Rep Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila, deputy minority leader of the House of Representatives from Kano State in this interview bares his mind on the bid by APC leaders to woo Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to the party and what should be done to avert a crisis. Excerpts:

How do you see the visit by the leadership of your party, the APC, to Governor Kwankwaso of Kano?

It is a very good move to strengthen the party, because a governor is a serious stakeholder in this business. As democrats, we welcome everybody to the party, because that will boost our image.
If you look at one of the reasons for the formation of APC, Kano is one of the areas where we think we’ll have serious votes which will help in forming an alternative government come 2015. Therefore, all hands must be on deck.
But the process and the way they embarked on the visit actually created acrimony among our ranks. I can understand that the national leadership of the party together with some of us from Kano are doing our best to see how we can resolve the issue, but there is problem on the ground.

What is the problem?

Based on our understanding, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau was our leader in the former ANPP, and we had nine members of the House of Representatives with one Senator and other elected members of the State House of Assembly. We had full structure on ground then. Kano is entirely different from other states where G-7 governors are making moves to join our fold.
Being a former co-chairman of the party merger committee, a committee that came up with the name, constitution and manifesto of the APC, he was supposed to be contacted. Kabiru Gaya and I were both members of the merger committee based on our position.
But Malam Shekarau as a leader back home, we thought that it would have been good for the party to consult him that they were coming to Kano to visit the governor. In an act of omission or commission, they skipped the idea not until I informed Malam on Wednesday around 7pm that I heard there would be a visit of APC leaders to Kano.
He was in Kano but didn’t know. It was after consultation with other leaders of the party that he realized that the decision had already been taken that they were coming.
They reasoned with him but begged that he should forget for political reasons. They intended to take Malam to the government house, but he refused to go because he is a leader, and he needed to consult us. At least he needed to sit with the stakeholders, because there was problem on the ground.
We went to elections with the PDP in Kano, and we as ANPP scored 1.04 million, while PDP got 1.1 million. We contested the outcome of the elections up to the Appeal Court of Supreme Court. Therefore, there is serious political disharmony between the old ANPP and PDP, and we’re in APC now. We served in the merger committee.
So, you can’t ignore our team and start bringing someone into a board and think that everything will be well. When you go into the nature of Kano politics, it is totally different with other states. If you want to bring in a person just because he is a governor, go back to history of our politics and see.
Rimi was a governor in 1983 and decamped to NPP, but PRP retained the position. When you look at what happened in 1991 during SDP/NRC, the serious party on ground was SDP, but in one day, people protested and voted for NRC.
From 1999 to 2003, it was PDP, but we came and took over power from them. We were in power for eight years, and they took it from us. Therefore, a governor is not a deciding factor in Kano politics. We appreciate that a governor is a political leader which must be consulted on many issues, but he cannot decide for the people.
ANPP had nine, CPC had two and PDP had 13. PDP has two Senators, while ANPP got one.
CPC was General Buhari’s party; ANPP was Malam Ibrahim Shekarau’s party and PDP is Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s party. But when we came to the presidential elections, Buhari earned almost 1.6 million votes against Malam Shekarau’s 500,000 plus, and Goodluck Jonathan, PDP, got 400,000.
But when we got to the gubernatorial elections, CPC got 150,000 votes, the party that earned 1.6 million in the presidential, without getting any seat in the state assembly when we have ten. Then the candidate of Malam Shekarau earned 1.04 million, while he himself scored only 500,000. There are almost four local governments where people voted for our gubernatorial candidate, but refused to vote for the assembly candidates.
So, as far as Kano politics is concerned, big names have less impact. If you depend on big names and their political profiles, they will take you by surprise. This is what happened in 2003 when Malam Shekarau as a retired classroom teacher defeated the incumbent governor. There was serious reason to consult the current structure of APC in Kano, but I don’t think there will be any reason where somebody will force us out of APC; we’ll remain in APC, because we can say in Kano APC is our political child.

But some members of the APC in Kano are threatening that should Kwankwaso be allowed into the party and be its leader not Shekarau, they will decamp to the PDP or any other viable political party...


No, no, I don’t think so. You see, there is a policy in APC, which we all appreciate. It will be applicable in 35 states, but it can’t be applicable in Kano. We can understand ourselves and agree to work together if we sit down on a table. That whenever we have a sitting governor, he will be the party’s leader; he will be the coordinator of the harmonization committee, or he will nominate a coordinator.
Incidentally, we have not yet commenced registration of our party members.
If Kwankwaso joins us, definitely by the policy of APC, he will be the leader or appoint one. But the area of concern is that Kano is not like Sokoto or Jigawa where all the elected representatives are PDP, in our own, in the currently APC we have 11 together with the CPC, so you need to sit down with these people and talk.
It is totally injustice to ignore us and start talking with Kwankwaso without engaging us. Nobody in Kano politics can bulldoze us and think that he can influence votes. If you have money or think that you’re somebody, go and practise somewhere but not in Kano.

Despite all these, will you people still accept him, Kwankwaso, into the APC in Kano should he come?

I’m not in a position to give him conditions. It is party affair; it is a collective decision of our team that we needed to be consulted. G7 governors are fighting Jonathan because of the injustice in the PDP. The party is almost brought down because of the injustice, impunity, imposition and other undemocratic tendencies. Therefore, we’re avoiding it in APC.
You cannot fight injustice somewhere and bring it to another place. You cannot go and preach free and fair elections somewhere, then you’ll come and impose it elsewhere and think that people will respect you.
We are in this game and were elected by our people, and we’re representing them and their interests at various levels. I assure you that as at today, in the current APC in Kano even before the governor joins us, we’re very strong and are equal to the task. We will welcome the governor if he joins us.

Do you see some of your colleagues in the House who are in the PDP from Kano State coming along with the governor?

We’ve been working together since 2011. We’re in the same chamber, and they’re doing their best to promote the tenets of democracy , justice, equity and fairness in the country. All that the G7 are asking for is justice, equity, respect to the rule of law and other democratic tenets.

What advice do you have for the leadership of APC?

I’m very much comfortable with the efforts our leaders in APC, but I want them to understand that Nigeria is a multi-cultural country with different political understandings and beliefs. What is obtainable in Lagos or Anambra will not be the same in Kano. The way we do our politics is totally different from the way people do their own in Kogi, Ekiti or Enugu.
Therefore, as our leaders, we believe that they can salvage the country from the current predicament. They need to study the situation before taking any decision. We want to have a very formidable political party that will fight the ruling party, so we need to have a solid foundation that will be laid through justice, equity and fairness as well as respect of human dignity.

http://dailytrust.info/index.php/politics/9580-the-problem-with-having-kwankwaso-in-apc-rep-kawu

Godfatherism. Everybody wants to be state political Godfather. Shekarau wants to be the Godfather. Kwankwaso wants t get d grip of it too. Implosion waiting to happen unless one of them soft-pedal.

Interesting read...his first statement already shows me that he sees Politics as 'Business'...

In fighting in APC will be worst come 2015. APC, party of strange bedfellows

hahaha na laf i dey laf
as for RIVERS, even if AMEACHI joins APC RIVERS is still a PDP state.
In RIVERS no room 4 APC
Infact make GEJ join APC he'll lose in RIVERS

Professor Peter: In fighting in APC will be worst come 2015. APC, party of strange bedfellows

Alarmist go and sit down!

I really appreciate the frankness and the openness with which the man spoke

I know for sure that APC leaders are up to the task as they won't allow a part of the party which has been with them all the while to feel aggrieved cos of new joinders

When the time comes,Kwakwanso and Shekarau will definitely lock themselves up in a room and talk frankly in the spirit of consensus building and give-and-take

Enemies will be disappointed!

sagombugo:

Alarmist go and sit down!

I really appreciate the frankness and the openness with which the man spoke

I know for sure that APC leaders are up to the task as they won't allow a part of the party which has been with them all the while to feel aggrieved cos of new joinders

When the time comes,Kwakwanso and Shekarau will definitely lock themselves up in a room and talk frankly in the spirit of consensus building and give-and-take

Enemies will be disappointed!

don't be surprise when the talking takes place in Aso. rock. The way you guys trust on these politicians makes me to cringe in disbelief.

I know kano †̥☺ be a group of highly politically intelligent voters. Big names don't carry weights as they do elsewhere. I am tired of all these pre-decamping stories of the G-7 govs, let someone just take action so that calculations and equations can change! I can't wait

The guy have a point. Shekarau and Kwankwaso are political opponents. The APC leadership should thread with caution. But I will choose Kwankwaso 100 times before looking at Shekarau. Kwankwaso is currently giving Kano a new face and he has been around for just 2 years. Shekarau spent 8 years without anything to show for it.

APC must develop a good strategy to resolve issues like this. When a political party start getting bigger, there will always be power tussle on who should control a particular political structure or domain. That is what is happening in PDP, its all about fight over who should control the PDP political structure. PDP strategically deleted OBJ influence at the National Level and also handed over their structure in State like Rivers and Adamawa from the State Governor's. This is the main reason why Amaechi and Nyako are crying about, insisting they will destroy a party they no longer have any influence on.

Mallam Shekarau’s deserve to be informed about the visit by APC Leaders. Though it could be that APC leaders wanted to take him unaware and persuade him to accompany them to Kano Government house but as it stand, the plan failed. That Malam Shekarau’s is no longer the State Governor does not mean he does not have political influence in Kano. The Rep member have said all, Kano is not like Lagos or Anambra. They have their own political orientation and that must be respected.

I do not belong to any political party but Nigeria will be better with 2 strong Political parties fighting for power. You will ether sit up or be push away in the next election.

Kano politics is like this: There is nowhere in hell that PDP can dream of winning Kano because true PDP does not exist in the state.

Kwankwaso is only theoretically PDP but in actual effect won the governorship under his own personalized brand of poltics known as KWANKWOSIYA and for the first time he represents an elected governor really developing and working for the state which the people can see and are therefore totally with him; but not even he can sway the presidential votes towards PDP - that's the reality on ground, otherwise Oga johnny would only be wasting his time in Kano.

Shekarau had his time and wasted that opportunity quite badly, today he is virtually history, a non entity; that explains why the APC representatives visiting the state almost forgot about him - if he was that relevant, they wouldn't.

The house rep being interviewed is only fishing for relevance for himself and former boss, Shekarau.

Me_Aboki: Kano politics is like this: There is nowhere in hell that PDP can dream of winning Kano because true PDP does not exist in the state.

Kwankwaso is only theoretically PDP but in actual effect won the governorship under his own personalized brand of poltics known as KWANKWSIYA and for the first time he represents an elected governor really developing and working for the state which the people can see and are therefore totally with him; but not even he can sway the presidential votes towards PDP - that's the reality on ground, otherwise Oga johnny would only be wasting his time in Kano.

Shekarau had his time and wasted that opportunity quite badly, today he is virtually history, a non entity; that explains why the APC representatives visiting the state almost forgot about him - if he was that relevant, they wouldn't.

The house rep being interviewed is only fishing for relevance for himself and former boss, Shekarau.

Hmmmmm

Your comment sounds belivable and plausible

Albeit I am still of the view that Shekarau shouldn't just be jettisoned like that. He could play the spoiler. The hausas hate anything called Injustice and they are the most politically aware group around

Thanks

Kano is a very interesting state.. They vote individuals not parties. Kwakwanso is quite popular but we all should remember that he won only because mohammed Abacha was denied the CPC ticket. Being a good politician and the man of the masses he has capitalized on his victory to bring in some form of development to the state, making him a toast of the people. Shekarau no doubt also has a good number of followers but the fact is that APC has more to gain from Kwankwanso than from Shekarau. Having said that, the duty lies on Buhari to bring the two heavyweights together for the interest of Kano people. As for PDP/GEJ Kano is a no go area for them.. There is nothing on earth they can do to win that state. That's as sure as it can be.