Tag: Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso

Kano State Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso has urged insurgents to embrace dialogue and show their grievances without further violence and killing of innocent people.

The governor spoke at the weekend when he visited the Kano Central Mosque, where many Muslims were killed and others injured by insurgents at the Jum’ah (Friday) prayer.

He was accompanied by the heads of security agencies in the state.

Kwankwaso, who described the attack as sad, because innocent Muslims were killed as they were observing Friday’s prayer, assured that his administration would protect the lives and property of the residents.

The governor recalled that 100 people died and at least 135 others injured.

He commiserated with the families of the dead, assuring that his administration would settle the hospital bills of the injured.

Kwankwaso said the emergency units of federal, state and private hospitals had been directed to attend to the victims of the attack.

Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has said his administration is planning the best way to ban street hawking across the state.

The governor said the plan had reached an advanced staged.

Kwankwaso spoke at the presentation of certificates and N30,000 empowerment fund to each of the 952 street hawkers at the Government House in Kano.

The governor explained that the plan was to sanitise the streets, ensure safety of the hawkers and formalise their trades in line with global best practices.

He said when the ban is enforced, anyone apprehended would be prosecuted.

Kwankwaso said the measure would discourage lawless street hawkers.

The 952 street hawkers were traianed by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in collaboration with the Office of Special Adviser to the Governor on Metropolitan Affairs.

Over 170 places were selected and designated as business points for the trainees.

Kwankwaso said administration spent N266,858,000 on training and empowering the hawkers, who were mostly youths.

The governor noted that taking them off the streets was to protect them from danger and build their future.

ITF’s Director-General, who was represented by Mrs Juliet C. Onaeko, said the hawkers were trained on GSM fault tracing, maintenance and CD production/marketing.

Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has urged All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the state to produce consensus candidates among the aspirants for the state and national assemblies.

But the members rejected the suggestion.

The governor spoke yesterday at the Government House in Kano when APC caucus from each of the 44 constituencies in the state met on the preparation next year’s elections.

He said consensus candidates were better than primaries for the unity and progress of the party.

Kwankwaso noted that the arrangement would forestall violence among aspirants and their supporters.

But the governor’s proposal has reportedly caused tension among party members.

Following the governor’s suggestion, the party members started shouting that they would not accept it.

They said primaries were better than a consensus.

The party members stressed that allowing people to partake in elections was always a preferred democratic culture.

Also, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in the state, Malam Salihu Sagir Takai, has formally declared for the race.

Takai said his aspiration was not a do-or-die affair but a sincere intention to rescue Kano from “a harsh government”.

Takai, a political godson of Education Minister Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, was stopped from realising his governorship ambition by Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso in the 2011 polls.

The aspirant hoped that a consensus arrangement within the PDP might favour him.

According to him, it was a pity that the government has distanced itself from the people.

After the declaration on Saturday, all PDP aspirants from Kano were reportedly headed to Kaduna for screening and further discussions on how to arrive at a consensus arrangement.

In its bid to curb the menace of unemployment among the teeming youth in the state, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has approved the immediate training of more than 475 street hawkers and traders on GSM repairs and maintenance and CD plate production and marketing.

The training package tagged “Kwankwaso Traffic Hawkers Empowerment Program” is being conducted by the Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Metropolitan Affairs with the aim of training and empowering street hawkers with necessary incentives and tools, in order to rid the streets of problems associated with street hawking.

Speaking while monitoring the conduct of the training, the Special Adviser on Metropolitan, Dr. Ali Makoda said that the state government attaches great emphasis to ridding the state capital of street hawkers, especially in the eight metropolitan local governments areas and charged them to use the opportunity offered them which will benefit them immensely.

The two-week intensive training is conducted by the Special Adviser Metropolitan in conjunction with Industrial Training Fund (ITF).

Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso yesterday explained why the All Progressives Congress (APC) will win next year’s presidential election.

According to the APC presidential aspirant, the fact that the APC is set to organise a transparent primary to pick its candidate will swing the votes in its favour.

Kwankwaso, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and one time Defence Minister, is rounding off his second tenure in office as Kano governor.

He said the PDP won previous presidential elections since 1999 because the party was inclusive and ran open primaries to pick its candidates.

According to him, at that time, other parties picked candidates without involving the generality of their members.

Kwankwaso told reporters in his office: “As fate will have it, the PDP has now decided to do their own presidential primaries in the (Aso) Villa while the APC will hold its own on the field, which clearly shows that the APC will win the elections, while the PDP will lose the election in 2015.”

On the possibility of a consensus, the governor maintained that the party should be made very strong, stressing that all aspirants should go round the country and campaign to win the electorate, which is exactly what they were doing.

Kwankwaso said he was not under pressure from any quarters to drop his presidential ambition for anybody.

Apart from him, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Head of State Gen. Muhammadu Buhari have picked the APC’s nomination forms.

The party will hold its primary on December 2.

Kwankwaso said: “I am not under pressure to step down for anybody, in as much as nobody  has contacted me to step down, doing that  will not augur well for the party. You see, so many people are used to either small parties or medium sized parties, where people sit down and choose somebody in a room. Now, we are talking of APC mega party, which is not ANPP, which is not CPC, ACN or APGA or New PDP. I always tell people to look at the example of the PDP since 1999 and in each election, people went for primaries, not arranged elections, real election, primary election. Even when we had a sitting President in 2003 and 2011, there were primaries elections, very serious elections and that is why the PDP won all along and all others who are involved in stage managing primary  elections always lost elections.’’

Commenting on the postponement of his presidential declaration, Kwankwaso explained that it had been difficult for him to secure approval to use the Eagle Square as the venue.

According to him, the Eagle Square proposed venue  seem to be impossible, even the conference centre, as we are now struggling for an alternative venue for the declaration. So, if I fail to secure a venue, I will invite you all to the streets of Abuja, that is where we are now and we can hold it there.”

Kwankwaso, who is optimistic of mass defections from PDP to APC “within the shortest possible time, said “my people and my friends are just waiting for me to declare, and after that has happened, my friends in the PDP will vote for me”.

APPARENTLY worried by the increasing rate of cervical cancer in Nigeria, the Kano State government has established three cancer screening centres in the state.

The state governor, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, disclosed this during the symbolic launch of the centres, donation of drugs and medical consumables to people suffering from sickle cell disease in Kano and graduation of 2,200 Traditional Birth Attendants trained by the state government.

Medical experts have described cervical cancer as the most common female cancer in developing countries, with approximately 500,000 new cases and 250,000 deaths occurring each year. Around the world, a woman is said to die of cervical cancer every two minutes.

In Nigeria, it is the second most common cancer affecting women and the most common female genital cancer constituting a major cause of mortality among the country’s females in their most productive years.

The establishment of the cervical cancer screening centres in each of the three senatorial zones of the state, Kwankwaso said, is to ensure early detection and treatment of the disease as part of broad efforts to safeguard the health of women, particularly those in the rural areas.

He disclosed that the state government spent N8 million to establish the centres at the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Gwarzo General Hospital and Wudil General Hospital, while also calling on development partners to assist the state government through the provision of more facilities and capacity building.

Addressing the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA), the governor revealed that N30 million was spent on their training in cognisance of the role they play in child delivery, explaining that each of the 2,200 TBA will be given free delivery kits by the government.

He thanked donor agencies like the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) and non-governmental organisations for supporting the state government to achieve its health policies and programmes, while also calling for the sustenance of the partnership.