Kwankwaso, Shekarau test popularity with Kano LG polls

                                                                                                                                                         Tomorrow’s local government election in Kano State is seen as a litmus test in the battle of political supremacy between Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso and Malam Ibrahim Shekarau.

The duo of Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and Malam Ibrahim Shekarau are the icons of the two major political parties that have fielded candidates for Saturday’s local government elections in Kano State.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are slugging it out for the 44 local government chairmanship positions and the 484 councillorship seats in tomorrow’s LG elections which is coming with so much heat due to its likely implication on the 2015 general elections.
While Kwankwaso belongs to the APC, Shekarau is in the PDP. Victory of any of the political parties, according to observers, would determine the popularity of the two heavy weights whose feud

started in 2002 when Kwankwaso was at the helm of affairs in the state.
Since then, the duo have been battling for more political space of the state. Shekarau recorded his first victory over Kwankwaso in 2003 when he defeated him at the polls. He reigned in the state for eight years only for the candidate he sponsored to be defeated by Kwankwaso in 2011.
The rivalry between them later abated for almost two years but  it was rekindled when Kwankwaso decamped to the APC. Not satisfied by the events that trailed Kwankwaso’s defection to APC, especially the handing over of the state structure of the party to him by the party’s national secretariat, Shekarau defected to PDP.
From then, they have been scheming to outdo each other in the political space of the state even as each claims to be more popular than the other. Tomorrow’s election would serve as a major opportunity for them to show their might since the 2011 election.
Local government chairmen, like state governors, play key roles in determining who wins election in their domain and the 2015 elections will not be an exception.
Analysts say it is against this backdrop that the two political parties are struggling to win more local governments in order to lay a solid foundation for their victory in the 2015 elections.
Apparently to strengthen his hold of Shekarau’s local government, Kwankwaso earlier in the week, appointed Alhaji Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna as commissioner of agriculture. He replaced Barka Sani who dumped APC for PDP.
Gawuna was one time the most powerful local government chairman in Kano during Shekarau’s administration and he hails from Nassarawa local government. Shekarau and Barka come from the same local government area with Gawuna. The appointment of Gawuna, a very powerful associate of Shekarau, is seen as an attempt to further whittle down the former governor’s power in his domain.
But the PDP members are not resting on their oars as they are working hard to empower Shekarau and other top members of the party in the state. Only recently, Ambassador Aminu Wali was returned to the country from his ambassadorial job in China and made the minister of foreign affairs. Wali is the leader of the PDP in the state.
Like Wali, Shekarau has been penciled down for a ministerial job, while feelers from his camp has it that the former governor had since undergone security checks in Abuja and  his appointment as a minister is only being delayed because of the deteriorating security situation in the country that has overwhelmed the President.
Candidates of the APC for the LG polls campaigned with the numerous projects embarked upon by Kwankwaso in the state, pledging to replicate same in their respective local government areas, if elected.
Most of the PDP chairmanship candidates campaigned using the statement of President Goodluck Jonathan that Kwankwaso squandered N255 bn LGs funds. To them, the election would put a stop to the spending of councils fund by the state government.
Ambassador Wali was reported to have said the poll would end the mismanagement of the local government funds by the APC -led state government.
 “We are appealing to all and sundry to work for a hitch- free poll because we are aware that some people who are mismanaging local government funds don’t want the election to be conducted. We should not allow them to succeed because it is only when we have the polls conducted that we will be able to put a stop the flagrant squandering of the LGs funds,” he said.
Pockets of crises were recorded in parts of the state, especially in Kano municipal area where two persons were killed in two separate skirmishes. Apparently, worried by the skirmishes, the state commissioner of police, Adenerele Tasheed Shinaba threatened to order the shooting of any politician that snatches ballot box during the exercise.
Reiterating his commitment to free and credible elections, the police boss said: “I’m not going to tolerate any form of rigging because I’ve been told that election is not a joke in Kano State. We are going to deal ruthlessly with election manipulators.  I’ll order the shooting of ballot box snatchers. Democracy is meant to bring development all over the world. It is not meant to bring about violence. So you must play the game according to the rules guiding it.”
Meanwhile, the Kano State Emirate Council has warned the people of the state to shun any form of violence during and after the election. The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, who was represented by the Wamban Kano, Alhaji Abbas Sunusi, called on the security agencies, district heads, politicians and other stakeholders to caution youth against indulging on any act capable of bringing down law and order in the state.
Although the norm in the country is for the ruling party in a state to win all in local government election, the state independent electoral commission had, on several occasions, assured the people of the state of credible polls.
Chairman of the commission, Dr. Sani Lawal Malumfashi, in an interview with our correspondent said they will be fair to all the political parties.
“We are prepared and ready for the polls. We will be fair to all and we will give all parties equal opportunities. We are appealing to political parties to shun violence for the smooth conduct of the elections,” he said.