Ganduje and the growling of a gnat

Ganduje New APC National Chairman 
Photo Credit: Author

In countries where shame is a public staple, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the Governor of Kano State, would be eating some as his prescribed  diet. But because Nigeria is so starved of shame, and instead cursed with those for whom shameless is a virtue, Ganduje and those that make up his particular gang of public officers who have been caught with their hands in  the till can afford to be noisier and more boisterous than everyone else. In Nigeria, they have a voice that thunders, swallowing up the voice of everyone else.

Nigeria may yet need to take many steps into the fields of the future while taking many steps away from the  ruins of the past to understand exactly how the swarm of locusts flying under the flag of the All Progressives Congress descended on the sparse and scant vegetation of a thoroughly troubled country in 2015.

Keen students of politics and history will also do well to study the gimmicks with which  the band of coyotes got a people to roll over, and the mechanics which they used to  step on people and march into power.

It has been eight years now and from the centre in  Abuja to different states around the country where the  elected under the APC holds the  reins of power,the story is similarly salted with regrets. As the country prepares for critical elections, the land lies silent and savaged, its one lush vegetation unrecognizable.

While  Nigerians have prepared as best as they can as individuals and as groups to ensure that the coming polls are free, fair and successful in installing those who are fit and proper to lead the country, there have been overtures in the corridors of power to ensure that the polls are also free and fair.It may be a parting gift from a president who has left much to be desired in his eight years in office but is  desirous of some redemption in the eyes of Nigerians.

When the Central Bank of Nigeria working in sync with the Federal Government decided to redesign the naira and phase out some of the old currencies, the bank made no secret of the fact that it was  part of a proactive attempt to preclude vote-buying.

The naira has since been redesigned while Nigerians have groaned under its effects, many have been bemused by the frantic actions of some public officers who seem suddenly smitten  by overflowing concern for the hardship foisted on their people by the redesign. The most prominent among  those who are currently wailing louder than the bereaved over the redesign of the naira are Nasir El-Rufai, the Kaduna State Governor, and Abdullahi Ganduje, the Kano State Governor.

Of course, both governors rushed their attorneys general into rushing the matter to the Supreme  Court. While an  increasingly divisive  Supreme Court is taking its time to pore over the papers, both men have also launched media attacks against the president and the naira. In hard-hitting media releases, both men have taken the president whom they had hitherto marched in lockstep with to  task over the naira redesign.It would appear that party politics trump everything else in Nigeria.

Abdullahi Ganduje had starkly reminded the president to remember how he got into office in 2015.Apparently unsatisfied, he  vowed to destroy commercial banks within the state who reject the old  naira notes from their customers.

It beggars belief that a sitting governor would threaten such grave measures on entities within his state because his interests are threatened by a policy that Nigerians know is good even if not perfect.

It is beyond appalling that a sitting state governor would incite people  to violence in one of Nigeria’s most volatile states over a policy only he and a few others think is irredeemably flawed.

With the 2023 general elections so  close, Nigerians must again and again question the character of the people they elect into office. If in a country of over 217 million people  a  state Governor can make such unguarded statements against the interests of banks operating within his state over action  they have no control over,then Nigerians should be embarrassed beyond words.

Ganduje reportedly threatened to destroy the banks when he went around distributing palliatives to cushion the effects of the cashless policy.This is laughable to say the least.It continues a tradition of handouts in Nigerian politics where sitting public officers instead of concentrating their efforts on projects that  that will have long lasting impact on their people choose instead to breeze into their lives whenever the opportunity presents itself peddling peanuts for political gain.

Apparently,the Governor also threatened to convert the space of any destroyed bank to schools in what was  another pathetic abuse of the sensibilities of Nigerians. What needs to be destroyed is the culture of impunity that runs riot in Nigeria.

Ultimately, Nigerians must take a long hard look at those who present themselves to be elected into public office in the country. Their character  must be as thoroughly examined as their credentials so that those so clearly unfit for public office will no longer continue to find their way into office especially on a platter of gold.

This has become inescapable as every square peg placed in any  round hole in the country places not just those in the  immediate vicinity of the round hole but every one else in grave  danger.

Kene Obiezu,

Twitter: kenobiezu

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