HIS ASSUMPTION of a caliphal burden, Kauran Usmaniyya, underscores his promotion from a provincial tradition-bound responsibility (Kauran Bauchi), to an almost region-wide cultural defence strategist (Kauran Usmaniyya).
The later title once more brings to light the historical ties between Sheikh Usman b. Fodio, the late Islamic reformer, and founder of the Sokoto Caliphate; and Yakubun Bauchi, one of his trusted lieutenants, and flag bearers, revived by Sultan Saad Abubakar, who symbolically handed over the traditional defence of the Sultanate to Yakubun Bauchi reincarnate, Senator Bala Mohammed.
Whereas the North West has produced five heads of state and presidents; with the North Central’s two heads of state and a military president, the North East has been reduced to the political backyard of the nation. Its Abubakar and Shettima, its most prominent political sons in the 4th Republic, painfully remind one that the political value of the North East to the nation isn’t greater than the production of number two citizens, conferring on it a vice presidential character and baggage.
Kaura’s elevation to a neo-caliphal role is an affirmation of faith by Sultan Abubakar in his capacity to secure and defend, even if symbolically, not only the eastern axis of the Sultanate, but its entirety. Despite its traditional import, the transition could be a harbinger for a higher political responsibility.
ALSO READ: General Abacha: The Dead Stay Dumb; By Abadom Lawrence Amechi
The royal hunch, which informed the conferment of the Kaura title on Sarkin Bauchi’s son-in-law, Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, years ago, has been vindicated as an appropriate intuition, because Kaura Bala has proven to be a round peg in a round hole.
By the turn of the 20th century, the British subdued the Caliphate, ended its expansionist objectives, and eliminated its need for offensive and defensive campaigns. The development would, over a century later, constrain Kaura Bala to canalise his capabilities to an alternative endeavour, which turned out to be the power game.
In politics, Kaura has proven to be a significant player, a dogged fighter and a deft strategist. With relish, he likes confronting and subduing powerful incumbent political opponents, and anointed political greenhorns propped by federal might.
ALSO READ: Babangida’s Journey In Self-Service: Pathetic Attempts To Rewrite History; By Owei Lakemfa
In 2003, Mal Ibrahim Shekarau defeated then incumbent governor of Kano State, Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso. Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, a dogged political fighter, similarly defeated Borno State’s incumbent governor, Mala Kachalla. To this rare club of exceptional political fighters and strategists belongs Kauran Usmaniyya.
In a daring political feat, Senator Bala Mohammed and Ahmadu Fintiri trod the political paths trodden by Mal Shekarau and Senator Ali Sheriff, trouncing their states’ incumbent governors, Mohammed Abubakar and Jibrilla Bindow, in their bid for second term in 2019. They left the duo still smarting from political defeat, yet to recover their political bearings after the 2019 encounter.
In another bold political move four years later (2023), Kaura floored a political establishment candidate, Air Marshall Sadiq Abubakar, a former Chief of Air Staff, with an intimidating war chest and friends in high places, whose wife was a minister in government.
As presidential candidate in 2007, 2019 and 2023, and presidential primaries contestant in 1991/92 and 2015, Atiku Abubakar may suffer from candidature fatigue. And with his multi-sided shots at the presidency, he may have politically overreached himself. And his home state, Adamawa, has since 2007 dominated North East’s presidential politics.
One may then ask: who is more entitled to his party’s presidential ticket than him? Yet again, who could stop him from vying for the highest political office in 2027?
ALSO READ: Nigeria Should Avoid Carrying Ants In Its Pants; By Hassan Gimba
All things being equal, only the presidential bid of his former principal, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, can stop Kaura from gunning for the presidential ticket of his party in 2027. And it would only be out of political modesty, and deference to political elders, that Kaura could regard anyone as more entitled to his party’s presidential ticket.
Since the brutal assassination of Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, almost six decades ago, the North East is yet to produce another president for the nation.
Whereas the North West has produced five heads of state and presidents; with the North Central’s two heads of state and a military president, the North East has been reduced to the political backyard of the nation. Its Abubakar and Shettima, its most prominent political sons in the 4th Republic, painfully remind one that the political value of the North East to the nation isn’t greater than the production of number two citizens, conferring on it a vice presidential character and baggage.
ALSO READ: Rebasing and Debasing Nigeria; By Jibrin Ibrahim
Fed up with this political baggage, makes Kaura ill-disposed to any vice-presidential calling, to regretfully await national tragedy (death or impeachment) to step into the nation’s presidency. Since 2022, he has embarked on his presidential project, to step into the shoes of the late prime minister, transforming the North East from a vice presidential den, to the home of Nigeria’s president, ending an inglorious chapter of political exclusion in the nation.
As Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, he has been having running battles with powerful political forces, underscoring spirited efforts to reclaim the PDP from usurpers, repositioning it for the political battle ahead. As a tribune of the people, Kaura has never been detached from them, always unrelenting in the political struggles to make life more abundant for them at subnational level, unrelenting in the fight against the impact of injurious federal policies on the people.
Why should PDP’s presidential ticket, this time, fit no other North Easterner than Kauran Usmaniyya? Why not Atiku Abubakar once again? Or, Governors Ahmadu Fintiri and Agbu Kefas of Adamawa and Taraba states?
ALSO READ: The Suppression Of Trade Unionism And Victimisation Of Workers By WAEC; By Ivo Takor
As presidential candidate in 2007, 2019 and 2023, and presidential primaries contestant in 1991/92 and 2015, Atiku Abubakar may suffer from candidature fatigue. And with his multi-sided shots at the presidency, he may have politically overreached himself. And his home state, Adamawa, has since 2007 dominated North East’s presidential politics.
Inclusivity and political equity dictate that the PDP presidential ticket be exclusively zoned to the home state of the slain prime minister, where Kaura holds court as governor, foreclosing the presidential ambition of Atiku Abubakar and governors Ahmadu and Agbu Kefas of Adamawa and Taraba states, if they nurse any.
As a democrat, Kaura is known to have at a critical moment, helped to deepen democracy by invoking the doctrine of necessity in the red chamber, to prevent the nation’s descent into a constitutional crisis, paving the way for the acting presidency of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
ALSO READ: Nuhu Yaqub – 1951-2025: Our Universities, Persistent Hope Amidst Despair; By Omotoye Olorode
As Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, he has been having running battles with powerful political forces, underscoring spirited efforts to reclaim the PDP from usurpers, repositioning it for the political battle ahead. As a tribune of the people, Kaura has never been detached from them, always unrelenting in the political struggles to make life more abundant for them at subnational level, unrelenting in the fight against the impact of injurious federal policies on the people.
With a single-minded devotion to a political cause, Kauran Usmaniyya seems unstoppable, uncontainable and irresistible in his bid for the nation’s presidency. As a former top bureaucrat, senator, minister and presently a second term governor, very few politicians are as fit as Kaura for the nation’s presidency.
Jahun, a commentator on public affairs writes from Dutse, Jigawa State Capital. He can be reached via 07039038088.
