By Ishaya Ibrahim
Acting News Editor
Prior to the 2015 presidential election, residents of Kawo, the epicentre of Kaduna politics, saw Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s messiah. They nicknamed him mai gasikiya (the defender of the truth) whose presidency would fix the problem of power failure, fuel scarcity, bad roads and high cost of living. Anyone who thought otherwise would keep it to himself or risk violence.
Almost three years into the Buhari’s presidency, the hope of the people has waned. They now look into another direction for salvation – Rabiu Kwankwaso, the former governor of Kano State and now a senator.
His campaign posters for the 2019 presidency have taken over the streets. Bus drivers, tricycle operators and traders flaunt it for all to see. They say he is the next president come 2019. Asked why not Buhari again, a trader who displays his wares in wheelbarrow along with Kwankwaso poster, said to TheNiche: “Buhari has had his chance.”
This is the mood in other Buhari strongholds including Tudun Wada, Rigasa and many other suburbs in Kaduna North, the Muslim dominated area of Kaduna State. Buhari hitherto was considered as the saviour of the talakawa (the poor) in those areas. But now, they chant Kwankwasiya, a name they fondly call Kwankwaso.
Buhari’s chances are not also bright in Kaduna South, populated by Christians. Those interviewed by TheNiche said that they hold a grudge against Buhari and Nasir El-Rufai, the Kaduna State governor, for not doing enough to apprehend the Fulani herdsmen that wrought violence in their domain.
In Kano, Kwankwaso assumes a larger than life image. His supporters are fanatical. The state deputy governor and a supporter of Kwankwaso, Professor Hafiz Abubakar, recently notified his principal, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, that he would not be on the same ticket with him in 2019. This was to enable him take side with Kwankwaso on the ongoing supremacy battle against Ganduje.
TheNiche finding has revealed that despite Ganduje’s transformation of Kano in terms of infrastructure and paying workers salaries as at when due, he is still not loved by the people. Their grudge against him is his fight against Kwankwaso. When TheNiche reminded some of them that Ganduje has made Kano beautiful, one of them responded in Hausa that they were aware but the man lacked likeable personality.
When President Muhammadu Buhari visited Kano on December 7, 2017, and was received by a mammoth crowd, the Kwankwaso supporters dismissed the crowd as villagers who were rented and transported to Kano for the visit. They claimed that the actual Kano residents were not part of the reception.
To buttress this, they showed us thousands of Kano residents who took along with them tanks and gallons of water to wash the road Buhari passed during his visit, an action that would have met with violence and deaths in the past.
In Jigawa, Lamido holds sway. His popularity in the state is non-paralleled. A random poll conducted in the state’s capital, Dutse, revealed that eight out of every 10 persons prefer Lamido to Buhari.
On Sunday January 7, 2018, Lamido supporters got wind that he would be attending a wedding in the state. They converged in their thousands on the highway leading into the state to welcome him with chants in Hausa, ‘daga Dutse sai Villa’, meaning from Dutse, the Jigawa State capital to the Villa, the seat of Nigeria’s power.
Kaduna, Jigawa and Kano hold the largest votes in the North West. And these states have been Buhari’s election trump card. Analysts predict that in 2019, if the PDP fields either Kwankwaso or Lamido, Buhari might suffer some bruises in the North West.
