On Saturday, 25th of February, 2023 the Presidential and National assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) elections took place across Nigeria. One of the candidates for the Senate in that election was Dr Abdullahi Baffa Bichi from New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) for Kano North senatorial district. It was a contest between an emerging party with the party in government using all the apparatus of government, as Allah will have it,, his opponent from APC was declared the winner of that election, and that was the beginning of the journey to the Throne.
The expectation of everyone (that do not know Dr Baffa Bichi), was, he will go down and may be disappear to nurse the agony of the lost of the election, that he may be even disappear completely and possibly ran away, but alas! Dr Baffa is just a different character entirely, he just reappeared with a renewed strength, as if he was injected with a stamina of a wounded lion strength. He just became the real old Baffa that we all knew.
You see, the APC as a party and it’s Kano North Senatorial candidate were happy that they have won the senatorial seat in Kano not knowing that they only unchained a fearful lion from the cage. They were all happy that they defeated the much talked about Dr Baffa Bichi, but their happiness was only short-lived, infact it turned out to be a painful regret. It was much later that they realized that Dr Ab Baffa was caged as a candidate and when he lost out, which they all contributed for that failure because they wanted to win, he became very free to take other much result yielding assignments from his party, the NNPP. It was at that very moment that the APC as a party and it’s members realized that Dr Baffa is the Real Nightmare they never wish to meet.
Now this is what happened, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, knowing fully well that the NNPP needed a strong minded and fearless individual at the Gubernatorial collation centre of Kano State, he immediately seazed the opportunity of Dr Baffa being a free man at the moment to direct and influenced the substitution of the Kano Gubernatorial Returning Officer with Dr Baffa, and as Allah will have it the substitution scaled through, Dr Baffa became the Returning Officer of His Excellency Engr Abba Kabir Yusuf, the now Kano State Governor-elect. What happened at the Kano Gubernatorial collation centre is now a documented public history that I don’t need to write hear. But indeed from that very day the world knew some part of the capacity and capability of Dr Baffa. As I said, what happened that very evening through night to the day is now a documented public history, I am telling you now that the APC is painfully regretting rigging Dr Ab Baffa out, from high places and individuals you can hear their grumbles of things like why did we not let him go to the Senate, while others are saying I told you ab initio to not touch his election, now you see! And many other pep talks like that. But all these are after thoughts, the pen head has dried up.
As I said earlier, we need not to talk about the documented public history, because it is already a public knowledge, but I will want to relay here some important inventions that Dr Ab Baffa carried out some few days to the Gubernatorial elections that changed the face of politics in Kano State, and that are also worth noting for future references.
The inventions:
- The press conference done by Dr Baffa and the subsequent protests that was lead by him to challenge the intended transfer of a police commissioner to Kano, who would have been a subservient to the ruling party – the APC. These two things- the press conference and the protest – were completely new to Kano politics, as such some people misunderstood or did not understand the motives behind carrying out the important political strategies, so they calling Dr Baffa names, but they produced the desired results, because the intended transfer was stopped and reverted, and even answer to the protesters was given by the Kano State Police command in a press release by the AIG of zone 1. That was the beginning of the APC’s nightmare and realization that, they really made a grave mistake in uncaging Dr Baffa.
- The 2nd was also a protest, also lead by Dr Baffa Bichi against the elongated tenure of the then already retired Kano INEC admin Secretary, who was planted by the Kano APC to play their cards, that protest also yielded the desired results, because the officer in question was directed to proceed on his terminal leave immediately in less than 24 hours of the protest. The success of this 2nd protest nailed the coffin of the Kano APC. They then realized the gravest damage they have done to themselves by letting Dr Baffa to be a free man. They hated him so much at this juncture and were desperately planning of how to put him away before the Gubernatorial elections. He became a sore in the eye to the APC..
These 3 particular events further exposed to the APC who they are really dealing with in Dr Baffa and who instantly became the number one enemy of the ruling party and it’s members. You see, the irony is, while here these events are making of enemy for APC out of Dr Baffa, they are at the same time making a trustworthy individual to the Kwankwasiyya and Kano loving people out of the same Baffa. I can boldly say that these sequence of events made Dr Baffa more popular and heartwarming to NNPP supporters in Particular and Kano people in general.
The Difficult Golden Hours:
The collation of the Gubernatorial elections started around 2 pm of the Sunday after elections and finished in the morning of Monday the following day. These were the most difficult Golden Hours of Kano. The Hours in which next to INEC Dr Baffa was the major player. It was within these hours that Dr Ab Baffa became the greatest enemy of the outgoing Kano State government and also at the same time became the number 1 Hero of the whole of Kano State. I may not be wrong to say during these Hours Almighty Allah USED DR BAFFA TO CONFISCATE KANO STATE FROM THE HANDS OF THE MARAUDERS. He was indeed the visible key player of those hours. IT WAS DURING THOSE HOURS THAT HE BECAME A COIN WITH TWO SIDES. He was the darkest of all darkest to the Kano State government and the pure white of all white to the Kano people. Like I said earlier, I need not relay what happened during those difficult Golden Hours simply because it was a DOCUMENTED PUBLIC HISTORY.
DR Ab Baffa you are indeed a Hero with a double edge sword. A Hero that massacred the lies with it’s darkness and a Hero that uplifted the truth with it’s light. A Hero worthy of emulation!
May you live long to keep the hope alive and going, Amin.
May Almighty Allah always keep us on the side of the Truth.🤲
Kabir Dalha Kabir
Write from Kano.
