by the people of conscience, who have been at the forefront of raising concerns, with regard to the need of getting a befitting governor for Kano state, in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections, scheduled for Saturday,18/03/2023. In a special message to the good people of Kano State, PMB took time to thank the people of the state, whom he said massively voted for him 5 times, in addition to keeping faith with his party, the APC. The President appealed to the electorate of Kano, to come out on Saturday and vote for Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, the gubernatorial candidate of the APC and present Deputy Governor, as the next Governor of the State. This is what a lot of people of conscience have been calling for, with the hope that common sense would override certain sentiments that may be emanating from misjudgment.
By selling the candidature of Gawuna, PMB is directly promoting him as the paragon of virtue, with peerless or unequalled qualities. At least from the choice of people put forward in the coming gubernatorial election in Kano, Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna stands out as the best. In the various write ups I did on the importance of voting for Gawuna, some people sent supportive messages through phone calls or WhatsApp, others reacted with insults, while another group took time to articulate the reasons why they think he is not fit for the job. As one in the business of writing, I never take offence when someone reacts to my opinion with insults; it simply tells me the quality of material nature used in his or her manufacture. If you are low in quality, your reactions must be low in quality, because, you can’t give what you don’t have.
One of the reactions to my last write up came from a friend, who although not from Kano, but one that is very conversant with the happenings in Kano, and one that is patriotically interested in the progress of the state in particular, and the country in general. He wrote and I quote:
“Salam Sir, fine one. I first of all skimmed through in search of where you will dwell on the issues and odds against Gawuna in the forthcoming election but found out that you didn’t even mentioned them at all. And I think a good analytical PR like this should have some paragraphs dedicated to ironing out such concerns of the people. Specifically, I think the people of Kano want Ganduje booked for that his famous bribery video scandals which they feel may not be feasible with Gawuna as his successor. Secondly, that Gawuna led collation centre incident that led to the famous inconclusive election in 2019 and Gama ward escapade is still fresh in the minds of the people. They seem to see 2023 election as a payback time. Thirdly, apart from having issues with all the institutions/stakeholders in Kano including traditional, ulamas, markets unions, students etc etc, I also think people are not happy with the state’s property management by Ganduje, where many state’s owned properties are being flagrantly individualized under non transparent and controversial circumstances. So methinks any PR to sell Gawuna now should have a way of addressing these concerns of the people of Kano with respect to the forthcoming elections”.
I published my friend’s reaction on purpose, because it seems representative of the opinion of many people. I wouldn’t go into any details with regards the issue of the 2019 Kano inconclusive election, and the circumstances that led to the happening of what happened, which I think I know a lot about. I leave it to posterity, which would give a verdict, when the time for the declassification of information arrives. But I would like to say a word about misjudgment, which goes hand in hand with the word miscalculate, or misconstrue, or misunderstand. They all have a common destination, viz- those who undertake them, land at the wrong wing of the terminal.
A philosopher, whose name I can’t remember now said, “It hurts being misjudged. It hurts more when the person you thought trusted you misjudged you”. I make haste to say Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna is a victim of such misjudgment, but posterity would come to his rescue, even if lately.
What matters now is the pre-eminence of his promotion by PMB, as a peerless person, particularly when perused through the prism of the President’s record of probity. History has shown that PMB is not a flippant person. He takes his time to study a person, and where he gives a verdict, almost always, it comes out as a fair assessment. His endorsement of Gawuna’s character is an attestation to the goodness of Gawuna, which I pray the electorate in Kano would accept, in our strive to take the state to the Eldorado.
