Shekarau

Shekarau, Kwankwaso, and the N4 Billion Hotel Bill Question

Suleiman Uba Gaya

Last Monday, Daily Trust carried on its front page, a story told by the Transition Committee appointed by Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, Kano Governor-Elect, to the effect that the outgoing administration of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau has spent a whopping N4 billion on hotel bills in the course of eight years of its stewardship. Sadly, some readers just swallowed hook, line and sinker, the story without even according the accused, the benefit of doubt. With the hatred Kwankwaso openly exhibits against Shekarau, which led him in 2001 to demote the latter from the position of permanent secretary to classroom teacher, worse allegations shall be expected. What is surprising is that Daily Trust did not treat with equal prominence, the more-national story of the N1 billion that is going to be spent by the Jonathan Presidency in just the single event of his inauguration, nor did it find it fit to report about the four billion naira cornered by some individual governors, in the name of rent allowance, for choosing to stay in their own personal residences, instead of government houses, during their tenure of office.

Normally, a transition committee is set up to facilitate smooth handing and taking over of power from outgoing to incoming administrations, as well as formulate policies for the incoming government. But the one appointed by Kwankwaso has since turned itself into a commission of inquiry, auditing books of the outgoing government with intent to picking holes or creating same to deny it any glorious ending.

When the Shekarau administration came into being in 2003, it organized an executive retreat involving all commissioners and advisers, and a major component of the resolutions reached was that no expenditure was going to be made outside the budget in operation. There was no expenditure of the Protocol Directorate, like other MDA’s, that was not captured in the budget for every year. It is commonly known that the approving authority for any budget is the legislature, an independent arm of government which in Kano, for the last eight years, has never been a rubber-stamp of the executive. Its membership was almost equal in size between Shekarau’s ANPP and Kwankwaso’s PDP. The records are there, and definitely no newspaper has ever published that any PDP member of the House of Assembly of Kano State has ever cried foul about the budgetary provision, as it concerned the Protocol Directorate, and this includes the issue of hotel accommodation for honoured guests of state, many of who are senior PDP members.

I am not sure if the four billion figure alleged by Kwankwaso’s transition committee is correct. It may merely have been concocted to sensationalize issues and pursue the agenda of humiliating Shekarau and top members of his administration at all costs. Yet, it may also be true. This rejoinder is going to base its arguments on the assumption that the N4 billion figure is correct.

How could so much money be spent on hotel accommodation in just eight years? This is the question on the lips of many Nigerians. First of all, Kano is a mini-Nigeria. The state has very rich cultural heritage, spanning centuries. It occupies a very special place in the comity of Nigeria’s states. These and other attributes attract countless number of important dignitaries visiting Kano from different parts of the world. For example, there is hardly any ambassador or visiting head of state that has not been to Kano on state visit. At times, durbars are staged for these VIPs, to further showcase the country. To ensure maximum security for these visitors, they are always accommodated in major hotels by the government of Kano State, and their entourage could be as much as twenty people per dignitary per trip. These things happen virtually everyday.

There is also the example of the FIFA World Cup hosted by Nigeria in 2009. Kano was one of the sub-seats. The Shekarau Administration shouldered the burden of accommodating and feeding of hundreds of players and officials from different countries, and this alone should consume a large chunk of the alleged four billion. World Cups are hardly hosted by governments to make profits, but to expose the host nations or cities to international visitors with a view to attracting them socially and economically. In this case, the gainers are surely not the government, but Kano people, many of who became millionaires by selling their wares during the World Cup.

There is also the matter of state visits by the president, vice president, former presidents and their deputies, serving and former governors, emirs and chiefs, ministers, federal legislators, etc, almost all of who are always accommodated in major hotels, adding to the expenditure now being questioned. Most of these people belong to the PDP, but protocol demands that they must be accommodated in a safe and secure environment, such as the major hotels being talked about. These classes of VIPs visit Kano almost on daily basis, given its strategic place in the comity of Nigerian states.

In 2008, I was also privileged to serve the people of Kano State through a committee appointed by the Government of Kano State to receive complaints and petitions from the 44 local governments, in respect of the 2006 National Population and Housing Census. That committee had the arduous task of preparing the grounds for the defence of Kano’s position as the most populous state in the Nigerian federation at the Census Tribunal, a position that was hotly contested by Lagos, which felt it had more people. This committee is a direct product of Shekarau’s foresight, and I bear witness to the fact that it carried out its work so diligently that after the final population results were announced by the National Population Commission in 2009, Kano not only retained its position as the most populous state in Nigeria, it also extended its lead against Lagos by well over two hundred thousand. Now, while this committee was handling its all-important work, I know that officials of various organizations, both local and international, private and governmental as well as leaders of some strategic groups were hosted for months in major hotels by the government, to help the committee achieve its set targets, which it has very successfully done.

As is commonly known, one major component of revenue sharing from the statutory allocation is population. The more people you have, the more allocation that accrues to you. Now, if one takes into consideration the billions of naira that will continue to accrue to Kano State through this assignment alone, one could dispassionately justify the whole expenditure on hotels, even if the whole thing turns out to be true. Kwankwaso and his successors are going to be the greatest beneficiary of this long-term investment.

For eight years, the Kwankwaso’s have been engaged in campaigns of calumny against Shekarau and his government. Those of us who support the outgoing Governor do so because we have no doubt he means the best for Kano and its people. In many key areas of development, he is on record to have achieved more than all his predecessors put together. As human, he is bound to make mistakes. But the Shekarau I know is capable of learning from these mistakes to become a greater person sooner than later.

Suleiman, author and publisher, runs the Insight column in Leadership and Triumph newspapers.