After Takai’s defeat, what next for Shekarau in Kano?
he winner of the Kano governorship election, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and the main loser of the poll, Malam Salihu Sagir Takai, were sponsored by the two political gladiators in the state.
While Ganduje was backed by the state governor, Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Takai was sponsored by Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, the minister of education and former governor of the state. Thus, the poll was regarded as a proxy fight between the duo of Shekarau and Kwankwaso.
The political battle between the duo started in 2002 but it peaked in 2003 when Shekarau walloped Kwankwaso at the poll, a feat believed to have been made possible by the tsunami of General Muhammadu Buhari who was then in the rested All Nigerian Peoples Party(ANPP).
The victory made Shekarau, a Permanent Secretary turned teacher to take over the political sphere of the state for eight years as he won his second tenure in 2007 and he reigned in the commercial nerve of the North until 2011 when his tenure came to an end.
On expiration of his tenure, Shekarau sponsored Takai in the 2011 general elections but fortune was not on his side as Kwankwaso defeated his candidate and staged a comeback to the Kano government house.
From all indications, the defeat of Takai at that time marked the beginning of uprooting of Shekarau’s structures in Kano politics which hitherto was extraordinary.
While Shekarau was working hard to maintain his structures in the state, the move to form a mega party came. With his presidential outing in 2011 and his clout in the ANPP, Shekarau became one of the movers, shakers and promoters of the party.
But as the party was about to become a reality, five governors of the PDP including Kwankwaso threw their weight behind it and dumped their former party. The joining of the party ignited the rivalry between the two political foes and Shekarau, like a bee, led all his supporters out of the party to the PDP, a party he has on record cursed on several occasions.
Shortly after he defected to the PDP, the local government election in the state, a poll regarded by analysts as a litmus test for the duo was conducted. Like the recent presidential poll, the APC swept all the 44 local government chairmanship positions and 484 councillorship seats in 2014.
Disturbed by the outcome of the poll, the PDP members including the Shekarau boys accused the Kano electoral body KANSIEC of manipulating the poll in favour of the governor’s party threatening to retaliate in this year’s general elections.
To them, the appointment of Shekarau as minister of education had cleared the coast for them to actualise their dream of reclaiming Kano State.
However the just concluded polls have deflated their thinking as the APC won all the positions contested for. The party won the presidential election, three senatorial seats and all the 24 House of Representatives seats.
In Saturday’s governorship and state assembly polls, the party won the governorship seat and the state House of Assembly, leaving Shekarau’s party with nothing.
Before the conduct of the governorship poll, the supporters of Shekarau were thinking to falling back on the governorship seat after the presidential poll defeat. With these defeats, they have lost their bid to re-launch and firm up the political structures of Shekarau.
By May 29, the federal executive council would be dissolved and Shekarau will no longer be a minister. Will he have the resources to maintain his structure till 2019 when the tenure of the incoming government will elapse?
While Shekarau is returning to Kano from Abuja, his political rival, Kwankwaso would be going to Abuja as he would be representing Kano Central senatorial district and he would be a key player in the incoming government as he came second in the presidential primary of the APC in Lagos.
Pundits are of the view that it will be a miracle if Shekarau succeeds in maintaining his structures.