Gandujegate: How posterity will judge Kanawa

Like their counterparts across Nigeria, Kanawa head to the polls tomorrow for gubernatorial and state legislature elections. However, for them in particular, this gubernatorial election is particularly important, for it determines how posterity will judge them, morality-wise, according to their collective reaction to governor Ganduje’s viral kickbacks-taking video clips.  

Apparently, a significant percentage of Kanawa underestimate the long-term moral implications of this scandal on their collective dignity, with many of them even wondering why bother singling out Ganduje for condemnation since, after all, kickbacks-taking is already a usual practice among government officials in the state and the country at large.

Refuting this wrong notion in a piece titled “Gandujegate: Lest impunity prevail” (Daily Trust, Friday, November 16, 2018), I argued that “…obviously Ganduje’s scandal is particularly disgraceful because the incriminating evidence against him is certainly the most explicit leaked evidence ever leaked in Kano and arguably in Nigeria as well, showing a top government official of his status being handed bundles of raw cash in US currency amid unremorseful and indeed sadistic smiles emanating from hearts too heartless to feel pity for the millions of impoverished Kanawa deprived of essential infrastructure and basic public services as critical as education, healthcare, etc., as a result of that very act and other similar acts of stealing perpetrated in the state over the years.”

Now, thanks to the constantly advancing internet technology that automatically saves so much information permanently about individuals and entities, and keeps the information easily accessible to everybody from any corner of the globe by just a click on, say, Google or YouTube internet platforms, details of the Ganduje kickbacks-taking scandal will be at the fingertips of posterity, who will certainly judge the morality of this generation of Kanawa based on their handling of the situation. It’s therefore important to explore some clues about this judgment.

Posterity will certainly learn about the scandal including the fact that the governor got away with it thanks primarily to the treacherous connivance of his accomplices and beneficiaries of shares from the loot i.e. the Kano State House of Assembly members who unsurprisingly refused to take the necessary legal, judicial and constitutional measures appropriate to the situation, and instead cleared the governor through a stage-managed investigation. 

Equally, posterity will learn about the roles of masarautar gargajiya, religious clerics and other influential public figures in the state, who, by their apathetic reactions, effectively frustrated the few clerics and other men and women of conscience in the state who demanded a transparent investigation into the scandal. After all, some of such clerics even went to the extent of attempting to defend the governor by misquoting and manipulating some religious injunctions.

Similarly, posterity will learn about how even the elite opposition politicians in the state never found the scandal morally scandalous enough to capitalize on against the governor, which would have been the case if the scandal had happened elsewhere.

Likewise, though the general public was apparently quite outraged, posterity will learn about how, having taken Kanawa for granted, governor Ganduje never felt that he owes them even a misleading explanation on the issue, which explains why, apart from some dismissive remarks here and there, he never addressed Kanawa about the scandal.

Posterity will also learn about how beneficiaries and aspiring beneficiaries of corruption under Ganduje administration sprang to his defence, arranging for charlatans and some otherwise reputable individuals to get featured in media shows to defend him, and organizing bogus rallies where innocent school children of the poor were brought from their respective schools and forced to partake.

Besides, posterity will not miss how slogans like “kaaci banza, Baba!” and other slogans effectively hailing the governor for taking kickbacks were openly chanted and shared on social media by unpaid governor’s apologists. Whereas, if it were in any civilized country, he would have been pressured into resigning, or would have been removed by the state’s House of Assembly to afterwards face prosecution and appropriate punishment that ranges between a long prison sentence and the death penalty, depending on the applicable laws of a particular country. 

Now, with the foregoing in mind, posterity will certainly conclude that the mainstream political, religious and masarauta elite circles during Ganduje administration were largely too self-centered and indeed too morally bankrupt to feel any regret for effectively enabling the governor to get away with such acts of thievery, which he was secretly filmed committing, despite the sheer magnitude of shame he brought upon this generation of Kanawa and indeed future generations.

All is not lost, however. This generation of Kanawa can still use their conscience to avert falling into permanent disrepute, by voting out governor Ganduje in tomorrow’s election. Kanawa’s collective moral reputation, which successive generations of their ancestors have carefully nursed and protected over the centuries is now at stake. Kanawa electorate will tomorrow be in a position to salvage it or neglect it to crumble, which determines posterity’s final judgment on their generation as a whole.