Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso spoke with reporters in Kano on the Jonathan Administration, the repression of the opposition, and the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s quest for power shift. KOLADE ADEYEMI was there.
General Muhammadu Buhari’s convoy was attacked in Kaduna. What is your reaction?
I commiserate with General Muhammadu Buhari and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi. While commiserating with them, I think I should also congratulate Nigeria in the sense that the lives of these two leaders were saved. I am congratulating Nigeria because only God knows what would have happened, if any one of them or the two of them lost their lives. It is very sad that they had to go through this trauma in their old age and despite their positions. Everybody is having his own share of trouble and attack. Dahiru Bauchi is a little bit older than my father. My father had to go through similar experience in a Mosque at Kwankwaso. They shot at the small Mosque where my father was praying.They had to push him into a particular corner and many people heaped themselves on top of him and they received all the bullets. Three people died; 13 people were wounded. It cuts across strata, it cuts across different segments of our society. The late Emir of Kano ,Ado Bayero, was attacked on the streets of Kano. Other traditional rulers have been attacked. Civil servants, politicians, police, journalists have been attacked. This is not good for any country.
In the case of Kaduna, we thank the Almighty God that they escaped death by whiskers. We are lucky; but I believe nobody can run any country with luck. You can win election by luck, if you have good luck. But, you cannot run any administration, any government, serious government, by luck. It has its limitations. You cannot be lucky all the time. I think that is what everybody should know. When the issue happened, there were many people who were pointing fingers;. That is a lesson also, especially for the leaders. Leaders should create an environment of love so that, if bad stories happen anywhere, nobody will point at their direction. That is what has to be done. After the incident, we have seen so many commentators trying to exonerate many people. But, that is not the issue because those who are saying it were saying it on papers, social media, television and so on. Under those circumstances, it is not those who have money to buy newspaper that will take laws into their hands. That is the unfortunate thing. The unfortunate thing is people who have no capacity to buy newspaper or even read are the people who take decision. That is why their advisers, if they have any good one, should advise them to reduce the level of hatred and dislike for leaders and their followers. Leaders can also be accused for not stopping something bad. I think leaders have to know that the resources of this country, both human and material, are so enormous to the extent that we shouldn’t find ourselves into this avoidable mess and we will continue to pray for the country and work for it to come together. All the divides should be de-emphasised. We have seen in the past the Muslim/ Muslim ticket. Everybody was happy. At that time, even Muslims and those of us here in Kano didn’t only vote for that ticket because it was Muslim,/Muslim, but because we believed in democracy. Our son, Alhaji Bashir Usman Tofa, was a candidate. We are from the same Ward and the same polling boot; unfortunately, at that time, we came out and voted for MKO Abiola. Abiola won in our polling boot, won in our ward, won in our Local Government Area. So, we had no problem with ethnicity at that particular time. Abiola won here, with huge margin, unbelievable margin, and under normal circumstances, we didn’t expect that. We had no sentiment that this man was coming from our state. My house and Bashir Tofa’s house is within the same vicinity. Yet, we voted Abiola. Look at the case of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. We were supporters of Obasanjo. In 1999, our son, the late Abubakar Rimi, was contesting; we didn’t support him. I didn’t support him. I heard well over 90 per cent of my votes – with the biggest votes in terms of number. It is just like we have it now in the APC. I have the largest contingents to any convention. So, in 1999, we went to Jos and we voted for Obasanjo from the South, a Christian. He won the primary election. We came here, we voted for him again in the main election. In 2003, our son contested, yet, we supported Obasanjo. In 2003, everybody knew my history. We lost election, but we stood by Obasanjo. We lost election but we had no regret whatsoever. That is how party politics should be played.
What is your reaction to the plan by the House of Assembly to impeach the governor of Adamawa State?
Well, I don’t think anybody is happy, whether in the APC or any other responsible party in this country, especially those who are conversant with the tenets of democracy. Democracy is about winning election; and while you won election, somebody would have lost election, even if it is through the party system. And you see, in our constitution, there are many sections that talked about the opposition. Again, across the world, especially where you have mature democracy, the constitution supports opposition in their own way. In this country, we have a Commander-In-Chief, who is very powerful in terms of killing his opponents. He is ruthless. He does not wait for anybody to advice him.
That is what we have seen in Ekiti State. We went there and we saw what happened, and in politics, that is what we call armed robbery armed people taking votes for a particular political party. If it is Army, it is the Nigerian Army, if it is the Police, it is the Nigerian Police they are not any political party police. And the implication is that the whole military, the whole police will be politicised. This Nigeria Army didn’t come from a particular village. they are from all kinds of villages in this country. This military and police should be exonerated from politics—they should not be used to go and intimidate people and take victory by force. That is what we have seen in APC—that is what happened in Ekiti.
They went to Adamawa using the same security agencies, using other opportunities they have and that opportunity worked against the welfare of the people. They literally took Adamawa by force. We have read in the papers. You have reported what happened at the residence of the Chief Judge, what happened at the state Assembly. For those who are doing second-term, they are in their eight year; for us who started in 2011, we are in our fourth year. In the next few months, there will be primary election—by February next year, there will be election; and somebody has been on the seat for eight years—and in the eight year, you have no patience to leave that man, you want to remove him by force. In the case of Adamawa, I have forgotten the number of Local Government Areas, but they are over 20, they have 25 members in the House, out of 25, you took the position of Governor elected by millions of people and gave it to one person who was elected by just people from his Local Government Area. They used the weaknesses of the Constitution, they cajoled the young men in the Adamawa state House of Assembly, I am sure he induced them—at the end of the day, they told them look, ‘why are you leaving this elderly man, why can’t you take it yourself, go and take, we will support you, we will give you all the support of the Commander-In-Chief to go and deal with him!’ They went there, they used the very process that would have protected the people of Adamawa state and made them live in peace, and of course make progress—they used the same process to remove Murtala Yhako. Not only that, I know what they want is to mess up all what he did for this country, bring in all sorts of allegations, take all those that they want to take; but I am happy that they couldn’t get him, though I don’t know where he is. Many of us would be happy to stay here, at least, one would have been a nuisance to them, keeping any of us in the prison.
My opinion is that if there is anybody that should be impeached, it is them who are in the headquarters of corruption—that is the headquarter of bad politics—that is the headquarter of everything evil—that is the headquarter. I am not here to defend any Governor, because I am the Governor of Kano—I can’t defend anybody. I will not say somebody is right or wrong; but certainly you should put them on a balance. Everybody knows where the balance will tilt. We have cases of direct stealing of ballot boxes, cases of direct stealing of crude oil—look at what happened when our Emir (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN Governor) mentioned that $20 Billion was missing, instead of investigating the case, it was him who was being investigated; and of course, they wanted to send him to jail. But our God is wonderful, now he is the Emir of Kano—and I don’t know whether they are still contemplating that. So, all these issues are issues that are of great concern to us and all our friends across the world. Now, look at the case of Nasarawa—it is even worst, but I think the people of Nasarawa now, especially, the young men have started doing the right thing. They are chasing the state Assembly members—and I think they should chase them to the Villa where they belong—that is where they belong because I don’t think they are protecting the people’s interest in Nasarawa—they steal want to exploit the weakness of the Constitution—since the Constitution is permitting 20 people to remove someone elected by millions of people as Governor. I don’t know what that clause in the 1999 Constitution means, but they are using it against the wish of the people. They are conniving with normal enemies to remove APC Governors from their seats. I had wanted to go to Nasarawa—you the man (Governor Al-Makora) is a complete gentleman; and in this game, you have to have so many sights and faces—a gentleman cannot be a good Governor. You cannot be a good Governor by just being a gentleman. We wanted to go there, we organized. We mobilized people to go to Nasarawa and help them fight injustice, but he said, ‘no, no, don’t come.’ We even begged him, we said okay, we are not bringing all the foot soldiers, we want to come by ourselves—in fact, a day before we were to go there, he said, ‘no, no, don’t come.’ What is the meaning of that? You see, in this game, if you are dealing with mad people, you don’t just become a gentleman, you have to go out there and handle them as they are. This madness at Nasarawa, I am happy, the young men are taking the matter into their hands—that is what it should be because they are being insane; of course, for me, somebody who is leaving in glass houses, glasses everywhere, 100 per cent glasses; and myself is leaving in a small window of glass—you started throwing stones—I will be very happy.
Are you not afraid that they may use the House of Assembly against you?
Well, I want us to finish this democracy, at least, from now to 2015. They have been trying that—you are aware they came here and collected all the principal officers and other members of the state House of Assembly; not because they stole anything, but because they didn’t want us to go and pass budget. The EFCC came dead in the night and started collecting them like criminals, they took them to Abuja; and we followed them, there was just no answer, nothing. At the end of the day, I don’t know what happened, they granted us bail—and the case is still in Court. It is not that they stole money, but we don’t want them to go there again tomorrow. I have never seen this kind of thing anywhere—where authorities came to the state, to collect people in the night—elected state legislators, you took them to EFCC, you lock them there.
Are you contesting for the Presidency?
We have good materials in APC; we have people if given the opportunity, I have no doubt in my mind can perform creditably. Look, I am conversant with that Villa for over 20 years now. From the days of my membership in the House of Representatives as Deputy Speaker, I know what the Commander-In-Chief should be doing under these circumstances. Now, they are just using propaganda. Look at this Chibok girls, for three weeks, they were arguing—where are the names, who are they, where are the photographs; they didn’t believe that over 200 children were abducted. Haba! Even if it is 20 tortoise or goats! Won’t you look for them! One of the reasons why I love this country is that we have of high caliber in all the regions, in all the states. Look at my former colleague, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwezili. This is somebody who works in the World Bank, but now she has devoted her time. She is not from this part of the country, but she felt she had to take the bull by the horn and that is what we are seeing in developed countries—fight injustice, save people, help them, if you have the opportunity to do so. They sent some hawks to go and stop the protesters. The other I saw an advertisement while she is saying ‘BringBackOurGirls.’ Some people are saying ‘votes for us, we want to stay and maintain the statusquo; look at my photograph, I am smiling.’ And they don’t know time is of essence.
You have insisted that these killings and spate of insecurity must stop as 2015 elections draw near. What do you think should be done to stop it?
You see, you are in 2011. Government was not paying salaries. They had no money to pay salary; I am not talking of programmes and projects. From 2011 to date, salaries are being paid as at when due. Projects are in progress. We have huge projects which ordinarily states that are getting as many times what we are getting cannot go and show that this is what they have done. Challawa and Tiga Dam project is costing us N14.2 billion and we are finishing it latest by March. Look at this fly-over at Kofar Nasarawa, about a kilometer; look at the one near Radio Kano which we want to name Obasanjo Fly-over, look at the the one in Sabon Gari, two kilometers—that one is costing over N11 Billion. Look at Wuju Wuju, almost N10 Billion, look at North-West University, look at five kilometer road in 44 Local Government Areas, which is over 220 kilometre of dualized roads with street lights, look at our institute numbering about 24 and so on and so forth. We are not talking of education which is our trade-mark. Free education for all levels from primary, secondary and tertiary, look at over 2000 of our sons and daughters studying abroad—some are doing very expensive courses like piloting. In each one, we are spending over N10 million; and they are in the best universities in the 14 countries in the world. Now, we are sending the next batch of over 500 people. Look at law and order in Kano, look at street lights, look at drainages. We have changed the attitude of Kano state people. We have no Almajiri here. I hope when those guys from this side of the country finish their job in Abuja, they will send them to their Almajiri schools. We don’t have Almajiri here in Kano, what we have are Nigerians of Kano state origin who are ready to compete with anybody in this country. We told our children to go back to school, we don’t want to see anybody on the streets of Kano, we can’t see them. If we see them, we arrest them because we have a law covering us to do that. We have to help our people. Now, if you are asking me what are we going to do—how did we do all these? You see, it is just leadership, if you are a leader; you are a leader, you cannot just go there by mere saying that the right man is there—everybody will cue up. It is not a matter of what you are going to do and what are you not going to do. Did I tell the people what I was going to do when I was campaigning—I don’t need to tell them because they know me; and when I came, I did it. Nobody is above the law in Kano. Look at Achaba or Okada—they were two million and today, where are they. Look at beggars, not only Almajiri, where are they? Everybody has gone back to the drawing board; they have gone back to school. We are empowering people from these 24 institutes. So, you see, what we need is a very strong leadership, strong leadership is what will stop all the nonsense in the North and in the South; and we have to stop it. And these are things that should be done—we have been telling them; look, get a way to negotiate—negotiate with them, not using the uniform or your position as Commander-In-Chief.
