Prior to the
presidential election in February 2023, supporters of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso had
repeatedly asked the author to acknowledge his political power, and had
criticized the author for
ranking Peter Obi above him. However, the author had
insisted that either Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi would emerge
president that year.
One day in
2022, the author had described Kwankwaso as a “local champion” in response to a
comment on his Facebook page, which Kwankwaso’s devotees had misconstrued as an
insult. The author had clarified that in all varieties of English, except
Nigerian and perhaps Ghanaian English, the word “local” does not have
any negative connotation.
Kwankwaso
had won Kano State in the presidential election but had not even come second in
Jigawa. The author had always maintained that Kwankwaso was a local champion
who had run for president only to help his son-in-law become the governor of
Kano State.
In contrast,
the author had predicted that Peter Obi would shake and shape the presidential
election. Despite criticisms from Kwankwaso’s supporters and other partisans,
the author’s prediction had turned out to be accurate. Although Obi’s support
base was not limited to Christians, it had transcended his ethnic base and had
spread throughout Nigeria. The author had predicted that the church would be
Obi’s structure and that he would win pan-regional Christian votes.
However,
despite winning the hearts of Christians across Nigeria, Obi had failed to win
the presidential election due to constitutional limitations. The author had
noted that it was constitutionally impossible for Obi to be president even if
he won a plurality of the vote.
Anyway, the
election outcome has revealed that Obi, despite being referred to as a
“local champion” by Kwankwaso supporters, is actually worthier of the
title than Kwankwaso himself. This is evident as Obi won more votes in the
North than Kwankwaso did, with 2,080,847 votes compared to Kwankwaso’s
1,454,649 votes, most of which were from Kano. In fact, Kwankwaso only received
less than 100,000 votes outside of Kano.
Obi not only
won 12 states (including Rivers State), but also bested Kwankwaso in 13
northern states including Kaduna, Taraba, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara,
Niger, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa, and Benue.
It’s
important to note that this is not meant to ridicule Kwankwaso, as the author
is on friendly terms with him. While the author does criticize his tendency
towards personalization of power, they also have profound respect for his
transformational infrastructural projects in Kano and his investment in the
education of Kano’s youth, even while outside of government. In fact, Kwankwaso
was gracious enough to call the author from Washington, DC during his visit to
the United States, despite previous misunderstandings.
