To my understanding, I may be naive, both of the current political gutsy in Kano may be facing similar political doom. Both have had enough field days of public dirty linen laundering, unhindered. The ever-uncritical Kano subjects have played along as they have always done through the eras of the NEPU to the PRP: Taɓbo/Santsi to the Kwankwasiyya dogmatisms.
Except probably the NEPU, all the other dumb callings were mere emotional idealism, and egocentric idolisation of personalities, lacking even in conjectural reasoning.
Just because an individual or group can mobilise bunches of unwary, gullible masses to adopt a particular dress code and send them forth on fools’ errand, does not make the cause evidently worthy, or prove its ideological correctness.
One of the first few signs of encroachment into an individual’s ideological sanctuary, and independence is to manipulate his or her basic sense of reasoning in issues as low and trivial as a mode of dressing. Uniform dress code, unless if divinely ordained, goes beyond identification, and signifies subservience and willingness to accept intelligence abuse. This applies even in military service.
If you haven’t, I have, and I strongly feel, you also should have enough of personality-centric politicking. Unless, if you are probably, ideologically bankrupt. The selfish tendencies of humankind are ever omnipresent, and hero worshippers have always regretted their lack of hind- and foresight.
Now that the duo of the Kwankwasiyya and the Gandujiyya leadership have matched one another in successes and failures, it is time for both to cancel out.
The leader of the duplicate noumenon, the Gandujiyya, has the tool required at the moment for the final lynch that will put to end the uncolourful partying. The ever-widening political graveyard in the country’s political arena is ever welcoming for fresh corpses.
Time has already taken its toll on older ones, and some have completely decomposed beyond recognition, while others are in various stages of the unstoppable process. Who thought the fiery santsi leader would ever lose political stamina in his lifetime?
East and West, where can we find crowd-pullers such as the SAS and GAS of the Kanem Empire; the powerful Ƙauran-Goje of the Gombe dynasty; the Ba-furfurawa who retook for the Gobirawa what the Fulani conquered in the caliphate over two centuries earlier; and the indomitable provincial prince who held sway in the Zamfara terrain for over a decade. The nomenclature may prove to be endless, especially if one is to look beyond the shores of the country or the continent.
It is time for the Kano people to take their political destiny into their palm, and break the political monopoly that enables individuals to transform themselves into unworthy godfathers and political deities. The alternative is such that another opportunistic parasite will ride on the back of the currently dying stalwarts and create his own short-lived bound dynasty. So, the vicious circle continues.
*Mansur U. Dawaki (Ph.D), Department of Soil Science Bayero University, Kano
