Kano ’s Turn By Turn Probes: Kwankwaso Today, Shekarau Tomorrow

By

Salisu Adamu Maigoro Adakawa

saakmaigoro@yahoo.com

“Kama Tu-dinu Tu-danu.” As you do unto others so shall it be done unto you, or words of that effect is said to be an Arabic phrase that in Hausaland has taken on the image of some religious mantra. It is a mantra that comes to mind whenever I hear of the latest reports on Kano State Radio’s Taskar Labarai from the Badamasi Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing the Kwankwaso years of 1999 – 2003 in Kano State .

          It is amazing what revelations you get to hear at the Panel. That a commissioner or rather two commissioners were presumably the Kwankwaso PDP emissaries instructed to raise the millions required to fund the governorship elections of 4-19/2003. That some 44 prominent sons of PDP were given two million each to ensure PDP got its way in each of the 44 Local Governments.

          Some of the 44 are so prominent that their names are household names in Kano politics, in fact a number have been such regulars in the public domain for upward of ten years. A few are even now members of the State House of Assembly, or serving top government functionaries in Kano .

All the LG PDP Kwankwaso point men confirm they have received the N2 million a piece. Some of them go on to explain why and what they were given the money for. Others dither around the why and wheretofores. While some are quite precise and explicit in explaining what they did with it. What is not in doubt is that it was money raised and spent to ensure PDP’s Kwankwaso won. And it did try, having “secured” upto 800,000 votes an unprecedented figure considering the state of Kwankwaso’s popularity. It was at a horribly low ebb, while the internal schisms of his party were such that it was at the precipice of disaster.

The ANPP on the other hand was flying high what with General Muhammadu Buhari and his ANPP SAK marching orders for all of Kano ’s pro-Sharia and ANPP hordes. That is why the daily spectacle of the Badamasi trials is  most captivating and an exciting proof for the good people of Kano that the Shekarau ANPP government is doing well. Even without turning its attention yet to more serious and fundamental issues in governance. Issues it was elected to address.

The government is so smart it is playing a fast one on Kanawa. They are being given food for fantasy, petty scandals to turn attention away from the state of inertia that the Shekarau administration is mired in.

One whole year after its election, despite highfalutin pretensions of transparency, Shari’ah and human development, the Shekarau Government is still yet to seriously and practically indicate the direction its own brand of Shari’ah is taking. It is still managing the Shari’ah as a political gimmick cashing in on the half-baked quasi-medical mumbo-jumbo of subjective conspiracy theorists regarding the polio controversy; using all of the Ulama used by the Kwankwaso regime in pursuit of an illusive and (dare I say?) elusive Shari’ah. This is more damning when you consider the many rumours of anti-Shari’ah management of the State and its resources by the Shekarau regime.

A year since it came into office the Shekarau government that came into being on the platform of transparency, good governance and Shari’ah still can’t provide a good enough excuse for the hajj scandal first blown into the open when his deputy, Engineer Magaji Abdullahi was scandalized by the Sun newspaper in December of last year. The governor’s spokesmen and his deputy were engaged in verbal gladiatorialising on the pages of newspapers, trading accusations. The governor’s people initially claimed it was the deputy governor at fault, though later beating an irreverent retreat, after the deputy had made public very many embarrassing disclosures roping in some of the governor’s very dear and darling boys.

To-date there is no clear word on who is to blame and who should be arraigned before Shari’ah over currency trafficking allegations on the Hajj, over claims of more than four million naira allegedly chopped by some government functionaries, over claims that a Niger Republic national, a Mai-Guard was the conduit for Kano ’s over N80 million naira in Saudi Arabia . 

So far there has been no public rendition of hajj accounts. We only get to hear of Kano State Radio jingles from the Honourable State Commisioner for Information and Hajj Commission boss, El-Hadj Garba Yusuf Abubakar, gloating over “successful” Hajj. And wait for it, apologizing for not bringing back all the pilgrims bags and baggage, that the Honourable Commissioner for Information, (Hajj and Propaganda?) is now working round the clock to ensure get delivered! Successful Hajj? Hmmnn!

How about the stories of Chairman Garba Yusuf, Hajj Task Force’s disappearing tricks in the Holy Land ? He was said to have been unavailable for about three weeks. Even fellow task force members couldn’t set eyes on him for all of the three weeks he was incommunicado. Thanks to the independent non-government radio station we now enjoy in Kano , FREEDOM RADIO, we were able to learn of this absentee Hajj Chairman. Radio Kano , of course can’t tell on its boss, the Information Commissioner and Hajj Task Force boss, the redoubtable “Malam Karami” (Junior Malam) --- the commissioner’s “Fadanci” (sycophancy name) courtesy of State Information propaganda outfits. Ibrahim Shekarau is Senior Malam, what ever that connotes now!, with all the newest tales in the land.

And yet again, how about the tales of a minority report  from other Hajj Task Force members. It is said only Abdullahi Rogo, the Local Government Commissioner was seen running around helping pilgrims out, when his “senior” colleague was declared AWOL, cooling off at a five star hotel with the Pilgrims Board secretary dutifully in-tow. The indefatigable Malam Karami is now said to be waiting for Malam Babba, Shekarau, to kindly settle liabilities he incurred amounting to well over N20 million while in the Holy Land , a sum allegedly not known to other Task Force members.

Of course the Kano State House of Assembly can’t be trusted to ask the right questions on the Hajj, after all before the Hajj debacle they did make an effort to check the excesses of two of the most powerful darling commissioners of Shekarau, Information and Local Government. They ordered Shekarau to remove them. He refused. Till date they are members of the cabinet, and obviously favoured members too at that.

What is more the Shekarau Government which was in such a hurry to bring in fertilizer for last year’s farming season broke all known rules for government procurement. Because of the claims of speedy delivery it required, a N4 billion contract was hurriedly and hastily signed, money paid off to an Abuja based Zaria contractor.

It was initially claimed that the fertilizer was to be brought into Kano in a mere six weeks. About nine months later today, not a single bag has come into Kano . This is not to talk of the broken rules, or the claims of two million British pound sterling and more said to be Kano fertilizer money (or more probably fertilizer kickback) allegedly detained in Britain along with the Kano fertilizer contractor for illegal currency trafficking. One doesn’t need to refer to the fact of the whole matter being unbudgeted for, so glibly swept under the carpet by Shekarau and his spokesmen, a fact that members of the Kano State House of Assembly don’t want to look into. Could it be because they are so well “settled” in the IBB fashion?

Anyway this brings us to the opening/the beginning of this essay. That says as you do unto others so shall it be done unto you. If the current House of Assembly won’t be so kind to Shekarau and probe these things while he still calls the shots in Kano they would leave him to the doubtful mercies of whosoever becomes the next tenant of Government House Kano, civilian or even military, after the poor chap. Just like he is now doing to his predecessor, Kwankwaso and his boys.

How else do you expect a resolution of these things, or even the more Kwankwaso-like palavers regarding election funding.  Ah! Everyone in Kano knows that money, huge sums of money, certainly from government coffers was spent to win the single Ajingi State House of Assembly bye-election, caused by the death of PDP’s elected member. Talking of money, government money spent at the Ajingi bye-election last year, the elections must have chopped no less than N50 million of Kano State and Local Government money.

How did I arrive at the figure? Tarry awhile and you shall be informed of my informed guesstimates. Assuming the State Government dipped its hands into the treasury and came up with say N15 or even upto N20 million to support the ANPP being the Party in Government, the LG’s on their own part must each have spent no less than N500,000, probably one million naira in some cases. And there are 44 Local Governments.

If the State Government had spent the maximum figure of N20 million in our guesstimate, while each Local Government spent the maximum of one million naira, minus the host, Ajingi, that would give us N43 million plus N20 million. That would amount to N63 million. And Ajingi’s own figure, inclusive of hurriedly executed contracts, such as the water pumps and road works started on the eve of the elections could give a total sum of may be N20 or even N30 million.

So, if you add the maximum of Ajingi’s N30 million to the N63 million above, you even have much more than our initial guess of N50 million. You have N93 million. If you want to shave it down to the circa N50 million which is our initial estimate, just halve the figure. And all these surely sourced from Kano State Government coffers.

Confirming the role of Local Governments, it is common knowledge that at the Ajingi bye-election, all Local government Sole Administrators/Caretaker Chairmen were instructed to converge on Ajingi, with each assigned to specific wards. They were told to bring all their LG Party Chairmen, Secretaries, Councillors and all party activists to the major event. Funding them was the responsibility of their respective Local Governments. Clearer details of how they organized and funded the event -- obviously from government coffers -- only Shekarau and his State ANPP leaders can tell the world. But the obvious damning facts are public for all who care to crosscheck.

One very interesting coincidence here is that just as Kwankwaso ordered two commissioners to source funds and lead the charge against ANPP at the 4-19/2003 elections, at Ajingi’s 2003 single seat house of assembly bye-election all 14 Commissioners in Shekarau’s Government, and all 13 Advisers, were supported by other Party men and women, including the all-powerful Executive LG Sole Administrators to lead the charge against Kwankwaso, Rimi and Musa Gwadabe’s PDP armies. In fact it is said that the Commissioners were the chairmen of each of the Ward Committees. They were charged with disbursing money for the electoral battle. What a coincidence? In Kwankwaso’s case it was only two commissioners, now facing the fire at the Shekarau-instituted probe; In Shekarau’s case, it was all Commissioners, and that in only one LG House bye-election.

Additionally, it is said that of the Kwankwaso pointsmen today facing the Badamasi Panel a few are now in ANPP, like the former PDP House minority leader, Honourable Ibrahim Muazzam of Bichi, Honourable Mahe Garba Garun Danga of Gabasawa and a host of others. It is related that some were well paid to deliver their Local Governments at the March 27^th LG elections. It is in fact alleged that some did actually post a neat profit of at least one or two million Naira, since what they were given by Kwankwaso’s PDP was a Million or two less than what the “Malam” Shekarau ANPP Government gave them for the same task. And there isn’t much inflation to talk of since the last General Elections; also we are not aware that election funding is inflation-indexed. Or isit?

With all these glaring iniquities, no doubt “Malam” Ibrahim Shekarau can indeed be said to be lucky to have such a compliant and docile House of Assembly.

Or is it that his luck is well and truly paid for? Or is it is because of his Shari’ah compliant (?) “Ghana-Must-Go” that some mischievous critics claim is made up of tickets to foreign junkets? The whole State House of Assembly was last year sent to Denmark in one go; at another time within the same year the House was sent off to India presumably to learn Assembly work. Ha, ha, ha, ‘Ghana-Must-Go’, Legislation with style!

Now, if the State House of Assembly doesn’t exercise its oversight powers efficiently today, reigning in the Shekarau Government on such matters by probing these iniquities while the man is still in office, I repeat it is obvious, they would leave him to tomorrow’s men of power who would surely not be constrained by any ‘India’ or ‘Denmark Must Go-s’, favours he wouldn’t be around to so dispense.

Have you heard the latest on the Local Government elections? Again it was commissioners and advisers who led the charge, with Deputy Governor Magaji Abdullahi, House Speaker Balarabe Gani and other government and party big wigs doing Governor Shekarau’s bidding, raising and using Kano state government (people’s) money to “win” all the elections.

If it was wrong for commissioners to draw from government money and finance elections on behalf of PDP, such that they are today facing a McCarthyist inquisition since their Governor and liege lord is not around to cover them, is it right for the same thing to be done for Governor Shekarau’s ANPP? What is worth noting again is that whoever comes in after the ANPP’s term may have no option other than to also attempt a peek at how Shekarau and his commissioners and politicians did their thing.

That too was what Kwankwaso did shortly on assuming office as Kano Governor in 1999, if I remember right. He ordered a probe into some aspects of managing Kano funds by his military predecessor, Colonel Aminu Isa  Kontagora. This almost got Ibrahim Mu’azzam of Bichi Constituency, former PDP House Minority Leader, who has now carpet crossed to ANPP.

I wonder whether someone might some day be tempted to ask some more about Honourable Mu’azzam and his roles in Daula Hotel sales when he was Kano State Commerce Commissioner, just as the Badamasi Judicial Panel is today asking about Kwankwaso’s Commissioners and even some present and former members of the Kano State House of Assembly, such as the Honourable El-Yakub (PDP, Madobi) and Honourable Yahya, (formerly PDP, Garko) now elected Garko LG Executive Chairman on PDP’s ticket.

We have not done any guesstimates here, on what might have been spent on the LG elections by Shekarau’s ANPP, from Governmnt coffers. This is to allow you do your own guesstimates, using the Ajingi bye-election as a benchmark, where we estimate between N50 million and N100 million must have been spent on just that one Assembly seat.

For more factual revelations let’s wait, pray and hope Allah, the Almighty, spares us to witness the lessons from the post 2007 probes of Shekarau and his ANPP management of Kano and its resources, since his boys in Kano House are today too timid (and possibly under the influence of ‘Denmark/India Must Go’) to do the right thing.  Even Shekarau’s formerly combative deputy, Engineer Magaji Abdullahi, who blew the whistle on the Hajj Scandal is today quiet and quiescent. Probably because of the new settlement culture of Shekarau, that sees to the Deputy junketing around Nigeria, and only recently junketing away abroad, at State expense, just as Shekarau and his Assemblymen. Quite a departure from the Kwankwaso years. Where you hardly hear of Kwankwaso abroad, or his Deputy.

As for probe panels, let’s have more of them. No matter how well hidden the secrets are today, seeing the Malam being a former top civil servant is adept at manipulating figures they well will out after his term. His Mathematics, (he was a Maths Teacher that’s why he is called Mallam, the honorific title for Teacher in Hausa) won’t save him then, as Kwankwaso isn’t saved today.

Yes, yes, to Probes. Let’s have surfeit of them, as Shakespeare would say. If probes are the food of politics, let’s have more of them, to strengthen our democracy. Even if they are served as a revenge/retaliation plate, as the Shekarau probes of today. Or served to spite all politicians by the new hands on the block, civil servant politicians.