Kano: An anthology of whispers

Among all the resource materials, serving as the sources of history, non is as contentious as the oral tradition, which are a collection of stories, statements and occurrences that was passed from one generation to the other, involving the passage of information from the revered wisdom of old age to the impressionable minds of the youth or simply put, a message from a father to a son, through the windy length of time to the present period. Indeed, I have not encountered any document, which has celebrated this unique method of preserving our past, than the famous Kano Chronicles, which is a compendium of historical occurrences, about the unrecorded facts of earlier eras that enlighten us on what happened in the course of time. Although, some might question its veracity, the greater majority of the people, have already identified with the segmented series of anecdotes as the gospel truth. However, while storing ancient tales tell us what happened a long time ago, it is the chronicling of the present, which after sometime metamorphoses into a documented manuscript of the past. This is a discourse on the series of whispers, which are the prevalent topics of discussion, within the fabric of Kano community and in time, could constitute the multitude of evidences which have caused a certain situation to subsist. No factual reality confuses the soul, than the city’s elite reaction to the Kwankwaso administration, who initially never voted for the incumbent, yet as of today, they are amongst its committed defenders. While the dregs of the society, amongst who constitute the poor, the wretched and the armada of unskilled manpower, have taken a leave of absence from their love affair with the cult of red cap men. But, what could have happened to engineer such a monumental three hundred degree change, because, during the 2011 elections, the governor’s support base was strictly from the class of the unemployed and the underemployed youths, both of the male and female genders, while the educated breed and their entrepreneurial cousins had already pitched their tents with other political parties and at the eve of the polls, when it became clearly evident, that the incumbent is winning the contest, most slept off the weekend as a carefree resting period, strictly avoiding the usual hassles that is the typical character of a polling center in Nigeria. Today, the fiercest defenders of the administration lay within the circles of the intellectual community, the literati, the business community and the super rich elites. While it is perfectly understandable the position of the last two groups, after all, Aliko Dangote the world acclaimed richest person from Africa, who is like a Maharaja to every upstart and budding money man, once quipped, when asked whether he is with the government, where he stated; a wise business man is always in support and a supporter of the leadership of the day. The other groups could only support the government, despite the fact that by their tradition, cynical opposition to everything within governmental leadership is the norm, more so, an individual belonging to the fold of the People’s Democratic Party, which is the much vilified party in power at the federal level, also widely regarded as the root of most of the problems bedeviling the polity. Fortunately for him, the projected image of the Kwankwasiya movement about town is that of an opposition, forced to co-exist within a hostile ruling party environment. Evidently, it is a contradiction both in terms and concepts of what we know of Nigerian politics, especially after the eight year interval of the last administration in office, where the mercantile psychology of citizens of the state was exploited to the fullest, which is the clear preference for the acceptance of monetary gratis, rather the development of concrete social infrastructures. Perhaps it is a surprise, yet it is not, because of the wonderful vagaries of electoral democracy, that lends itself to the periodic assessment of a re-election, which the present incumbent faced in the year 2003 and spectacularly faltered with an unexpected defeat. A fact which has made Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to be among a minute few, if at all there are others, to have won, lost and won again, forcing him to study and understood the intricate nature of a people, who have inflicted on him one of the grossest acts of electoral betrayal. To say the man understands the people of Kano is one of the greatest understatements of the century, because it is trite law of natural behavior, which is that the length of time it takes for a monetary gift to last in the memory of an individual is not very long and subject to his or her ability to spend the collected sum, pending which the attitude is as though the cash was never collected. But a grand and grandiose project last for decades, with its image etched on the minds and psyche of supporters as well as the adversaries of a regime, a critical example being the ongoing overhead bridges project upon a beautified landscape, which must have satisfied a city most famous as a commercial nerve center of the north. Because, one of the unique features of a trader is the ability to travel far and wide, soaking the spectacular wonders of the foreign lands, thus, the question has always been why not in my city.