That Long Walk in Dakata

When he arrives in town—and he does so at least once every month—Mallam Alwan Hassan is greeted with cheers, hails and problems. People come to pay courtesy visits to his residence. Some come to greet him, others to share their problems, which he is wont to help resolve, and some simply to be around him and enjoy a good conversation.

His popularity does not end on television screens. Mallam Alwan Hassan is a man firmly rooted in his community and hometown in Kano State. He has helped families pay school fees, settle small quarrels, bury their loved ones, meet medical expenses, put food on their tables, set up businesses and even secure job opportunities for their young ones.

Mallam Alwan Hassan’s politics is not the kind often referred to as Abuja politics. His is the kind that touches lives at the grassroots. The kind that makes a difference in people’s lives and brings about CHANGE!

Yes, speaking of Change, it was the same Mallam Alwan Hassan who joined other APC members to facilitate the first debate among APC presidential aspirants in 2014, when the party was still in its infancy.

He, alongside others such as the Kano-born Ismaeel Ahmed, helped build some of the strongest youth-driven political platforms that championed the APC’s Change agenda. Their efforts contributed to President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015, his re-election in 2019, and the party’s continued hold on power through 2023.

When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recommended him for appointment as an APC Presidential Campaign Spokesperson, he was looking for a passionate party man. Someone who believed in his vision and was prepared to bet on the future.

There could hardly have been a better choice. On multiple occasions, Mallam Alwan Hassan has stood courageously in defence of President Tinubu’s administration. He has explained complex reforms and why they matter. He has presented evidence of how programmes of the Tinubu administration, such as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), are transforming lives and easing the burden on households.

But for Alwan Hassan, political advocacy does not begin and end in television studios. It must also find expression on the streets, in communities and among the people whose lives government policies are intended to improve.

And that brings me to Dakata.

On Monday, he summoned all of us—his political associates and mentees—for a door-to-door campaign in his ward, Dakata, in Nassarawa Local Government Area of Kano State.

We put the word out, inviting all registered members of the All Progressives Congress in the ward to come out. And come out we did!

We turned out in our hundreds. But as we took to the streets, hundreds more supporters of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu joined us.

Our first port of call was the residence of the District Head (Dagaci) of Dakata, Alhaji Salisu Ibrahim Zubair, whom we visited to formally inform of our campaign.

There, Mallam Alwan, with his characteristic stinging passion, highlighted the many achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He explained why Kano State must give the President its highest number of votes in the 2027 elections.

And we will!

From there, we took our campaign through the streets and households of Dakata. The people were happy. Of course!

Many of the families in Dakata have benefited from one programme or policy of President Tinubu’s administration. Whether through cash transfers, NELFUND, or even increased wages, the impact of these interventions is being felt in households across the country. And in Dakata, we saw that connection between government policies and the people they are intended to serve.

Dakata has never witnessed a political march quite like this in its history. Alwan Hassan proved that he was not merely a presidential campaign spokesman, but a mobiliser—both in voice and on foot!

There is something remarkable about a man who speaks for a President on national television and then returns to his ward to walk the streets, knock on doors and make the same case directly to his people.

That is grassroots politics. That is how political movements are built and sustained.

Kano, as he told the television crew that interviewed him after the door-to-door campaign, belongs to Bola Tinubu. The state has benefited enormously from this administration. It cannot afford to take a back seat when the time comes to deliver for President Tinubu.

And if there was one message from that long walk in Dakata, it was that the battle for Kano in 2027 has already been won! President Tinubu secured a substantial number of votes in Kano in the 2023 elections, even though he did not win the state. But 2027 will be different.

From what we witnessed in Dakata, I am convinced that President Tinubu will win Kano in 2027. And he will not merely improve on his 2023 performance; he will double his votes.

That long walk in Dakata may have been through the streets of one ward, but its message travelled far beyond it.

And Mallam Alwan Hassan, Chairman Dakata himself, has shown how the journey to 2027 must be made: one street, one household and one voter at a time.

— Tijjani Sani Amasco is a member of the APC, and a media entrepreneur who writes from Kano State