Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje spoke with TONY AKOWE on his relationship with his former boss, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, security, revenue generation and the state police. Excerpts:
Nine months into the life of your administration, what have you been doing to fulfill your campaign promises?
Our government in Kano is a government of transition from one government in one political party to another government in the same political party. It is a transition because it is a government where the Executive governor successfully handed over to his deputy which is a very rear occasion in Nigeria. Very soon, I will launch a book on governance and deputising in Nigeria. Looking at how we came in, our government is a government of continuity, a government of consolidation, a government of fine tuning, and a government of new initiation. I think there is no better way to put the transition than this. After handing over government to me, I did waste time in appointing my commissioners because I know where I was and where I was going. I know the terrain, I know the personalities and so, it did not take me time to pick my commissioners. It didn’t take us time for the state Assembly to elect their leadership because I was conversant with all of them and there was no subterranean influence. Infact, when they came forward for me to tell them how the leadership structure will look like, I told them to follow the constitution. Whoever you elect as your Speaker and other principal officers, I will work with them. It did not take them up to one hour to elect their principal officers and up till now, there is no problem among them and no problem between the legislature and the executive.
In specific terms, what have you done to better the lot of the people?
In other to address the economic situation at the moment, the first thing we did was to reduce the cost of governance by reducing the ministries from 19 to 14; we reduced the salaries of political office holders by 50 percent and also their allowances so that the cost of governance is in accordance with what we are getting now. Also, in other to cope with the present circumstance, what we did was to reform the board of internal revenue because we had to look inward since the money coming from oil has drastically gone down. We have to see how we can generate revenue for the development of the state and so, we had to reform the board. We got people of integrity and good sense of professionalism and are committed to the development of the state. This was done not based on any tribal or religious inclination. We tried to get the best brains that can do the job. We are happy that we reconstituted that board and also, we have technical advisers from all over the country. Advisers with comparative advantage in different areas of revenue collection and they immediately swung into action by meeting with different stakeholders and the business community in other to tell them that this is a new regime that require the support of all to harness all internal revenue fake the development of the state. There is no gain saying the fact that revenue from oiled no more there and we are happy that the board has firmly taken over and we have started seeing the changes even though they are just laying the infrastructure for the collection. But from what we have started seeing, there is light at the end if the tunnel. Another thing we did was to block the leakages. We told the civil servants that it is not business as usual and we had to establish a public complaint and anti corruption commission that will assist us to over see things so that governance is done transparently. I scouted for one of them in the civil society, a social critic who will not like to be criticized, but will like to criticism and put him in the position to head the commission and he is doing a good job. Our state executive council meet every week and we publicize our resolution. Since we started. We have not missed any week. If I am not around my deputy is around to preside and whatever decision he takes with the council, I obey. Mu deputy is not a spare tyre, but a co-pilot, therefore, we have not lost track of governance in the state since we started.
Security has been a big problem in most parts of the country, especially in the North. What is your experience like in Kano?
Kano is a mega city, the most populous state in the federation. Mega cities have mega problems and a mega city is not only a city with high population, but a city where things should work and therefore we must make every effort to make sure that things are working. The issue of security is very vital. The insecurity problem in the north eastern part of this country, Kano being a cosmopolitan area can not escape the fall out of the insecurity from that part of the county. In other to protect lives and property, we always meet with security agencies, community leaders and various stakeholders, collecting a lot of intelligence information. The state is trying hard to make sure that it is not a battle ground for Boko Haram. A new insecurity dimension came in, the issue of cattle rustling. While Boko Haram are harassing the cities, cattle rustlers are harassing the rural population and by implication, affecting the rural economy. We had to strategies with the security agencies and traditional rulers and the various herdsmen group in collecting useful information, particularly along Falgore forest and we were able to crush that syndicate. As of today, we have recovered over 10,000 cows and return them to the owners. Also, with the help of the police and the military, we have captured so many arms and ammunitions. In other to make the issue sustainable, I declared that any cattle rustler who will be born again and surrender, we are ready to forgive and forget. We are ready to rehabilitate them. I am happy to report that in the first instance, 39 rustlers came forward with all their guns and other ammunition and this was highly celebrated and now, the security agencies are getting a lot of information on how to chase out these rustlers. Right now, we are dialoguing on how to improve their socio-economic life so that they don’t go back to this heinous crime.
Your government has started well by working within your means and saving cost. What has the government saved, in terms of monetary value, from this policy of cutting down on cost.
We have saved a lot, but if is not easy to say in terms of physical cash. But two things are very important. One, the attitude towards governance by the administration and by the people and secondly, the physical reduction in the cost of governance. From the measures we have taken, you will know that we have saved a lot of money. I established a due process bureau and so, we follow due process, all our contracts are being published and something with all our council deliberations. Do, the issue of transparency has come in and that is also leading to the reduction in the cost of governance.
How do you assess current efforts by the Federal Government to diversify the economy?
I told you that we have chosen three areas in agriculture where we have comparative advantage. One is the production of wheat, the production of rice and the production of tomatoes. We have people who are ready to buy these things and the farmers are geared up because we are providing an enabling environment. What we have discovered is that agriculture should not be limited to raining season alone and so, we are now utilizing our dams. We have over 24 dams in the state and we are using them for irrigation. Just recently, I distributed 5000 water pumps and they were distributed to the actual farmers because I took it as a responsibility to visit all the irrigation clusters. Infact, I was involved in measuring the size of the farms. So, every farmer who is involved in the cluster, we know the size of his farm the amount of fertilizer he requires, the amount of insecticide. We have reinstated our fertilizer blending plant which is now working 24 hours. We spent over N500 million on it and any fertilizer we are producing there is much better than any fertilizer that is imported because the fertilizers we produce there is based on the chemical nature of the soil in Kano state. We have rice millers now. I was surprised when we visited one of the rice millers and he told us that one lady came from Lagos looking for 50 trucks of rice, but the company could only provide 35. Another one came from Enugu looking for 30 trucks, but could only get 10 trucks and he has the raw materials to work upto December. If there is any farmer farmer who has produced rice or wheat, he is ready to buy. So, you can see that farming is lucrative. Very soon, we will establish rice pyramid to replace the groundnut pyramid in Kano.
What are you doing to improve the revenue of the state.
During the last administration,we had a lot of money from oil and so, the emphasis was not on internally generated revenue. But they say necessity is the mother of invention. Now we are in the necessity and so, we are inventing. Before, we could hardly get N1 billion as internally generated revenue. I can assure you that right now, we have over N2 billion from the beginning because some of the infrastructure are just being laid. There are some technical advisers who are helping to collect money from landed property; some from vehicles, some from communication companies, some from registration if business premises. We have taken all the sectors and appointed technical advisers and they are working very hard in other to ensure that we increase revenue.
Some governors have granted autonomy to local government. Are you thinking in that direction
Whatever is to be given to them, we give it to them. The fact is that some of them cannot even pay salaries and so, we have to argument what they have. It is not only the autonomy that matters. Autonomy plus argumentation is what matters. If you are relying on autonomy alone, some of the local,government will shut down. So,mew work together to generate revenue, you give them what is their entitlement according to the constitution and also, if they are in trouble, you bail them out.
In view of the security challenges in the country today, what is your take in the clamor for the creation of State police.
The situation we find ourselves, I think there is no better time we need the state police than now because the security at the moment requires intelligence information, it involves people who are conversant about the society who are conversant with the tradition, who are conversant with the culture, they are in a better position to assist in terms of surveillance, in terms of collecting information and in terms of being effective. So I think the idea of a state police is something that we need to pursue.
You are the only deputy governor that succeeded his boss during the 2015 elections and that showed that there is mutual trust between the two of you. But recently, your younger brother was suspended as the district head of your village. Is that an indication of a rift between you and the Emir?
Definitely, there is a good relationship between me and the former governor. We have a relationship that has lasted for over 30 years. It was not only in governance that we met. We meet outside government. I was his deputy for eight years. But two things are very important. One, you know the role of sycophants both from his side and from my side who will like to benefit if there is a problem between us. But we have been talking and sometimes, we laugh.
The last administration left a lot of projects and people are worried that these projects came with a lot of debt. Can you let us into this debt and how you are dealing with it.
During the last administration. We had a lot of money and so, we started a lot of mega projects that could not be completed. We have a lot of debt, but having a debt is not a crime because whatever we expended was in the public interest. Therefore it is my responsibility to complete all abandoned projects. We are doing that and Infact, I have even gone beyond that. There are projects abandoned during the administration before we came in. The administration of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau abandoned two mega hospitals which I have decided to complete many rural roads were abandoned for almost ten years. Now I have decided to complete them because I don’t believe I should leave any project uncompleted because the project was started in the public interest and it will be a waste if we don’t do that.
What are you doing to curb corruption?
Like I said earlier, I established a public complaint and anti corruption commission and it is working. Anytime it bites, I laugh. I have directed that an office be opened in all the 44 local government areas across the state. Many of the local government have opened offices. We also have complaint boxes across the state. Any suggestion you send to them, the will advice us on it and if it something they can pursue, they will do that.
The new Chairman of the PDP has vowed that the PDP will take power back from the APC in 2019. As a chieftain of the party. What is your take on this
I do not wish to engage in cross fire. But I will like to tell you that it is the normal utterances of those who want to impress his followers. But I believe it is an empty threat. Looking at the antecedents, the history of the chairman himself, we all know he is a cross carpeter. he is always on the move in changing from one party to the other. Even when he was in All Nigerian people’s party (ANPP) for eight years, he was working for the people’s Democratic party (PDP). Even the All progressive Congress (APC) started with him, and then he went back to the PDP and we were happy. I am sure in the long run he would work for us. That is what I believe. We are happy because we believe in the long run he would work for us. Find out his history you will believe me.
