Re: Ganduje at 76: A life of Strategic Leadership

By Hassan Sani Tukur

I recently read an article by Muhammad Garba, former Commissioner for Information under the Ganduje administration, titled “Ganduje at 76: A Life of Strategic Leadership.” The piece was written to mark the 76th birthday of the former Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and it sought to present him as a seasoned, disciplined, and intellectually grounded administrator.

In the write-up, the author generously praised Ganduje’s long years in the federal service, his scholarly background, and his supposed depth of experience in governance. He argued that unlike many politicians who stumble into office and learn on the job, Ganduje came prepared, already well-versed in administration long before becoming Governor in 2015.

Reading this, I couldn’t help but pause and ask a few hard questions.

Is this the same “experienced and knowledgeable” Ganduje under whose watch public schools and institutions fell into massive dilapidation? The same administration during which education suffered such neglect and abandon that a subsequent government had to declare a state of emergency in the sector? Is this the Ganduje whose tenure saw pensioners denied their entitlements, cruelly so? The same period when thuggery, political intimidation, and open disrespect for Kano elders became normalized? The same era in which the revered Kano traditional institution was openly desecrated? Or are we talking about the same Ganduje whose image stuffing dollars into his babanriga went viral across the world?

Frankly, what makes all this more unfortunate is that Ganduje, of all people, shouldn’t be the one responsible for all this. With his experience and background, he ideally ought not to have presided over such mismanagement and decline. That, to me, is the real tragedy. But this is not about re-litigating every failure of his administration. This rejoinder is simply about asking the writer a few honest questions.

I have always held Muhammad Garba in some regard, if for nothing else, for his loyalty to his principal. Loyalty is a virtue I personally revere deeply, and on that score, I give him his due. But loyalty must have limits. As Malam Nasir El-Rufai put it, “Unless betrayed, our loyalty to friends is permanent and pensionable; unless reconciled, our opposition to traitors is also permanent and pensionable.” In his eagerness to defend Ganduje, Muhammad Garba appears to have crossed from loyalty into outright distortion.

In the article, he confidently claimed that Ganduje focused on infrastructure development and urban renewal, citing major road networks and public institutions. One is forced to ask: how? With what evidence? And with what regard for the intelligence of the people of Kano?

To suggest that Ganduje pursued urban renewal or constructed major road networks in Kano is, frankly, an insult. This is the same Kano where Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, in March 2025, had to initiate the reconstruction of 17 major roads under the #KanoUrbanRenewal project. Today, over 40 major roads across the metropolis are either completed or under construction. What kind of “focus” leaves behind such widespread decay that an entirely new administration must rebuild over 40 major roads from scratch?

So the question is simple: in eight full years as Governor, how many major roads did Ganduje construct in Kano under this so-called urban renewal agenda?

The claim about public institutions is even more troubling. If Ganduje had any “focus” on public institutions, it was in closing them, not building them. When he assumed office in 2015, Kano had 26 entrepreneurial higher institutions. By 2023, every single one had been shut down. Students were literally sent home, lecturers disengaged, campuses abandoned. It took the intervention of the current Abba Gida Gida administration to begin reopening them, a process that is now well underway.

Even worse was the sale of public institutional land under Ganduje’s watch. Plots belonging to primary, secondary, and tertiary schools were sold off. That was the legacy. That was the “focus.”

The reality is this: the people of Kano lived through eight difficult years under the Ganduje administration, and no amount of revisionism will erase that experience. History will be recorded as it happened, not as some would like it rewritten. If Ganduje wanted a kinder legacy, his experience should have guided him toward better choices.

We will resist firmly and consistently, any attempt to distort the past or insult the intelligence of the good people of Kano.

Hassan Sani Tukur is the Senior Special Assistant on New Media to His Excellency Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf