Witness to A ‘Revolution’
Rally after elections? That was my immediate reaction to Hon. Farouk Adamu Aliyu, the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) House of Representatives member from Jigawa State who had called to inform me that he was in Kano for a rally to be addressed the next day by Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd). Why would the defeated ANPP presidential candidate (who is already in court challenging the result of the election) need to hold a rally? Is dancing on the streets of Kano one of the exhibits he would tender in court? And why Kano? It appeared as if someone was looking for trouble!
I was still lost in contemplation when Hon Aliyu said: “Segun, why don’t you fly into Kano tomorrow morning and be my guest?” It was a tempting invitation given current political events and my experience there a few months earlier when I went to cover the elections. I could smell the prospect of big, even unpleasant, news and wanted to witness whatever drama Buhari might be up to.
By 6 am the next morning, I was at the Lagos airport where my curiousity was further heightened when I saw the dailies. The Kano State Police Command had actually announced a cancellation of the rally. A statement signed by Police spokesman, ASP Baba Mohammed, gave “security reasons” for the refusal by the force to grant a permit for the rally, calling on the people “to invoke the spirit of peace associated with Kano over the years and avoid any act that may cause chaos or disrupt the existing peace and harmony in the state.”
But the chief promoter of the rally, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau would not agree. He had also addressed the people of Kano, telling them that the rally would hold but at the Pillars Stadium owned by the state government rather than the earlier announced venue of the Race Course. According to Shekarau, the rally was being organised to celebrate the unflinching commitment of supporters in actualising the dreams and aspirations of Buhari and for the party “to consolidate its gains and chart a move towards bigger successes in future.”
It was amid these conflicting political signals that I left for Kano Tuesday morning where we were joined in Abuja by Dr. Chuba Okadigbo and some ANPP Senators. Dr. Nnia Nwodo was also in the aircraft from Lagos. On arrival in Kano, we saw truckloads of police with armoured tanks everywhere. We gathered they had been deployed from the neighbouring states of Katsina and Jigawa and had surrounded the Pillars Stadium ostensibly to prevent people from going inside. But the arrival of Buhari some minutes before noon changed the equation as the surging crowd forced the gates open. Buhari had earlier that morning arrived Kano by road from Kaduna and was received at Na’ibawa roundabout by Shekarau and members of the state executive
council before being driven in an open air vehicle through major city streets.
On our part, before Hon. Aliyu and I went for the rally, we had gone to have breakfast with a mutual friend, Alhaji Sardauna Habib, who had refused to follow us to the event despite our entreaties. “What is my own with a Buhari rally? Am I a politician?” he asked. It was a wise decision that he did not follow us. A kilometre to the venue, the road was blocked. After waiting in the car for almost 20 minutes with traffic at a standstill, Hon Aliyu decided we should alight and sweat out trekking the rest of the way. His local security men and supporters from Jigawa had come fully prepared to shield their benefactor. So, we survived the crowd to reach the gate of the stadium where the real battle began. Amid pushing and shoving, even with the protection of more than 20 people who served as our bodyguards, it was sheer hell moving through the crowd.
After about another ten minutes, we managed to push our way to the gate leading to the state box. Here there was no way forward and I was almost choking from the intense sun. When it became glaring that the alternative to turning back was to risk death by suffocation we beat a quick retreat. Luckily, a coaster bus was parked within the premises. Those inside recognised Hon. Aliyu so we were allowed into what seemed to us Noah’s Ark (a life-saver) given that I was at that point almost fainting.
Inside the bus, I was introduced to Alhaji Adamu Modibbo, the defeated Adamawa state ANPP candidate and Dr. Ahmed Salik, the ANPP leader in the House of Representatives. At this time Nwodo was speaking but nobody heard what he was saying. Not that it mattered to the crowd though. And it was not lost on some observers that Nwodo was there at all. Just a few months ago at the ANPP national convention, Nwodo’s baritone voice had reverberated across Eagle Square that night: “I cannot lend my name to this charade!”
What changed? Nwodo owed me an explanation. After him came the Oyi of Oyi but Okadigbo’s message was also drowned in the cacophony of noise. Then came the biggest masquerade, Buhari. The moment he said ‘Allahu Akbar’ the crowd went into a frenzy. He addressed the crowd in Hausa for about three minutes. “Today’s gathering clearly attests to the people’s desire to and aspiration for a positive change in our country. We are here specifically to let you know that the struggle for reclaiming our stolen mandate is still very much alive. We are going back to court on Thursday to reclaim our victory and we are passionately appealing to all and sundry to give us their support and cooperation for this noble cause.”
While Buhari was speaking, Moddibo said to me rather excitedly: “Segun, the revolution has started. The next place is Adamawa.”
“Revolution? How many ANPP governors are here?” I asked him.
“Only Shekarau is here. But we are not expecting them, they are all (then President Olusegun) Obasanjo people,” Modibbo replied before another politician in the vehicle interjected: “The ANPP governors are traitors, they have betrayed their people.”
Aside the party chairman, Chief Don Etiebet and the Fatwa-threatening Zamfara State deputy governor, Alhaji Mahmud Shinkafi, only a few other ANPP big wigs were in attendance. I gathered the ANPP governors cleverly used Umrah (lesser Hajj) as a convenient excuse to travel outside the country when one was sighted in Dubai on Monday…
Despite misgivings about Sowore’s ‘revolution’, a system where public officials do not feel they can be held accountable by citizens because they control the security agencies cannot long endure