Kano: The Red Cap Revolution

April 27, 2011, is a day most Kano voters will not forget. It is a day the majority of Kano people decided to come out en mass to vote for the leader and initiator of the “Red Cap Revolution” Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, as the seventh democratically elected governor of the state, it is a day more than one million registered voters queued and waited for their turn in order to cast their votes for the person they believed could bring radical changes like Malam Aminu Kano of blessed memory.

What has been the impact of the Red Cap Revolution on the life and socio-economic policy of the Kwankwaso administration?
Alhaji Abubakar Ji-Bala of? Tarauni local government area is one of the people who believe in the Kwankwasiyya ideology.

He said one thing he thanks God for, with the coming of Kwankwaso and the vote he cast, is that the opposition are only criticising Governor Kwankwaso because he refuses to give people money freely like before.?

“That is why most politicians lost out since he took over the affairs of state.? The do not have any work to do, since they know nothing other than to steal government funds” he said.

Hajiya Talatu, a PDP woman politician in Gwale LGA, said, “We thank God the votes we cast one year ago are not a waste. See how Kwankwaso is changing the face of Kano State.

Within one year, our educational institutions can rival any other while another university is in the pipeline. More vocational training institutes are being established in order to train youths to be self-reliant.? I don’t have any regrets over my vote,” Talatu said.

On coming to power, Kwankwaso adopted the ideology of the late Malam Aminu Kano. He now wears plain white Kaftan with a red cap,as did Aminu Kano, who fought, defended and protected the interest of the down-trodden in Kano State until his death.

From the very first day that he walked into Government House on May 29, 2011, in his capacity as the executive governor of the state, Kwankwaso was clad in a simple, plain white kaftan with a red cap, symbolising his determination to protect and defend the interest of the talakawa (masses) in the state.

He made several promises during his electioneering to the people of Kano to reconstruct the state from its near-total collapse. Kwankwaso made it clear that his government why not a government where people would? come and share the treasury and go.

In his inaugural speech, Kwankwaso stated: “Indeed, an end has come to the use of worn-out dogmas as an instrument of deceit which, for too long, have strangled our politics.

On the contrary, today ushers in yet the return of our government which would be predicated on the aspirations of the people and the commitment to the transformation of the entirety of their social, economic and political lives.”

The Kwankwasiya ideology, according to the governor is simple and built on the basis of TRUST’, hence the slogan “Kwankwasiya, Amana”, a new political ideology that tactically defeated the ANPP in Kano. It is therefore something to celebrate at this time as we have seen a lot of changes in the form of physical development.

When asked to comment, the director of communication and public strategies to the Kano State governor, Baba Halilu Dantiye, mni, said the red cap has become a symbol to us and, once you wear it, it means so much to so many people. The beauty of it is, anybody who sees it thinks good and positive. Nobody looks at the red cap and associates it with anything bad.

From the times of Malam Aminu Kano to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the beauty of it is still there. Malam Aminu Kano started it as a revolution and now Kwankwaso is forging ahead with it because he is now a political leader as Malam Aminu Kano also had the opportunity to be.

He said that, in addition to the radical identity, honesty, hard work, liberation and freedom that are associated with the red cap in Kano, it also means capital and human development and not only in terms of talking but also in practical terms because whatever he says, he does.?

“That is why people can see all the construction going on as a testimony to honesty and hard work.” Quoting the governor, Dantiye said, “We are not going to steal; and we are not going to allow others to steal, whoever we see doing such, we will stop it”.

The election of Dr. Kwankwaso is quite like what happened in Russia between the “Red” (Bolshevik) and “White” (anti-Bolshevik) factions, where governance persisted for several years under the shadows of lies, in Kwankwasiyya ultimately emerged victorious in Kano, ushering? the fall of anointed candidancy and the return of hope and aspiration to all citizens of the state.

Now in Kano, a person seen with the red cap is assumed to believe in the new PDP political ideology of the Kwankwasiya movement even if that person is not a card-carrying member of any political party. Such people believe that Governor Kwankwaso is the right man to free the state from the autocracy that lasted eight years under the ANPP administration.

Alhaji Rabiu Suleiman Bichi, the secretary to the state government, during a lecture he delivered at Africa House on the one year of Kwankwasiyya victory in Kano said: “Kwankwasiyya has changed the face of Kano politics.

People now believe in actions, not promises; we have made a lot of impact within the one year of Kwankwaso’s administration in Kano and, as we are leading, others follow. We have revolutionalized the educational sector within eight months as we now have over 8,000 classrooms, 18 training institutes and we are establishing a new university.?

We have reintroduced feeding in our primary schools, we have empowered over 44,000 women with one thousand each from the 44 local government areas in the state.

That is the reason why you hear the opposition in Kano are silent. We have defeated them within one year of office while they spent eight years making promises to people who voted them into office what I believe is that even if you will not wear the red cap, I believe many people in Kano in their minds are followers of Kwankwasiyya.”