“Mankind’s self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.” —Jerry Mander
By Omoniyi Salaudeen
Trouble is gradually brewing for the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje. It’s been threatening thunder and brimstone in his backyard. He is facing the threat of suspension from his party and the investigation committee probing his past records all at the same time. As a former governor of Kano State, the chairman has so many myths around him. Apart from allegations of brazen corruption that tainted his administration, there are also issues of arbitrary use of power hanging on his neck. All of these have continued to hunt his image since he left the office.
Though some pundits view the committee set up by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf to probe his past activities as an intriguing power play, the time has finally come for him to wash off his hands of all allegations of wrong doings whether real or imaginary. In life, there is time for everything under the sun. Whether in or out of government there will always come a time for accountability or retribution as a consequence of questionable acts. That is, a day when you will be called upon to give an account of your action and inaction. To justify all he had done within the tenure of his office, Ganduje will be facing a herculean task coming out of the probe committee unscathed. He might have also reached the nadir of his political career as his future is full of dark foreboding.
According to its terms of reference, the two committees are to investigate an alleged mismanagement of public funds and political conflicts in the state between 2015 and 2023. While inaugurating the committee, Governor Yusuf charged the members with the task of holding accountable those implicated. He emphasised that investigating the mismanagement of public funds aligns with his commitment to uphold the law and prosecute individuals involved in political discord within the state.
This, he said, was to uncover the root cause of the violence witnessed in 2015, 2019, and 2023, insisting that those responsible, along with their supporters, will be brought to justice.
The second committee, under the leadership of Justice Faruk Lawan, is mandated to examine cases related to the misuse of public and governmental resources. He urged the committee members to diligently uncover instances of wastefulness, particularly under the previous administration.
While in government, Ganduje ruled with iron fist and cultivated so many political enemies within the civil populace and the political class. On Monday, April 16, the Legal Adviser of the APC Ganduje Ward, Dawakin-Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State, Haladu Gwanjo, declared Ganduje suspended.
Gwanjo said the APC ward leadership took the decision in view of the bribery allegations hanging on Ganduje’s neck, citing the bribery charges, involving $413,000 and N1.38 billion filed by the Kano State Government against him before the Kano State High Court. With this development, another intriguing judicial drama is about unraveling. Already, conflicting judgments have been flying around over the same subject matter from courts of the same jurisdictions.
While the Kano State High Court granted an ex parte order suspending Ganduje from the party and barred him from presiding over any activity of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), a Federal High Court in Kano halted the suspension order. In the ex parte order delivered on Wednesday by the Justice A.M Liman of the Federal High Court in Kano said the purported suspension should not be implemented until the case is heard and determined. “That all the respondents, their servants, agents or privies are hereby restrained from Implementing and/or giving effect to the purported decision reached during the purported emergency meeting of the alleged Executive members of APC Ganduje Ward, held at Ganduje Ward of Dawakin Tofa Local.
“That all the parties are hereby mandated to maintain status quo before the purported emergency meeting of the alleged executive members of APC Ganduje Ward, and to stay action.”
Reports say the purported suspension has been quashed by both the State Working Committee, SWC, of the APC in Kano and the National Working Committee (NWC). It is not unexpected. It will be presumptuous for Ganduje to assume that the trouble is over for him. His travail is following the same pattern of suspension of Adam Oshiomhole as the former national chairman of the APC. With his antecedent, it will be much easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the eye of the needle than Ganduje getting out of the troubled water.
Just like Ganduje, in 2020, when Oshiomhole’s crisis started in his ward in Edo State like a little storm in a teacup, the APC national leadership discountenanced the suspension, saying it was invalid. They argued that only the party headquarters could suspend national officers of the party, including the chairman.
But to the chagrin of everyone, the crisis snowballed following the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Jabi, Abuja, which ordered his suspension as the National Chairman of APC, pending the determination of a substantive suit. The intrigue that ultimately led to his final ouster is already a familiar story.
And now that it has become a fashionable pattern for the party to adopt the same shortcut method of suspending an unwanted national chairman, using judiciary as a pawn, it will rather be a difficult task for Ganduje to survive the plot of his adversaries.
In his movement of embattled lucidity, he accused Governor Yusuf and his NNPP of masterminding his travail.
The present scenario is not about finger pointing. Rather, it underscores his disconnect with the grassroots people. And for that reason, he must take personal responsibility for his self-alienation.
Without the support of his home-based supporters, it would not have been possible for any outsider to penetrate the rank and file of the party faithful in his ward to carry out the suspension. But he left his flank open.
In politics as in conventional warfare, what matters is not your own strategy, but the strategy of your enemies. By his arrogance of power, Ganduje has lost the confidence of his people and he is about to pay for it. If he likes, the President Tinubu may wield his power to whip everybody in line to support him in his current trial, the wish of the people will ultimately prevail.
As they say, politics is local. You can only alienate yourself at your own peril.
