By Khalid Ibn Abubakar

Political power play, power game as well as high political interests aggregation, are normal variables that define partisan politics. However, when these correlates are stretched beyond certain limits, there may be the likelihood of ushering in very dangerous instinctual reactions that have huge capacity for destabilizing the polity.

For all followers of the politics of Kano, Northwest Nigeria, particularly between May 29, 1999, to May 29, 2007, there is a tie-back to the historical precedence of the joint electoral victory between Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as then governor-elect and Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, PhD,  as deputy governor-elect, respectively.

These two gentlemen were members of the same political party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party {PDP}, but they had definitely passed through varying and divergent socialization processes. Even as it is a known fact that all deputy governors in Nigeria are hardly allowed to exercise full political authority, the duo of Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje managed to work together in harmony during their first tenure.

For Alhaji Kwankwaso to consider the inclusion of Ganduje as running mate for the second term, however, it was a tug-of-war. Elders of the party, eminent citizens and significant others, intervened, persuaded and eventually prevailed on Kwankwaso to restore Ganduje to the joint gubernatorial ticket as running mate. They expectedly won the elections. So, they worked together for eight years.

Ganduje was to succeed Kwankwaso as governor, perhaps against the wishes of his former political principal and leader who, after his tenure as governor, was rewarded with a high end political portfolio as Nigeria’s minister of defence by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Over time, Ganduje has achieved a solid political stature which tended to overshadow his former principal. The result is that Kano has been split between the two tendencies. The particular human behavioural trait at play here is none other than the human Ego. As a student of the Freudian tradition, one is quick to point out that the major behavioural set back that any political leadership, must avoid in his or her political career, is by avoiding a negative inter-play of the different roles of the three major clinical psychology properties that regulate the impulse of all human, namely, Id, Ego and Superego, respectively.

These three, when negatively influenced, can bring about the downfall of anybody who is somebody, irrespective of his or her social stratification in the larger society.

It is therefore imperative to point out within this medium that the ongoing struggle for political power, relevance and advantage between a former political principal, Alhaji Kwankwaso, and his “junior” associate, Dr. Ganduje — who by way of chronological and mental age is much more senior and better educated than his erstwhile political boss— can all be traced to politics. That is why there is a desperate plot by Kwankwaso and his group to oust Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Part of the plot is the sinister scheme to destabilize the Tinubu administration using veiled propaganda, campaign of calumny and allied methods to tarnish APC and its leadership with the hope that such a distraction will add to the political fortunes of Kwankwaso and his NPP in Kano. The calculation is that once Ganduje is out of the way, Kwankwaso and his acolytes can have the whole of Kano to themselves.

Not surprisingly, the whole machinery of the Kano State Government has been deployed to achieve this end.

Dr. Ganduje in his  eight years as governor of Kano State produced a very credible democratic scorecard, whose sectoral achievements  are cogent and verifiable by any interested member of the  public. Apparently not getting adequate results from all the failed plots so far executed by him and his lackeys, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso does not seem to have any iota of respect for seniority and civilized order.

Devoting and ploughing all his energies towards  clandestine schemes aimed at pulling down the personality of Alhaji Ganduje who had paid his dues in society by Allah SWT’s divine blessings, is akin to trying the patience of the Almighty ALLAH SWT. The bitter jealousy of Kwankwaso and his men can be further understood when one considers the fact that Ganduje is an urbane intellectual who obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree {PhD} at the famous University of Ibadan, in 1993, following his first degree in 1975, when Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso had not dreamt of enrolling in any Higher School Certificate program.

The conditioned behaviour, which had always propelled Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who has an affinity for wanting to show political dominance over every citizen from Kano State as an infallible dictator, was what made eminent personalities like Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau and Distinguished Senator Jibrin Barau, just to mention a few, not stay in the same political camp with him.

In Kwankwaso’s world, his word is law. He cannot tolerate democratic tenets. He cannot work with intellectually endowed people. For him, getting Dr. Ganduje out of his current position as the National Chairman of the APC is his greatest headache. He is probably calculating that Ganduje’s ouster will enable him (Kwankwaso) grab a ministerial position as a pre-electoral bargaining  condition and convince President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that he has the entire Kano State in his pocket and that his NNPP is waiting in the wings to play ball.

The NNPP gang is full of hypocrites. They demand integrity from others while lacking it themselves. An example: Governor Abba  Kabiru Yusuf  has appointed Kwankwaso’s son as a member of the Kano State Executive Council. It’s payback time. They are sharing the spoils as all the other parties do. There is no difference between the way they are carrying on and the way Ganduje ran the government. If anything, Ganduje was better. Time will tell.

When Governor Yusuf eventually finds out that he is not allowed to have a mind of his own and that Kwankwaso is supposed to be all-knowing, the current cosy relationship between them will disappear. Owing to the fact that Kwankwaso would always want every eminent political citizen in Kano State to submit to his overbearing and dictatorial tendencies, all who flock around him must play the dummy to be considered loyal.

In their desperation to pull down Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, NNPP hirelings have embarked on senseless moves to procure  fake “APC Executive Members”, at the ward and state levels, who are their sidekicks. They’ve tried impersonation, blackmail, open threats and all sorts of sabotage to no avail.

From the grapevine, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s most pressing need now is how best he can penetrate the APC federal administration to get a plum ministerial appointment when the president rejigs his cabinet as expected. To achieve this, he is persuaded that he has to destroy Dr Ganduje. But, if history is anything to go by, all their schemes will fail. For, history teaches us that those who plot the destruction of others often fall on their own sword.

Way and Life Concepts Limited is one of the real estate company that has been leaving indelible mark in the industry for its more than one decade of existence.

Founded by Abraham Adebayo Shodiya an indigene of Ogun State, Abeokuta to be precise, though he was born and grew up in Agege, Lagos where he had his primary school at Bishop Oluwolel Memorial Primary School, after which he proceeded to Keke High School Ifako Ijaiye housing Estate and later Fstc Yaba where graduated studying Building Technology Programs.

He thereafter, ventured into Real Estate business with training from Realty Point Limited school of estate in 2008 from where he established his own real estate company, Way and Life Concepts Limited popularity known as “Money in Bush”.

Adebayo, registered the company as a business name “Way and Life Properties Concepts” in 2007 and it was later changed to Way And Life Concepts Limited when he upgraded it to a limited liability company.

The success of the company is attributed to their philosophy which set them apart from their competitors, according to the CEO, the philosophy of the Way and Life Concepts Limited is “the best way to live a real life is for us to pave way for investors to partner with us while we take care of their portfolio as a real estate manager, we also need to be open to customers and to tell them the nitty grity of the venture and how we are going to go about making their dream come through” he explained.

Reacting to stories making the rounds that many real estates Companies collect money but do not allocate land to their subscribers, Adebayo said it is quite unfortunate that business owners are not transparent. In his words “There is the need to be open in every business.

There are challenges and if they have challenges allocating to subscribers they should call for a gathering to address them on what has transpired and the solution and plan to make sure the mess is taken care of, but their not allocating lands to the people and becoming silent or run away is not the solution. Doing that is bringing setbacks to the real estate business.

“Before parting with your money with any real estate agent or developer make sure you do your search to know if the company is registered and is a member of a government registered association. Verifications need to be done when it comes to real estate investment.”He stated.

Talking about the Omo Onile syndrome, Adebayo spoke about the solution to the albatross to the job of real estate. He explained that with his more than a decade experience in the real estate industry, he has been able to not only mastered how to manage the Omo Onile wahala but has also learnt how to relate with Governments simply by recognizing them as a player in the industry.

In his words, “In Nigeria real estate, Omo Oniles are also players in the industry but we have to come into understanding with them and so far this has been helping as they don’t come to disturb our customers”.

Adebayo also explained that they have been able to attract new customers and maintain old ones giving people the opportunity to live the real life and being transparent with their customers and their prospective buyers by exposing the nitty-gritty of the business to them to gain their confidence and thereby improving the real estate portfolio of the investors.

On how they handle issues with governments, he expressed his appreciation to the governments of Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Oyo State for their cooperation and the wonderful relationship they’ve been able to establish, he said their is synergy with these governments as they have good relationship with the Way and Life Concepts Limited from their ministry of Lands to the house committee that oversees land issue in the States.

Way and Life Concepts Limited is currently having housing estate projects available for subscriptions in Shimawa Ogun State, Imota-Ikorodu, Atan-Ota, Ifo and Ibeju Lekki, with a plan to spread the company tentacles to Oyo and Osun State, Adebayo Shodiya explained.

He explained further that one of the easiest ways to acquire land and houses in pocket friendly style is how the company fashioned its installment payment system while giving out heavy discounts to outright payers, he exposed that the company works closely with the clients to come up with a financial plan that will be suitable to both parties.

“We sit down with our customers and make payment plans that will not be difficult for them and us, we also help them build at affordable prices from the foundation level to D.P.C, from D.P.C level to roofing level, from roofing level to external finishings, internal finishings e.t.c. We do this to help our customers in becoming homeowners in the alternative to the cumbersome process of bank loans.

He also said in the case of any investor who dies in course of investment, before the proper handing over of the property to the family who is the next of kin, in his words
“All of our investors have a filled form with us. In the form there is a column for next of kin, this does not mean the property (s)/investment (s) will automatically be transferred to the next of kin but we will get some other details of the investor through the next of kin after which we shall request for an administrative letter from the concern people of the investor. This letter is supposed to be processed from the court of investment/investor’s jurisdiction. This will help us to do a proper investment handover.” He explained.

In dealing with fraudulent people parading themselves as realtors, Adebayo Shodiya calls for due diligence, according to him “You cannot loose totally in real estate investment especially if you have visited the said property site before or during the period of investment.
We presently have private regulatory body and Association who will not cover any fraudulent Estate Company. To avoid the repeat of such, investors need to do their due diligence before parting with their money.”

Responding to issues with allocation, he explained that the company allocates in batches, he stated that “For any of our new projects, we allocate in batches of minimum of 50 to 100 allottees while any of our developing projects produces immediate allocation to individual buyers.

“We have had some cases where we had allocated to so many subscribers while they were still paying in installment, some paid half of the property price, some paid 80% and were allocated. We still plan to repeat such as we kick off our new projects in Simawa, Mowe, Atan-Ota and Ifo areas.” Adebayo revealed.

Our role is to set up every possible mean that will make real estate investment convenient for our prospective customers while the role of our customers and prospects is to be up to date in their payment structure as no business will thrive without exchange of money and consistent activities, Shodiya concluded.