Jafar Jafar vs Malam Pantami
I listened to the APC leader in Gombe saying “Malam will dance with us now that he is into politics he’ll do this and that. Inuwa too is a cleric he translated a verse on the podium and also danced….”, and to Jaafar Jaafar suggesting that Professor Isa Ali Pantami must either strip himself of his clerical identity and start dancing, lying, and performing like career politicians or abandon politics entirely.
That thinking exposes poverty of thinking and everything wrong with our politics.
Since when did dancing become a qualification for leadership?
Since when did jumping on a stage replace ideas, strategy, competence, and results?
This obsession with dancing is not harmless, neither is it an insult to prof himself but an insult to voters’ intelligence. It assumes the electorate is shallow, unserious, and incapable of evaluating ideas, competence, or records. It reduces citizens to a crowd to be entertained, not a people to be led.
And sadly, this abuse worked for a long time.
For decades, politicians abused the electorate by reducing politics to entertainment. No manifesto. No ideas. No vision. Just loud music of Dauda Kahutu Rarara, empty slogans, and stage gymnastics. A candidate could fail in office, return four years later, dance better, sing louder, and still expect votes. Remember Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu visit in Kano and BALA TANIMU of Ganduje. That clear example of how insulting these politicians are to voters intelligence.
All these decades, that politicians danced. Sang. Sprayed money. Hired rarara and his likes. What exactly did that dancing deliver to the North? Insecurity? Poverty? Collapsed education? Youth without direction? Worse still, many voters were conditioned to vote not on competence, not on record, not on plans but on:
- how sweet a song sounded
- how funny a dance was
- how much cash agents offered on election day
Some people would go to the polling unit with no candidate in mind, waiting to be bought.
That era is dying.
Voters are becoming more aware. More informed. More discerning. The intelligence of the electorate is improving slowly but surely. People are beginning to ask questions: Who are you? What have you done? What do you understand? What can you deliver?.
You can dance for 10 hours on stage it won’t replace results.
You can sing rarara till morning it won’t fix insecurity, poverty, or unemployment.
And let’s ask the obvious question:
Those who have been dancing all these years, what exactly have they produced?
Politics is not comedy.
Politics is not street performance.
Politics is not who can embarrass himself better on a podium.
Politics is strategy, ideas, alliances, negotiation, policy, and execution. It is about building coalitions, understanding power, and delivering outcomes not entertaining crowds like a festival.
If someone believes that entering politics automatically requires abandoning discipline, lying shamelessly, and dancing on stage, then the problem is not with Pantami, the problem is with their understanding of politics.
Pantami does not need to imitate ignorance to be accepted by it.
He does not need to dance to earn legitimacy.
He does not need to insult voters to win their trust.
The mistake some politicians are making is assuming Pantami will descend to their level of ignorance. He won’t. And he doesn’t need to.
The era of dancing manifestos is ending.
The era of rarara deciding elections is ending.
The era of insulting voters and still winning is ending.
A new political culture is emerging, one that treats voters as thinking citizens, not a marketplace for bids.
Those who built careers on noise are understandably afraid of substance. But that fear will not stop the shift.
Politics has moved on.
Voters are moving on.
Anyone who still believes dancing is the yardstick for influence is already behind the times.
The future belongs to ideas, not antics.
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