When Abba Gida Gida erred, by Baballe Ishak Dahiru

When Abba Gida Gida erred, by Baballe Ishak Dahiru

POLITICS DIGEST– I watched  with disparagement a five minutes video clip containing remarks delivered by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate in the 2019 general election in Kano State, Abba Kabir Yusuf, aka Abba Gida Gida, at the first colloquium of the dethroned Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, which held in Kaduna, at the weekend.

The video is a complete exposé of someone who aspires to be a governor of the most populated state in Nigeria.

Yusuf, who reportedly represented his boss, Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso at the event, was invited to the podium and was introduced by the master of ceremony as “cousin, both maternal and fraternal to the Khalifa”, referring the dethroned Emir, breached all protocols in the remarks he made at the occasion.

When he mounted the plinth, he was jittery and lacked confidence to speak to the gathering, carefully cherry-picking his words, as if he was reading from a prepared and disjointed speech. For instance, while observing the protocol, he started by saying “Your Excellencies the Executive Governors of Kaduna state and Sokoto state,” instead of shortening it for Kaduna and Sokoto states.

Abba Gida Gida also ruptured another protocol by first calling a dethroned Emir he addressed as “our leader” instead of those who are still on the throne and also first class Emirs, the Emir of Ringim as the “second best friend” of his late father and the Emir of Zazzau he referred to as “my senior brother”.

While he apparently feel too big find out important dignitaries at the event, including ministers, in order  to give them their due respect, Abba not only  referred to other prominent personalities at the event as “representatives”, but also went on to say “other distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, including members of the press that are here”.

Abba was also at it again when he referred to the dethroned Emir as His Excellency. To the best of my knowledge, Sanusi has never been an elected governor in Kano or any other state in the federation or the Office of the President. When further talking about him, he said many things have been said on the Emir so “I don’t think there is a need for me to take much of your time.”

At the end of his remarks, Gida Gida talked about transformation “brought by Sanusi” instead of brought about by Sanusi in the banking sector and the traditional institutions.

My take on this is that people wanting to assume responsibility as sensitive as the office of the governor need to be more alive to such obligations. Failing to observe due protocols during an event, in ability to get composed while speaking to an audience or making simple grammatical errors are all pointers that you are not ready for the job.

It is therefore very important for us in the North to make sure that whoever we want to field as a candidate for any political office, particularly members of the National Assembly or gubernatorial candidates, must possess the qualities for a good representation.

The earlier we do this the better or else we ended up shaming ourselves before the eyes of the world.

Baballe Ishak Dahiru writes from Rijiyar Lemo, Kano