It is interesting for one today to measure the involvement of Alhaji Bashir Tofa in the politics of Kano state. For one, I do not intend to criticise the channel by which this gentleman became an indigene of Kano state, more so, as he always connects his name with Tofa, a town a little distance from Dawakin Tofa. Bashir Tofa was a politician from 1993 to 1997. He contested the presidential election but lost even at his polling ward. He was rejected by his own people because he was not helping them.
Although, Alhaji Bashir Tofa is very wealthy, but only members of his family are enjoying his enormous wealth. He owns a magnificent house that equaled that of late Alhaji Maidarabe, the legendary Maiduguri rich man who contributed a lot to the needy people unlike our own born Kano/Borno man, Bashir Tofa.
Certainly, nobody can deny that Tofa, the confused millionaire, is an indigene of Kano state. This is because Borno Kingdom extends right into the very heart of the North-west, which implies that whichever location you look throughout the North-west, you would see settlements of Kanuri in the present Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states. So, even if it is assumed that Bashir Tofa, the confused politician, was born at the ancestral village of “Bama,” a settlement of Shuwa Arab, he is nothing but a Kano man who considers himself as an elder in Kano state.
Tofa is not a good politician hence he sees people without worldly wealth as nothing as you would never see him publicly at the burial ground or visiting the poor who are bereaved. His poor human relations was part of why late MKO Abiola defeated him in at the 1992 presidential election in Kano state.
I wonder why Bashir Tofa poked his nose in Kano politics, especially when Dr Abdullahi Ganduje became the governor of Kano state. I do believe that when Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was the governor of the state from 1999 – 2003, Bashir Tofa, the so-called elder of Kano state had no guts to condemn his government even when there was a cause for alarm. Bashir Tofa kept mute until Ibrahim Shekarau became the governor of Kano state (2003 – 2007), before he managed to appear as the elder of the ANPP.
The Shekarau government respected Bashir Tofa, being a money bag, even though he helped nobody as he hides himself in his mansion where only few people could reach him. Then came 2011 when Kwankwaso by means of do-or-die politics returned to Kano Government House; the likes of Bashir Tofa couldn’t say anything despite the atrocities he committed against the communities, destroying their houses.
Not only that, 108 mosques were demolished but Bashir Tofa and his fellow travelers, the so-called elders, most of whom know their true origin but being that Kano is for all, they have forgetting their own original villages/roots.
It appears the group of so-called elders want Kano state to be engulfed in turmoil, otherwise, why are they always trying to call people to street hooliganism? Has Bashir Tofa forgotten when hooligans came to his house and destroyed everything they set their eyes on?
Has he forgotten the destruction they caused to his son Alhaji Ghali Umar Na’abba? Does Tofa wish to have that action now on Kano state people just to achieve his political desire to destroy the Ganduje government? Have you easily forgotten the dangerous trend you followed during Malam Sanusi Lamido’s political palaver and the role you and the so-called elders played in the dethronement of the monarch? Did you succeed even a little with the huge wealth and big-headiness?
Your group that seems to “hate Kano people” has once more come in on the deadly Covid-19 pandemic to play a real Kwankwasiyya. You have unwisely condemned Ganduje’s efforts because of mere enmity and the disregard for human dignity.
Bashir Tofa, the real Kano people do not support you and will never support you because you have no good intention for the talakawa. Ganduje has come and is doing a good job for the people of Kano state; full stop.
Comrade Ibrahim Abdu Zango, Kano
08175472298
