On Thursday, October 25, 2018, the internet was awash with pictures of children in several primary schools across Kano protesting in support of the embattled Governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje. This irrational protest happened when the publisher of Daily Nigerian Newspaper, who exposed the bribe-taking videos of the Governor was expected to testify before an ad-hoc committee set up by the Kano State House of Assembly to investigate the authenticity of the video and as expected Mr Jaafar Jaafar was present at the public hearing.
RELATED: Can the PDP be ruthless and impartial? They have a chance to try with Atunwa’s NYSC scandal
While Ganduje remains innocent until proven guilty of the allegations of corruption, the decision of the Governor and his political associates to drag innocent children into a political protest instead of staying in their classes is highly insensitive. To show how unintelligent the protest masterminds were, the pupils carried several placards maligning Mr Jaafar Jaafar and even maintained their decision to vote for Governor Ganduje irrespective of the video content (despite the fact that the pupils are not of a voting age).
This incident in Kano, a state battling with over 1.5 million out of school children is proof that the state government has zero values for education, is corruption compliant and will go to any length to hold onto power at the detriment of these poor children while their own children are cooling off in international schools.
Sooner or later when the chicken comes home to roost on Governor Ganduje and those pupils grow up to understand the extent of damage Ganduje has done to Kano by making them pawns in his political fight, they and posterity will not forgive him.
The Governor should use the opportunity provided by the House of Assembly ad-hoc committee to defend himself and stop using Kano children as a political tool. And if I may ask when will Ganduje sue the publisher of Daily Nigerian Newspaper as promised, it’s over two weeks already?
Leave a reply