Kwankwaso And His Narrative Of Vultures

Posted by African Examiner Articles/Opinion, Latest Headlines Monday, May 5th, 2014

By Constance Okechukwu

Watching Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso address the matriculating students of Northwest University, Kano, on national television, one thing was clear: the man whom students at the ceremony ought to have looked up to as a role model is the opposite of what a governor should be behaviour-wise. Instead of the governor to advise the matriculating students on how to be good citizens of the country, he used the occasion to attack the elected president of the country, calling him unprintable names.

Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwakwaso

Moreover Kwankwaso and his cohorts turned what was supposed to be a solemn academic ceremony at a citadel of learning into a political rally. To make matters worse, the matriculating students were addressed in Hausa as if that is the official language of the university and as if the school is closed to students from other ethnic nationalities. The example shown by Kwankwaso at the ceremony raises worrying questions about the quality of education that Northwest University imparts.

The essence of a proper matriculation ceremony where students are advised on how to be good students by avoiding anti-social activities like cultism and examination malpractice was lost on the governor who chose the occasion to announce his ambition of becoming the president of the country. While nobody is against Kwankwaso ambition, relying on a convoluted narrative about imagined vultures to push his campaign is what is inappropriate and unacceptable.

In his verbal war against President Goodluck Jonathan, Kwankwaso said that Jonathan, his Vice, Secretary to the Federal Government as well as PDP are vultures. A governor whose utterances and deeds suggest that the gory and savage activities of the nefarious Boko Haram are commendable is today turning round to call others vultures. What an irony!

Interestingly, Kwankwaso has kept the Kano electorate in the dark concerning the money meant for the development of the local council areas in the state; money which has mysteriously disappeared under his watch. The self-righteous governor should have used the matriculation ceremony to explain to the young students how he has spent the money meant for the development of the state. N255 billion is not the sort of money that will just vanish. Yet, while the governor offered no answers as to where the money has flown to, he was busy darkening the hearts of the young minds who were matriculating with his uncouth narrative of vultures, hatred and ignorance.

Kwankwaso in his vituperations on President Jonathan betrayed ignorance when he said that the president is insensitive to Nigerians because he was not mourning the death of Nigerians caused by the Boko Haram, a terrorist organization which the governor has shown through his actions and words that he has sympathy for. If Kwankwaso was not hell-bent on mischief, he would have remembered that Jonathan visited the scene of the Nyanya bomb blast where he commiserated with the families affected by the blast.

The same Jonathan who, according to Kwankwaso, is insensitive to Nigerians, cancelled all official engagements on that day to mourn the dead. The governor who is now moralizing has not cancelled any of his official assignments to visit Abuja and commiserate with the victims and certainly he would not do so because the blast has the signature of a group for which he had, indeed and action, shown sympathy.

Kwankwaso further debased governance when, after the unity rally organized by the Peoples Democratic Party, he organized his cabinet members with brooms to sweep away the footprints of Jonathan and those who accompanied him to Kano for the unity rally. The sweeping exercise smacks of the attitude of a co-wife towards the success of her co-wives children. Such action is unbecoming of a sitting governor who wants Nigerians to support his ambition of replacing Jonathan as the president of the country.

What would have been the reaction of the governor if any of the local government chairmen who were elected on the platform of PDP decided to ignore his visit to the local government only to mobilize his cabinet to sweep away the footprints of the governor after he left? How does sweeping the footprints of Jonathan provide employment to the Kano youths? How does the sweeping exercise provide free education to the teeming almajiris in the state? How does the sweeping exercise provide health care to mothers, elderly people and infants in Kano State? It amuses one that a governor who should concentrate on how to develop the state as well as the electorate that brought him to power, is using the precious time of doing something meaningful for the state to engage in a laughable sweeping exercise.

Simply put, Kwankwaso lost it when he left the facts on the ground to pour vituperation on the president; instead of telling the matriculating students how to make the country great and making good use of their time in the school. Kwankwaso and his cohort have refused to note that we are a nation, and as a nation we speak with one voice when a tragic incident like that blast in Nyanya happened instead of talking as if Jonathan caused the blast.

If the APC, which the governor of Kano pretends to represent, wants to take over power from the incumbent at the centre, it is not by encouraging our common enemy Boko Haram whose goal is to snuff life out of us. Kwankwaso should note that Nigerians cannot be fooled again by the antics of politicians who criticize just to grab power only to behave worse than the person they had criticized unfairly.

Okechukwu sent this piece from Ikeja, Lagos.