Abba Gida Gida’s Rally-Cry At The Kano Peace Summit, And The Eye Opener Ahead Of 2023 Election
By Ozumi Abdul
AREWA AGENDA – Few days ago precisely on the 20th December, 2022, the gubernatorial candidate of the New Nigeria’s People Party Engr Abba Kabir Yusuf, popularly adored as Abba Gida Gida opened the filthy can of worms regarding what transpired in the Kano state 2019 gubernatorial elections during a summit tagged “Kano Peace Summit” that was organised by the Kano state Police Command in partnership with AMG Foundation and other civil society organisations under the auspices of G31.
In fact, his revelatory speech at the event is one that in brace of shake can shatter the hope of anyone, kill his confidence about everything election in the country, electoral stakeholders, particularly the INEC and police.
The revelation is a box and cox for the electorates, when it comes to free, fair and credible election.
Abba Gida Gida during the summit was practically, but tactically being proactive, reminding an average Kanawa the broad-day robbery of their thumbs in the 2019 gubernatorial election in the state, and as well in premonitory shrewdness opening their eyes and minds in preparedness to what some enemies of democracy just like in 2019 may again have up their sleeves to unfurl in their desperate bid to scuttle and impede the electoral processes in the 2023 general elections, particularly the state’s gubernatorial election.
At the Kano Police Headquarters in Bompai, the venue of the summit, the police received a visitor in Abba Gida Gida whose status as a visitor eclipsed that of his host on the day, as he was practically indicting and alleging the police about its contriving and conniving roles in the state’s last gubernatorial election that controversially denied him the mandate to rule the state.
Right at the Kano state police backyard, Abba Kabir Yusuf’s rage had no gauge as he heaped blames on the police for the increased political violence in the state. He was pointing accusing fingers at them as abettors of election-rigging and disruption of political process in the state without minding whose horse is gored; he didn’t mind if at any moment of provocation his blood would spurt from the nozzles of their guns, neither did he mind if his utterances would incur the ire of police to confine him to the solitary Bompai walls.
He recalled how frequent violent attacks were orchestrated by the State’s APC Chairman Abdullahi Abbas and his son, Sani Abdullahi Abbas AKA (Ochi), wondering why they are not being called to answer some of their political atrocities by any security agent, particularly the police.
Yes, political crisis and thuggery in Kano state is not something new, but has today sadly and unfortunately taken another twist and dimension in recent years and elections, especially with disruption of electoral processes or attacking of electoral bodies through armed raids on voting and collation centres, as well as disrupting campaign events; simply because certain politicians have bought the loyalty of some thugs by helping them out of prison.
In 2019 elections for instance, a party chairman in Kano described the election as a do-or-die affair, and we all saw what happened. He was said to have recently made a similar remark, saying he was not praying for peace.
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Prior to the 2019 election, the chairman of the ruling party in the state was severally accused of instigating violence through political hate speeches, which necessitated The Center of Information Technology and Development (CITAD), a non-profit organisation monitoring the trend of hate speeches in Nigeria, issued statements condemning his call for winning elections through violent means.
The statement reads thus: “The remarks constitute serious danger to the election and period beyond as they licensed the listening youth to beat up anybody they so wish because soldiers and police will do nothing to them,” CITAD stated.
I honestly understand Abba Gida Gida’s provocations and frustrations, because of how arrantly frustrating it is to know that a security agent as revered as the police, tasked with the statutory responsibility of keeping the hopes of the electorates alive about electoral processes, are also the one paradoxically killing such hope by conspiring or abetting politicians to rig elections; a supposed keeper of hope, turn killer of such hope in deed.
Abba Yusuf Kabir has this to say in 2019 after Governor Abdullahi Ganduje was declared the winner of the 2019 Kano gubernatorial election:
“In the political history of Kano, we have undergone the most horrific election ever, where the ruling APC and the Kano State Government deployed all mechanisms to orchestrate violence against the citizens.
“Indeed, the good people of Kano State have witnessed a broad daylight robbery of their mandate by the enemies of democracy.
INEC had declared Kano State election inconclusive and fixed Saturday, March 23, 2019, for supplementary election.
The supplementary election was marred by reports of harassment of residents and journalists.
Speaking on these incidents, Abba Gida Gida said he was shocked by what he saw on March 9 and March 23, when voting was disrupted in many polling units.
He said he had joined the governorship race believing that INEC would be impartial, while security agencies would guarantee the safety of all participants.
In the final results declared by Bello Shehu, Ganduje scored 1,033,695 votes to win the election, while Yusuf came second with 1,024,713 votes.
He said he was disappointed that top Police officers deployed in the state watched as acts of lawlessness took place, only to appear publicly to say that the process was peaceful.
“We condemn this fraud in its entirety. We have decided to take a legal action through the Election Petitions Tribunal with overwhelming evidence that has been gathered, and Insha Allah, the mandate of the good people of Kano State shall be reclaimed,” he added at the time.
Here is another election year ahead of us in 2023 again, and the spotlight both local and international observers are on Kano state.
What is particularly surprising is the suspicious absence of
the leadership of the Kano APC which include the executive governor, the gubernatorial candidate and his deputy, the senatorial candidates and the state APC chairman, who were all invited for the peace summit among other keys political stakeholders to discuss issues related to security and safety of Kano before, during and after 2023 elections; a summit where the Governor was expected to deliver a speech as a Special Guest of Honour.
No matter what, and whatever their reason or reasons for shunning the peace summit may be, it is our general prayers as concerned citizens that what happened in 2019 elections in the state doesn’t repeat itself, we pray to have a hitch-free elections in Kano in 2023 devoid of all the irregularities experienced in the 2019, particularly the governorship election because any uncertainty in Kano means uncertainty in the entire North and Nigeria as a whole,being a commercial hub of the country as well as well as one of the most populous states in the country.
May we not regress to the 2019 electoral pogrom in 2023 and beyond again.
Ozumi Abdul is a journalist. He writes from Kano and can be reached via [email protected]
