“You can say that the voters in Kano don’t really have so many options to pick from.” – Likely voter
Godwyn Ayegba, Businessman
I am going to vote for Alhaji Abba Yusuf, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 elections in Kano State. It is a fact. Kwankwaso has done well in Kano State. This is a claim nobody is disputing and as far as I am concerned, you stay with the success story. I have this strong feeling that whoever Senator Kwankwaso picks for the governorship race, he would be doing so because he thinks that person can deliver. Alhaji Abba has also worked under Kwankwaso for years as Commissioner. In fact, most of the projects that Kwankwaso did in Kano went through him. He was the supervising officer and he followed it up to successful completion. So, I think that if he wins, it is going to be good for the state. I also think that Kano people should stop accusing Kwankwaso of nepotism. First, Kwankwaso has been on that seat for two tenures and I guess he knows the problems of that seat more than many of us who are outside the corridors of power. I don’t see him picking somebody who does not have the capacity to govern Kano well.
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Alhaji Ahmed Salihu, Commercial tricycle rider
As far as I am concerned, whoever Baba Buhari says is good enough, that is who I will vote for as the governor of Kano State. Baba has always chosen for us in Kano. I don’t really have a choice of my own at the governorship level of the state. At the presidential level, I know that I will not vote for Atiku. In fact, I will not even vote at all if Atiku is only the candidate. But seriously speaking, I am a member of APC in my ward and I believe in President Buhari and I will vote for him in the next election because he has done very well. Hmmm… Ganduje, what about Ganduje? Okay let us just wait and see! I don’t want to talk about him for now. But I will vote for Buhari and Buhari would win the next election, despite all the noise from the South and all the lies said against him by his opponents.
Abubakar Inuwa, a Bricklayer
I will vote for President Buhari and no other person. I don’t belong to Kwankwasiyya and I don’t belong to Gandujjiyya.
I am not interested in joining any of the camps, there is too much bad blood in politics these days and I don’t want anybody to harm me or my family.
Yusuf Abdulsalam, Publicity Secretary, NBA, Kano
For now, I honestly don’t know my options as far as the governorship race for 2019 election in Kano State is concerned. The candidates are still emerging and some may be replaced. But I know a few of them in the race. And if you ask me for my choice, I may go for Mallam Sagir Takai. My reason is simple: Among the three major candidates which they said have been presented by PDP, APC and PRP, Mallam Takai appears, to me, to be the most credible for now.
Governor Ganduje, I must say, already has a moral issue – which have not been resolved for or against him; the other candidate, the PDP candidate, Abba Kabiru Yusuf does not appear to be a man of his own. He is somebody’s stooge – which itself is not a good one for our democracy. But Mallam Takai, though not tested appears to be the last man standing. You can say that the voters in Kano don’t really have so many options to pick from. I agree to that. But I don’t agree that Takai may not do well because of his party, which is just coming up. I think that Takai has got the experience and the followership. Remember that he had contested with Kwankwaso in 2011 and again, contested against Ganduje in 2015. In both elections, he was not a pushover. He was also very close to victory .He already has a huge followership and may just be the surprise that Kano is waiting to happen.
Ali Hamisu Indabawa, Photographer
On my part, there are three major parties in Kano today. I will vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because I have an intimate knowledge of their activities and services to the people of the state during Kwankwaso’ administration. Yes, PDP got it wrong in the past, they made mistakes but they have apologised to Nigerians and you can see that they are not perfect but they are trying. But the irony is that almost all the mistakes that the PDP made in the past, APC has repeated or is repeating these same mistakes and many people are not happy. The second reason I will vote for the PDP is because of their candidate, I mean Abba Kabiru Yusuf. I have known him since we were in the secondary school. I know that he is hardworking, likeable and he has integrity. All the infrastructure projects that were done in the state during the last administration, you would agree that most if not all of them were done under his watch as the commissioner for works in the state. For example, the Northwest University, three bridges constructed in the state and the various underpasses – in fact, most of things that they said Kwankwaso did should be credited to Abba.
Abba Abubakar, an unemployed graduate
In Kano State, there is only one governor. It is 4-Plus 4 or nothing. Ganduje would win the next election and my vote would go to him. All these years, he has worked so hard. He has improved on our lives and families and sincerely speaking, Kano has not been as good as this. Everything and in every section of the state pensioners or the civil servants, road infrastructure, peace, he has done so well. The empowerment programmes that he has initiated, almost every group has gotten something and people are doing well in their various sphere or offices. There is prosperity everywhere. What else do we want from government? Besides, we have a duty as the people of Kano to support him against the members of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, who have vowed to stop at nothing to bring him down. If at all there is a time, this is the time to stand by and for the governor. We have not forgotten what Kano was under the tyrannical one-man rule of Kwankwaso and I am sure we are not going back to those days.