Who Is Afraid Of Ganduje?

By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.

Of recent, there have been a lot of shenanigans against Ganduje, suggesting that someone is, or some people are, afraid of the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. AbdulLahi Umar Ganduje, PhD.

The plot to get the National Chairman of the APC out of office seems to centre around some of the North Central states of the Federation. But one of the governors allegedly behind the plot has openly distanced himself in the matter, saying that he and Dr. Ganduje enjoy a very cordial relationship, which no amount of blackmail can change.

A press statement issued and signed by his Press Secretary, Mr. Kula on Thursday last week, said that “it is imperative to clarify that at no point did Governor Alia assembled, attended and sent a representative or participated in any meeting to discuss the removal or call for the resignation of AbdulLahi Umar Ganduje.

“The Benue state Governor remains firm in his belief and alligience to the leadership of the National Working Committee of the APC under the leadership of Alhaji Ganduje.

“Further more, at no point, whether publicly or privately, has the Governor advocated or expressed any desire for resignation of the National party Chairman”, he said.

But a youthful former governor, who recently vacated the office of the Number One Citizen of his North Central state, had his posters flooding the Federal Capital of Nigeria, Abuja, declaring that he was the ‘right’ candidate for the office of the National Chairman of the ruling APC, as if the office was vacant.

The former Governor forgot that he was the same person calling the president an old man when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was then a presidential aspirant in the ruling APC. The ex governor handsomely paid some of the Kannywood stars to drum up support for his presidential aspiration, telling those who cared to listen that it was the ‘turn of the youth to rule the country’.

It is the same person who now wants the support of President Tinubu to run the affairs of the ruling party, forgetting the statements he had made in the past about the age of the person who is now the president of Nigeria.

He also seems to overlook the fact that Dr. AbdulLahi Umar Ganduje, PhD, former Governor of Kano state, is a resilient fighter. He is a fighter who never says ‘no’ to a challenge.

Well, I do not know whether there are other under handed dealings to undermine the national chairman of the APC, but that is not saying that the consummate administrator and politician would not know about it, if there are.

In the last article I wrote about him, titled: ‘Dr.AbdulLahi Umar Ganduje: A Consummate administrator’, I forgot to add ‘and politician’. The title of the article should have been: ‘Dr. AbdulLahi Umar Ganduje: a Consumate Administrator and Politician’.

In the said write up, I failed to mention what a cunning politician that Dr. Ganduje was. Immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision to award victory to Governor Abba (Gida-Gida) Kabir Yusuf, the National Chairman of the APC went to Kano to congratulate his successor and (then) invite him to pitch up his tent with the ruling party.

Of course, he knew that would be a hard sale, but that did not stop him from trying and doing his best at it, because failure is when you failed to try, not when you tried and fail.

Dr. AbdulLahi Umar Ganduje did not outwardly show his disappointment at not winning the Kano gubernatorial election for the APC, as others (including this writer) would expect, which explains the reason why he is a cunning politician, adept at reading other politicians’ mind long before they say what they mean.

This also explains why some people in the state are already reminiscing about his departure from the local political scene. Kano state politics without Dr. Ganduje is a non starter. One young man shot a video clip in which he was regretting joining the ‘red cap movement’ instead of remaining with the man popularly known as the ‘Cadimul Islam’ of Kano state.

The young man’s reminiscence of the Ganduje time was brought about by the ‘Shiekh Aminu Daurawa and Murja Ibrahim Kunya saga: Winners and Losers’, in which the present governor initially supported one side before he catapulted into turning his back on the side he earlier supported.

The APC national chairman may not be a party to the Kano state HISBAH squabble, but he was a winner in the light of the young man’s imprimatur on him.

Although not a few people considered the presence of his wife in his former Kano state administration as too domineering, the same people forgot that the woman, most famously known as Goggo, is a real professor, teaching at one of the tertiary institutions in the country. The two together will naturally form a formidable force that will not suffer fools gladly. So Dr Ganduje was right, to have the Professor beside him, most of the times.

And the power brokers in the ruling APC were no fools when they decided on Dr. Ganduje as the national chairman of their party. He is from the richest and most populous state in the north, while the president is from Lagos, the richest and most populous state in the country.

The duo of the president and the national chairman of the ruling party makes for a formidable party that will be very hard to defeat at the national election without resort to any underhanded election tribunal. One can always count on the north, led by Kano state, to always deliver the critical numbers, when the votes are counted.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Abuja.