City of Fear: ‘I am afraid we have a problem in Kano’
We have a problem at our hands and a very serious one. Our collective complacency has climaxed to the dangerous situation we have now.
Yesterday, rival thugs attacked innocent people along Zoo Road, killing 4. They claimed they were on revenge on the mission because their gang leader from Sheka was killed on the 1st of August protests. There are reports all over Kano of thugs having free day molesting people, looting properties, and damaging others. The people of Kano have been living with this for years, but now it has reached a dangerous level.
Kano has been taken over by thugs, miscreants, drunkards, and weed smoking criminals. We are at their mercy. These dangerous Cutlass wielding thugs range from 11 years to 30 years. They are deadly, and they are in hundreds of thousands. They operate in districts and zones. They have different affiliations and modus of operation.
They represent a significant part of our youth’s population. They are school drop outs, migrants from neighbouring states and neighbouring countries, and of course wandering street beggars who have been waiting for opportunities to pounce on people. Don’t forget, these are the same people terrorising Kano residence, snatching phones, killing and maiming policemen.
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I am afraid we are living on a keg powder, a time bomb that is worse than Maitasine. Before our own eyes, a monster is brewing, growing, and soon may consume all of us. These are children living within us, people we know and we used during elections, dumping them thereafter only to be recalled when the need arises. Before our own eyes, people from far and near and from across our borders troop into Kano, settle down among us without questions being asked.
I am afraid because there is no coordination between our Chief Security Officer and our security formation in Kano, leaving the governor to be apportioning blames and complaining. I am afraid because our traditional institutions are fragmented and divided and therefore could not call on people, and even if they do , people’s allegiances are based on the political party they belong to.
Kano is in total confusion and chaos, and in the absence of leadership, these thugs are assuming the roles of our leaders now. I am really afraid of the ugly incidents of the last 48 hours.
My prayers;
1.) President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, please resolve the political impasse in Kano. Call for true reconciliation among the royal fathers and resolve the Emirship matter. We need to know who our Emir is in Kano. We need unity among our traditional institutions. Summon all Kano elders and important stakeholders and use your position as father to all to unite Kano.
2). President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Kano State has a special place not only in Nigeria but in the entire Sahel. Kano’s economic and political position in Nigeria is well known to all of us. Kano is the melting pot of all tribes and people from all parts of the north and neighbouring Sahel countries. Kano should be given a special status, and I am pleading with the federal government to have a special intervention for Kano to look at this thuggery issue and our teeming jobless youths.
Kano’s problem should not be reduced to Ganduje versus Kwankwaso or APC vs. NNPP. Kano is more than that, and its importance in the stability of this country can not over be emphasized.
3). Governor of Kano State, please come out from your narrow political party affiliation. You are the governor of Kano State, not the governor of NNPP or Kwankwasiyya. Come out from your current position of weakness to a position of strength. Stop apportionment of blame, especially your wordings on the issue of security. You have a bigger problem with Yandaba and millions of jobless youths in Kano. Marshall put out a plan on how to deal with thuggery and miscreants in Kano. Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, we have an existential threat in Kano. Kano doesn’t need an underpass and flyovers at the moment. We need to channel all our resources into building agriculture, vocational training centres, and skill acquisition centres for our teeming jobless youths not only for Kwankwasiyya youths. Elections are over, and it is time for governance. Have a deliberate plan for millions of jobless youths, not for only a few hundred people. We need maximum cooperation and harmonious working relationships with our security formation. They need your support more than any other time.
4). Our security formation, especially Nigeria Police Force, should work with our governor and respect him. He is the Chief Security Officer in the State. Undermining his authority is not helpful in this present situation. You have a bigger problem of containing the rampaging thugs and it is your primary duty to provide security for the lives and properties of Kano people.
5). Our communities, especially in metropolitan Kano, have to be vigilant. These miscreants are living among us. We know them, and they are our children. We have already abdicated from our parental responsibilities of mentoring our children. This is exactly what brought us into this quagmire. We must work and cooperate with security to fish out these criminals whether they are our biological children or neighbors. We must participate in a massive reorientation program involving CBOS, CSOs , local and state governments, and our ulamas and traditional leaders to reorient our people and deliberately and massively invest in the younger ones. It is already late but not too late. We must be very vigilant to know the strangers living among us and start asking genuine questions on why we are so porous and having a non challant attitude on our collective security.
We have been sleeping and so complacent for a long time. Something must be done, or we will all be very sorry. I am so afraid.
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