By: Editor
In the delicate theater of Kano politics, there is a fine line between “veteran intervention” and “administrative self-sabotage.” With his recent outburst regarding the APC transition committees and the status of Mallam Muhammad Garba versus Comrade Ibrahim Abdullahi Waiya, Hon. Muhammad Sanusi Kiru has not only crossed that line he has tripped over it, fallen, and dragged the credibility of the transition process down with him.
For a man who prides himself on “administrative decorum,” Kiru’s latest lecture is a masterclass in professional incompetence. It reveals a former Commissioner who is so fundamentally out of his depth in the current political climate that he is actively burning the very bridges he claims to be building.
The “Godfather” Delusion
Kiru’s primary argument is built on a pedestal of nostalgia. He spends paragraph after paragraph reciting Muhammad Garba’s resume like a holy litany, citing positions held in 1999 as if they are relevant to the digital, high-stakes information war of 2026.
By insisting that a sitting Commissioner the actual face of the government’s information machinery should bow to a predecessor, Kiru is effectively telling the people of Kano that innovation is an “affront” to the old guard. This isn’t leadership; it is the desperate clutching of a man who doesn’t know how to navigate a world where a “National President” title from twenty years ago doesn’t buy you a seat at the head of a modern table.
Public Shaming as “Strategy”?
If Kiru actually understood the “Governor’s vision” he so loudly defends, he would know that you do not foster unity by publicly humiliating a high-ranking member of the cabinet. By labeling the grievances of the Information Commissioner’s supporters as “baseless” and “hollow,” Kiru has achieved the exact opposite of his stated goal:
i. He has created a rift where there was only a debate.
ii. He has invited division into the APC fold before the “handshake” is even complete.
iii. He has undermined the Governor’s authority by making it seem as though the Governor’s decisions need a self-appointed “enforcer” to bully people into silence.
The Incompetence of “Silence”
Kiru’s demand that Comrade Ibrahim Waiya “publicly distance himself” from his supporters is perhaps the most amateurish move in his entire essay. In the world of modern political communication a world Kiru clearly does not understand silence is not loyalty; it is a vacuum. To demand that a principal official castigate his own base to satisfy the ego of a former official is a tactical error that only a man “out of his depth” would suggest.
“Kiru speaks of ‘loyalty-testing rhetoric’ while he himself fails the ultimate test: the ability to manage a transition without sounding like a bitter relic of a bygone era.”
A Warning to the “Old Guard”
The “historic political realignment” Kiru mentions requires fresh thinking, not the recycled arrogance of those who believe they own the titles they once held. If Hon. Muhammad Sanusi Kiru truly believes that “competence is not a title,” he should look in the mirror. His titles are in the past; his current actions, however, show a man struggling to remain relevant in a political landscape that has evolved far beyond his comprehension.
If this is the best “intellectual” defense the old guard can offer, then the APC in Kano is in for a very bumpy ride. Kiru should spend less time reciting other people’s resumes and more time learning the basic rules of 21st-century political diplomacy.
Written by: Mohammed B. Abubakar