Governor Muhammad Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso made what some have described as history in a dramatic hand over of power from his foremost political foe, Ibrahim Shekarau.
It was the same Kwankwaso who, in 2003, handed over power to Shekarau after he stunned the bookmakers to emerge as the second governor of Kano State in this Fourth Republic.
That it was Shekarau who, last Sunday, had to hand over to Kwankwaso only goes further to confirm the vibrancy of Kano politics.
In this chat, the lion of Kano politics – as some would like to describe Kwankwaso -gives some insight into what to expect from his new administration.

Kwankwaso spoke tough.
He explains that the people of Kano may have been taken for one very long ride which has led them nowhere. He bemoans the fate of the state, especially regarding the huge debt profile.
According to Kwankwaso, “But this money in question is just for paying hotel bills, for somebody to go and stay in a hotel room. Some people are permanently there, enjoying themselves. And God knows during Sharia what was committed in the hotels. The worst side of it even is you leave your house and go to the hotel; a Kano man, you are in a hotel, what are you doing? And you say you are a Sharia man, you are honest; you are holy”.
Excerpts:

By AbdulSalam Muhammad, Kano

How would you describe the alleged last-minute execution of contracts and issuance of jobs by your predecessor?

That is the game they were involved in before I was sworn in. The moment they heard that the lion is here, everybody started putting his house in order. But ask them, I don’t know, I see them working on roads (at a rate that is) faster than any other time in the past eight years. I laugh and say this is part of the game. It shows that the Kano electorate have done the right thing. Find out when they gave out the contract, maybe two years or five years ago and nobody was talking about it and for the simple fact that Kwankwaso is coming in, they are panicking everywhere.

Anybody listening to you now would think you are just coming in as a fresher but these same people defeated you in 2003.

When we lost election in 2003, they immediately went and froze our accounts. That didn’t worry us, because if, out of 48 months they are blocking your account for just one month, it’s no problem. We didn’t panic. They didn’t see us running helter-skelter to complete any job.
They defeated you?

Their problem is that they overrated themselves because of the simple fact that they got it on a platter of gold in 2003, on a platter of diamond in 2007 and now that they could not get it, they’ve embarked on destruction. They never prepared for 2011 in the first place, whereas those of us who had one term were prepared to do it. Losing and winning election to us is like a joke.

But somebody must win and somebody must lose.

You are in politics to win or lose election, so, if at the end you get one of the two results, it should not be a shocker. If you get either of the two, just thank your God and move on, that is why we went and congratulated them after losing in 2003. We didn’t even go to court. But what do we have now? After their eight years, Shekarau wanted to hand over power to his associate; when that didn’t happen, he refused to recognise us.

He doesn’t want to congratulate us. Not one even as low as a messenger was sent from Government House to congratulate us and what do we hear: They will take it by all means. That they will stop May 29 from coming up.

It won’t happen. Now, how could that happen? It didn’t happen.

When you could not stop us from winning election and moreover when we have learnt from our mistake that removed us from power in 2003, you now say you will sack us from Government House.

What mistakes?

I think there are so many things; there are so many mistakes and so many problems on the ground presently.

But I assure you that we will handle this messy issue of governing Kano, because it has been messed up in the last eight years. And, I always say it, if these people are allowed to continue for the next six months, the disaster in the state would have been unquantifiable.

Somebody was alleging to me that there were some deductions that were supposed to go for pension. They (the money) left the deduction point, but they are yet to arrive anywhere. The money is said to be about N3 billion.

How do you intend to handle the liabilities allegedly left by the Shekarau administration?

We are confronted with problems that everybody hopes from May 29 we would begin to help them solve. But we need the support of everybody. People should endeavour to pay taxes and civil servants should try and be honest. We have to make sacrifices, we have to make contributions, we have to support Kano and make it a better place to live in.

I believe we will find a way out of this mess; a way I cannot yet tell you about now. But, somehow, we will sort out this mess.

We are going to do our best. Now, we are better experienced than we were 12 years ago and we have started working.

Recently, we held a meeting in Abuja with stakeholders and people from all walks of life, USAID, MDGs, organisations and ministries that are willing to support Kano State to solve its problems of water supply, problem of education, health, sanitation and you name it. So, people are willing to support us, but what they are saying is, at the end of the day, ‘whatever efforts we all put in, corruption comes into play’. I told them we are on the same page, but we can’t kill corruption, however, we will minimise it. And, that we will continue to do our best.

We will make sure that everybody is on his toes and, by the grace of God, these four years will bring some positive changes in Kano.

Do you have plans to probe the Shekarau administration?

You see, we are not probing anybody.

We have 23 committees on ground, working on agriculture, water resources, women affairs, youths and so on and so forth. We have to know where to start, all what the committees are doing is to find out if there are any liabilities on this government we are taking over from. And, they (the Shekarau government) are the people who are bringing these (the figures). It is not as if we are probing anybody, and I’m even surprised that some of these things were even reported in the papers.

That is not necessary. On the other hand, it is good. It is telling us that, in reality, this is the circumstance. The level of expectation in Kano now is so high such that they need to have this information. Because some of these things I cannot come and do them with my hands and my mouth, you need resources.

So, it is good for the public to know. With the amount of money this government got in the last eight years, the liability to pay now, including the N4bn hotel bills, is more than the entire grant, the entire revenue of Kano State.

After spending all the money they got, now they left this liability. I think it’s good for them to know.
Somebody was telling me, alleging that there is another $209m to pay.

$209m?

Can you imagine somebody borrowing money in dollars?

Yes, sometimes government can borrow money, but do what with it?

But this money in question is just for paying hotel bills, for somebody to go and stay in a hotel room. Some people are permanently there, enjoying themselves. And, God knows during Sharia what was committed in the hotels. The worst side of it even is you leave your house and go to the hotel; a Kano man, you are in a hotel, what are you doing?

And you say you are a Sharia man, you are honest; you are holy.

We have seen all tendencies of extremism.

We have seen all tendencies of creating new religion.

And tendencies of doing so many things.

All these monies I can tell you are in many pockets now. Big sums of money!

People with these monies can be very dangerous; they can be a security risk.

We have to watch them, to know what they will want to do. As a government, we have to watch all these because the intention is not good.

We were sincere while in government, which is not the case now where dashing people vehicles in Government House now is like giving a handkerchief.

For the four years I was governor, I had one jeep and three security vehicles. Only the jeep was brand new, while the other three are second hand. And, when I left Government House, I left them there. Another thing is, my estacode was only N15,000 and no security vote. Security vote anywhere is stealing. I don’t believe in it, I never applied it during my first tenure (1999-2003), and I don’t think I’m going to apply same now, in that the provisions aid corruption in the art of governance, I will like to lead by example and the moment you steal once, your subordinate will double your record.

How are you going to liberate defecting core ANPP members to the mainstream of your party?

My success is not for me alone and is beyond the faces of people that I know.

This success is for everybody in Kano State, including those who are visiting us and those who will visit us. Everybody is welcomed. I am not a governor of PDP; I’m a governor for the whole state.

In 1999, the first thing we did was to form a Community Reorientation Committee (CRC) in every local government area and we did so much work. We kept them busy, we gave them cheque to go and decide what to do at the local government area.

The elders here, we involved them too.

Our expectation was that the ANPP government would do the same; to come and join us, but they didn’t. They instead created enmity. The people who are senior citizens have cases in Kano, in Appeal Court Kaduna and at the Supreme Court.

What we had in the past eight years was that this enmity was promoted to the level that a reasonable person would not even imagine it. And, nobody can believe that I won election now. When I went for lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia, I learnt that they had brought an oyinbo (a white man) to inspect the ballot papers, they had gone to court for missing logos on ballot papers and all sorts of nonsense. And, it is public funds they were using to fight us. So these are the problems, people who play it dirty, will get it dirty.

They did everything to make us dirty; but we are not dirty, we are clean.

You would have to explain that?

One year after I left, he (Shekarau) was even going on air asking where I was, to come to Kano and do any rally here. That time, it was so good and he was lucky I was not around; I was at the Ministry of Defence travelling all over the world, so I would just bite finger and wished I had time to go and teach him a lesson. And, I was so lucky in 2007 I had no assignment. Some politicians will see that as disadvantage. The art of success in life is to convert disadvantage into advantage.

So, when I became idle politically, I came back and we mobilised and we showed him who we are. Luck, yes, we have a version of luck, but we worked extremely hard. They were lucky in 2007 Obasanjo stopped me. But God’s time is the best. If we had contested in 2007, the situation would have been different from today, we wouldn’t have been as popular as we are because people then were yet to see him (Shekarau) in his true colours.

They still thought they were holy or religious people. Now, people have seen him in real terms, in the way people should and they have made a judgment. And, you see the difficulty, from my experience, is once people have gone to that extent, you will hardly recover. If you are a professional liar, you have a problem. That is why, in this state, if Kwankwaso says don’t do this, people know I’m serious, they will be very careful doing it.

That is why when I passed Kofar Na’isa and saw people erecting buildings, I said,’ nonsense’. I was surprised that, up till now, people don’t respect what we say. A suya spot (barbeque) is more than that Kofar Na’isa structure, because if I demolish that one (the suya spot) I will hardly sleep. Because the owner is a hard worker, he earns his living, he is not stealing. I respect that man. But I don’t respect the one just sitting and stealing money. And, you will see how it will go.

One thing I learnt in the military when I was the Minister of Defence is, attack is the best form of defence. Therefore, all those who are trying us now, who think we are jokers, let’s wait until later and see how it goes. If you are a civil servant, go and do your civil service; if you are an imam, go and do your imam work; if you are a pastor, pastor well; if you are a traditional ruler, go ahead, we support you. But don’t cross the line.

If you cross the line, especially you want to encroach into our 18, then you will know very well that we mean business.