9-12-2024.

A very touching story was told about a God fearing poor man, who was in the habit of remaining in the Mosque praying fervently. He was said to have one day been tapped on the shoulder by another man, who requested him to come outside when he was through with his prayer. When he eventually went outside, they entered and drove into the expensive car of the caller, to a supermarket. At the supermarket, the ‘driver’ purchased sufficient quantities of food items, and gave them plus a reasonable amount of money to the man from the Mosque.

Finally, he gave the Mosque man his own phone number and asked him to call it whenever the food items finished. But instead of being happy with such generosity shown to him, the God fearing man got very angry and told his benefactor to take back everything as he did not beg for, nor need, them. He said the One who sent the rich man to assist him was always around and never tiring of assisting the legitimate request of everyone who requested for his help; the Almighty God. The Shiekh who narrated the story, jokingly said to his listeners that he was sure if it was anyone there, including himself, he would ask for the number of the benefactor before it was voluntarily offered.

Compare the God fearing man’s opposition to take what was legitimately and freely given to him, against the rampaging greed of our so called leaders, most of whom profess to believe and fear the only One True God. But their overwhelming corrupt practices gives away the lie to their religiousity.

They not only regularly steal from the Commonwealth, they also come out with policies that literally kill people, due to their severity, as evidenced in the pervasiveness of the poverty and hardship that is in Nigeria, especially in the Northern region.

In a radio interview he recently granted, the first Majority Leader in the Katsina State House of Assembly (KTSHA) in the present Republic (4th), Honourable Sani Liti Yankwani, lamented the condition the North had found itself, and the sickness of the former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), implying that he would have been the saviour of the Northern region, from the ill treatment it is receiving from the regime of President Tinubu.

Honourable Sani Liti expressed disappointment that General Muhammadu Buhari, who most people thought would be a performer in his return to power as a civilian, did not do anything worthwhile for the North in the eight (8) years he served as a democratically elected President of the country. He accused the immediate past president of remaining unconcerned to the plight of the region, citing the many ‘life saving’ projects for the North, which President Umaru Musa Yar’adua started, but canceled by the late President’s immediate successor, to drive home his point.

He also cited General Buhari’s failure to complete the dualisation of the Abuja to Kano road during his two terms in office, which the present regime cancelled on the allegation that the contract was overpriced. But the contract was awarded during the time of one of President Tinubu’s ‘boys’, and immediate successor as the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola. He was the immediate past minister of works and housing. But the president SINGLEHANDEDLY awarded the 700km, N15.6 trillion Lagos Calabar Costal Highway, which traverses seven Southern states, without seeking the approval of (or even informing) the National Assembly (NASS).

Meanwhile, Kano state is set to be in the news in a big way, in the event that the chieftain of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and one time governor of the state, Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, is chosen to replace the serving vice president, Senator Kashim Shettima in 2027. Rumour has it that the Kano political strong man is one of the three big political giants pencilled down to replace the vice president in 2027.

The vice president is not a political lightweight in the North though, even though he may not have very deep pockets like the president. He is not likely to ‘go down’ submissively, without fighting back, and the fight may be very dirty, to the point of possibly consuming everyone involved, including the president himself.

The other two are also Northerners, but of shallower pockets, and both political lightweights compared to the serving vice president, who made the extras and the connections while in his present office. One is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, a former minister and, like the vice president, a former Governor. The other is the current National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, who was the pioneer Chairman of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

This indicates the confidence that the present regime has of SUCCESSFULLY RIGGING the next presidential election in 2027, which would be the ONLY way for it to return for a second term.

The choice of Kwankwaso would definitely change the political calculus in the North’s most populous city, and a centre of commerce in West Africa, Kano, because NOT many of his supporters would follow the political move into the All Progressives Party (APC), the current ruling party  in Nigeria. At the moment, he enjoys a cult following in his home state that he cannot afford to make a political mistake.

But his perceived desperation to occupy a higher office than that of a state governor, may increase the apparent ‘political enmity’ between him and a fellow Kano state political heavyweight,and his successor as governor, who occupies a very high office in the ruling party.

In any case, the way and manner in which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu negatively treats the North is not UNLIKELY to remain indelible in the mind of most voters from the region, to so soon FORGIVE him, or the APC, in 2027. A lot of the electorate would RIGHTLY fear the president’s second term, if he could so shabbily treat the region and majority of its people during his first term. 

After all, the first term is supposed to be a time when newly elected presidents and governors treat regions, areas, or the people with extreme political correctness and caution. But they come to their second terms with guns blazing, bulldozing their way, because they would have no third term to contest for. Not President Tinubu, who came out with his EMILOKAN to deal with the North, but treat his tribe people with kid’s gloves, even though majority of them REJECTED him at the 2023 presidential polls.

There were so many ‘collapses’ of the National Grid (14 times in 2024), which only affect most of the North, as a result of which up to this moment, power has ceased to go to the region regularly, even in the areas where the so called Band A customers live. Many of the industries in the North are now ghosts, and those that function, do so SKELETALLY.

His indirect use of a proxy to fight Alhaji Aliko Dangote, for having the guts and money to build the biggest single stream refinery in the world, with a capacity of 650, 000 barrels per day, can not be forgotten by the North so soon. Nor is his sly effort to discourage other Nigerians of Northern origin from doing the same thing.

And Kano state was said to have given Tinubu twice as many votes than any state in the country during the 2023 presidential election. That was above and over the entire votes cast for him in some regions in the Nigeria. Many people BLAME the North for massively voting him, which afforded him the chance to visit the country with such vengeance, with the Northern region most affected in the president’s campaign of vengeance, which he termed as ‘EMILOKAN’.

But if any one was to be blamed for the monumental miscalculation, it must be the so called Northern leaders who collected and pocketed millions of his Naira, and ordered their cronies, boys and foot soldiers to elect him at the polls.

May God prevent the Northern region from making the mistake it made in the 2023 presidential election. May He also make Kano state do the right thing in 2027, by voting a person who loves the citizens of the whole country more than he loves accumulating money for himself and his immediate family.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.