Opinions

Gains by Kano, Buhari’s vote bank and secure political base

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7 years ago

AS President Muhammadu Buhari embarks on a two-day visit to Kano, his strongest political base this week, a simple question the Kano man or woman should answer for himself/herself is: How well did you fare in two years, six months after Muhammadu Buhari took power? When Kano gave Muhammadu Buhari about two million votes, the highest by any state that swept him into office in 2015, one issue had dominated election-time discourse, and still remained: Security. A few morons who did not any way represent Islam, a religion of peace had launched a series of horrendous gun and bomb attacks on he city as they did on a number northern towns and villages.

No where was safe in Kano. A place that was safe today, can be site of a deadly attack tomorrow. The police, the other security agencies and the general civilian bore the brunt of a large-scale insurgent offensive. The security situation was intensely volatile. Men and women leave home to fetch food for the children and later in the day, their dead bodies are brought back. The casualties mounted to dramatic levels. On a particular Friday in February 2012, Boko Haram launched a deadly attack on police and other security establishments leaving its trail, hundreds of deaths and thousands with various degrees of injury. In December 2014, suicide bombers and gunmen launched yet another deadly attack on the city Juma’at mosque killing 300, leaving hundreds of others injured. Kano residents, as did nearly everyone across the country had by 2015 lost confidence in the incompetent, corrupt Jonathan administration which they said was not doing enough to protect them against Boko Hara.

Nigerian soldiers with centuries old reputation for courage, valor and accomplishment were starved of needed arms and ammunition. They recorded their first-ever failure to bring peace and stability. It is instructive to remind ourselves that the people didn’t just fold their arms doing nothing about their plight. Given that they had a government that failed to govern, in the circumstance, they did the most they could to overcome the life of fear and anxiety clamped upon them. They imposed security rules on themselves and listened to their own instincts. They erected high blast protection walls and barbed wire around homes, institutions and public places. After years of murderous campaign by the terrorists, what everyone wanted form Candidate Muhammadu Buhari was security first, security second, security third, then economy and jobs and the fight against corruption which only a man with his credentials of impeccable personal integrity could wage. Group after group of voters promised him that if only you show us a plan for ending the dislocation and disruption of our lives, we will give the kind of support that no others will give.

On the day he assumed power, there and then on the inaugural Dias, President Buhari began the war against terrorism and insecurity. After billions of Naira sunk and thousands of the lives of our servicemen and women lost, he has put he terrorists out of business, albeit a part of the mopping remains. Boko Haram designs for Kano and as many other cities has come to naught. Peace is back and the people are enjoying freedom all over again. This freedom and democracy is what people are expressing when they go on radio and social media to say nothing has changed in their lives; that nothing has been achieved. Peace is back and people are no longer preoccupied with the fear of when the next bomb attacks will happen. They are fighting over their favorite football teams. Our men and women are squabbling over who is the best player. In the two-and-a-half years in office, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is putting Kano State through a revolution in the way projects are being assigned and executed. Kano, long one of the fastest growing economies in the country , had begun to lag in the years preceding Buhari due to problems occasioned mainly by the acute shortage of power. Neighborhoods spent weeks without electricity; factories sent workers home and shut down because they had no money to sustain production using diesel generators.

Now, things are getting better. The numerous projects put in place to enhance power generation and transmission in particular are being brought to fruition. Records indicate that Kano today enjoys a daily cumulative power supply of about 18 hours. To bring a permanent solution to the problem power epilepsy, the Buhari administration has been discussing the idea of of a contract for the laying of gas pipelines from Ajaokuta through Abuja and Kaduna to Kano. This should meet the needs of manufacturing industries as it has been for the coastal areas including Lagos and Ogun states industrial zones. Road projects that are ongoing include the following:

dualisation of Kano- Maiduguri Road Section IV (Postikum – Damaturu) with over 58% now completed; dualisation of Kano – Katsina Road ( From Dawanau – Katsina); Kano – Western Bye Pass; rehabilitation of Saminaka – Doguwa Road; and Doguwa – Tiga Road. The Abuja-Kaduna-Kano dual-carriage way which has attracted so much public criticism is now receiving attention. But the President, it has reliably been gathered, has a different plan for the road. It is expected that in the course of this visit, he might be making a significant pronouncement on the future of this road. The Aviation sector has also given Kano good deal. Presently, Construction is ongoing of a new international terminal building at the Kano International Airport, as well as rehabilitation of car parks and service roads. President Buhari just approved the construction of rail tracks connecting Kano to Maiduguri.

A brand new standard gauge rail line will connect Kano and Lagos. This railway development funded through partnership between Nigeria and China has delivered Kaduna-Abuja and the Lagos-Ibadan sector is under construction, to be delivered by the end of the year 2018. Actually, Kano-Kaduna contract would have been signed months ago, but was postponed following Chinese, the funder’s insistence that they wanted to take Kano-Ibadan in one stretch. Kano, as to be expected, is one of the major beneficiaries of the administration’s Social Investment Programs. Following successful awareness creation among the state’s large population of the unemployed and the downward revision of the entry requirements to accommodate NCE and Diploma certificates holders, Kano entered more than 80,000 applications for the current wave of N-Power recruits.