The '–iyya’ suffix in Kano politics

Also published in Daily Trust

The trending practice of adding the Arabic-inspired '–iyya’ suffix to the last name of a politician probably began in Kano when ‘Kwankwasiyya’ coinage emerged in the run-up to, or shortly after, the 2011 gubernatorial election in the state, which saw the return of Eng. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso to Kano State Government House as Governor, after he had lost his re-election bid in 2003 to the hitherto politically obscure civil servant, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau who subsequently reigned for eight consecutive years.

L-R: Eng. Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje

Whether it was coined deliberately or spontaneously, Kwankwaso soon adopted it as the name of his personal political project, which he had been discreetly pursuing all along dating back to his previous tenure as Governor, and through which he has been apparently seeking to achieve unrivalled political influence and leave  behind a political legacy to rival or even outrival the political legacies of late Mallam Aminu Kano and late Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar Rimi whose political charisma outshined and indeed outlived their respective political parties. 

By the way, though, politically speaking, there is nothing wrong with Kwankwaso or any other politician pursuing this dream, however being rightly or wrongly considered particularly manipulative, his approach has always attracted controversy.

Anyway, apparently carried away by his dramatic return to Government House as Governor in 2011 in spite of the discreet but strong opposition from the powerful elite groups that traditionally influence election in the state i.e., the Kano emirate, the Ulama and some wealthy individuals, Kwankwaso stepped up measures to consolidate ‘Kwankwasiyya’ even at the expense of the state’s strategic interests. Soon he managed to complete the manipulation of his party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Kano chapter, and effectively rendered it and indeed the entire Kano state government subject to the supremacy of ‘Kwankwasiyya’.

Though Kwankwaso’s performance as Governor especially in his second tenure was fairly good, at least in Nigerian standard where the yardsticks of assessing leaders’ performance are substandard, and the bar of people’s expectations of their leaders is unnecessarily too low, and having indeed performed better than Shekarau and arguably all the previous governors and military administrators of the state, perhaps with the exception of Audu Bako and Rimi, yet his excessive obsession with his ‘Kwankwasiyya’ political project vindicates his critics who accuse him of being too self-serving who hardly sees beyond his personal political interests. After all, a critical look into the development projects he was able to accomplish in Kano when he was Governor would reveal the underlying fact that, while many of such projects are indeed worthwhile, many others are simply white elephant projects obviously designed for showing off, which explains his fondness for inscribing the ‘Kwankwasiyya’ inscription conspicuously on them even though many of them were largely executed in a blatant disregard of the order of priority.

Amusingly enough, by the way, and in reference to such controversial development projects by Kwankwaso, the incumbent Governor Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who incidentally can’t exonerate himself in this regard, being Kwankwaso’s deputy then, was quoted referring to such controversial projects contemptuously where he said “mun yarda gwamnatin ta yi aiki a wani bangaren, amma kuma a wani bangaren ta yi aika-aika” meaning that, granted the previous administration had performed well in some areas, but the works it did in some other areas are simply counterproductive.

Anyway, furthermore, due to the prevalent systematic nepotism in favour of ‘Kwankwasiyya’ loyalists during Kwankwaso’s administration, there was phenomenal show of loyalty to it in Kano. Red cap, which is the symbol of ‘Kwankwasiyya’ became very popular among Kanawa males, while red veil, red headscarf and red hijab became popular among Kanawa females.

However, now that Kwankwasiyya, which wasn’t intended to survive without government patronage in the first place, has been in steady decline since the departure of Kwankwaso from Government House, Gandujiyya, in reference to the incumbent Governor Ganduje, has already emerged to thrive at the expense of the dying ‘Kwankwasiyya’, an unfortunate development that would apparently perpetuate this trend in the state politics.

Consequently, the persistently elusive culture of issue-based politics in which Kano excelled in the past isn’t likely to be restored anytime soon.  Instead, person-based politics that glorifies sycophancy, ill-mannerism and attack on people’s dignity would persist for the foreseeable future. This explains why many men of integrity in the state stay away from politics for fear of unnecessarily exposing their hard-earned dignity to attacks from glorified uncivilized bullies masquerading as political commentators.

This primitive political trend must be checked for Kano state to regain its lost political glory. It simply can’t afford political drifting any longer. Therefore, the relatively few civilized influential politicians in all the registered political parties should pursue and push for meaningful reforms within their respective parties in order to end the '-iyya’ suffix trend and indeed the entire phenomenon of person-based politics that holds the state back. Kano needs to urgently get rid of this political backwardness in order to achieve comprehensive socio-economic and political development that would enable it to regain its “tumbin giwa ko da mai kazo anfika” status i.e. the center of unrivalled excellence in everything.