BY PIUS MORDI
AS the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, when Rose Chinyere Uzoma visited Kano State not long after her appointment in July 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan, she had to visit the city state that hosts major training and operational facilities. Of course, she paid the customary courtesy call on Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso, governor of the State at the time. On receiving her, Kwankwaso virtually admonished the Immigration chief for becoming the Comptroller General when, by his thinking, the position ought to be occupied by his own kinsman, someone from Kano.
It was a shocking encounter. Nigerians were shocked at such indecorous disposition. If Uzoma was taken aback, she did not betray any emotion. Stoic, she went about the business of the day. The amazing thing was that Kwankwaso did not allege Uzoma was not qualified or that she was picked ahead of her superiors. His only point was that the post should have gone to someone from his Kano State.
And on July 21, 2025, he visited President Bola Tinubu in in his official residence during which they were said to have had a closed meeting; although an actual meeting is now in the realm of speculation. The first pronouncement he made after the meeting was to accuse the President of marginalizing the north.
“Let me advise those who are struggling by all means to take everything to remember that some of the issues that we have in this part of the country today have to do with the lack of enough resources and mismanagement of the little that comes in”, he said at a stakeholders’ dialogue on the review of the constitution in Kano.
“That is why we have insecurity; we have poverty and so on. It is happening here mainly, but like a desert, it would go everywhere,” he said as if threatening the rest of the country while speaking at a stakeholders’ dialogue on the review of the constitution in Kano. He did elaborate on his claim that Tinubu was “dumping” all of Nigeria’s resources in the south. To him, in just two years, all that has been wrong with the country are due to Tinubu. For the eight-year duration of Muhammadu Buhari Presidency, Kwankwaso was at peace with the distribution of resources and appointments.
To be fair to him, Kwankwaso’s grievance was not with the quality of governance. At a time, Nigerians in all corners of the nation were contending with multi-dimensional poverty, all that mattered to the Kwankwasiyya founder was the citing of projects. While acknowledging that all highways nationwide are in poor shape, he still had to play the regional card by imagining a road in the south. “Now, we are told that there is a road from the South to the East”, whatever that means.
Derived from his village, Kwankwasiyya is said to encapsulate the quest for good governance, politics without bitterness, and educating people to know their rights under a democratic government. But Kwankwaso is not known to espouse ideas that provide solutions to burning national issues. He is first a northern and to the extent that the his core north is in the forefront. While late President Buhari held sway and made sure that all the key positions were held by not just northerners of his ilk but his religion; while the rest of the north was embroiled in ceaseless killings, the insecurity was tolerable.
But it is barely two years into the Tinubu presidency and it is convenient to now parrot insecurity and marginalisation of the north. While Kwankwasiyya advertised good governance as its mantra, Kwankwaso’s intervention in national discourse is coloured in precepts that his own north should always be above others. While all seemed rosy with him while Buhari personified marginalisation in his appointments and citing of projects, Kwankwaso felt the status quo must remain no matter who is President
His complaint of marginalization of the north is a product of his difficulty in accepting the fact that Tinubu could dare to tinker with ranking of personnel at the federal level. Tinubu simply borrowed a leaf from Buhari’s playbook on putting his region first. However, while he could ignore the rest of the zones, he did not trifle with the north. After his southwest, Tinubu made sure Kwankwaso’s northwest came next. Probably that is what the bill the National Assembly to make the Sultan of Sokoto and the Ooni of Ife, the permanent co-chair of a council of traditional rulers. That was not good enough for the Kano political godfather.
Kwankwasiyya is a political movement that Nigerians did not get to understand its tenets. They thought the founder just wanted to personalize its name. However, it is becoming clear that the driving philosophy goes beyond the ordinary. It is about Kwankwaso’s north anchored on Kano. That is his definition of good governance and fairness. It is not like the legendary late Kano politician who made the talakawa the focus of his political life. This godfather is not fighting to improve the quality of living of the talakawa. It is all about him and the ruling elite.
