‘Kwankwaso misleading Kano on FG projects’

Alhaji Musa Iliyasu Kwankwa

                                                                                                                                                          Alhaji Musa Iliyasu Kwankwaso served as commissioner in various ministries when Malam Ibrahim Shekarau was Kano State governor. In this interview, Kwankwaso, who is now the spokesperson of PDP in Kano, speaks on the altercations between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso. Excerpts:

President Jonathan was in Kano to formally welcome Mallam Shekarau and his supporters’ into the PDP.  How would you describe the development?
We are indeed grateful to Almighty Allah for making the visit a huge success. The visit was a triumph for democracy in Kano and Nigeria as a whole. In fact, we are all happy that the rally was peaceful against the wish of those vehemently opposed to seeing the rally

succeed. The president’s visit has proved all doubting Thomases that Jonathan and his ruling party have strong support in Kano, given the huge turnout of supporters at the Polo Ground venue of the rally.
The rousing welcome for Jonathan has clearly vindicated Malam Shekarau and many of us for joining PDP.
The President took better part of his 15 minutes speech at the occasion to tongue lash Kwankwaso, creating the impression that he was in Kano to fight the governor. What is your take on this?
One thing that is certain here is that the President has absolved himself of blame by Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso that Kano had not benefited from the Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government. It has been the tradition of Governor Kwankwaso anywhere he goes to rain abuses on Jonathan that he had not been fair to Kano and its people in terms of projects and resource allocation. We are happy now that the president himself cleared his government of such blame by vividly explaining what his government has been doing for Kano. It has also been the tradition of Kwankwaso to always portray Jonathan and his administration in bad light. This is not fair at all; we should always own up to telling the truth as leaders, no matter the political differences. We should lead by example because one day, we will be judged by our actions. Abusing Jonathan for no just cause is quite misleading. We should be fair to ourselves. Politics should not be a do-or-die affair, it should be a platform to serve people.
Kwankwaso led his commissioners and other top government functionaries to Polo Ground shortly after the rally to sweep the venue, symbolically to cleanse the place of all evils brought to Kano by PDP. What do you say to this?
President Jonathan was quite aware of this smearing campaign against him by Kwankwaso, but he used the opportunity of the rally to ask Kano people to try and verify who was the ‘real evil’ between him and Kwankwaso. Jonathan asked: “Who is the real evil between the person who released several billions of naira for the development of local government areas and the person who squandered such huge funds?” You see, people are not fools. Jonathan was quite humane; he cancelled Ibadan trip in order to sympathise with victims of the Nyanya blast in Abuja last week. To further express his concern over the unfortunate incident, he asked the huge crowd of party supporters at Kano PDP rally to pray for the repose of the souls of those who lost their lives during the blast. But when Emir of Kano’s entourage was attacked in January last year, where was Kwankwaso? He just left the country for India.
When Jonathan left Kano, Kwankwaso reacted to all that was said against his government. Are you satisfied with his explanation?
I believe you were at the rally when Jonathan and other party leaders spoke, and you heard when Kwankwaso’s government was branded and referred to as “Kwaskwarima” (a government that is only after renovating or giving facelift to projects or programmes earlier executed by his predecessors) and claiming credit for jobs he did not originate. Kano had received several billions of naira since he took over in 2011, yet what he has done for the state is not commensurate with the funds received from the Federal Government in terms of service delivery. All these funds Kano is receiving from the federation account are being kept to generate interests. In our time, during Malam Ibrahim Shekarau’s regime, we took a decision as a responsible government implementing the principles of Shari’a. And, when Kano Council of Ulama was approached by Shekarau’s government to help guide it on what should be done on the interests generated from banks, the council provided the way out. It advised that it should be safer if such funds generated from interests be judiciously used to tackle environmental problems. That was why the state environmental sector during Shekarau’s regime was well supported. The vehicles procured by Shekarau’s government for evacuation of refuse and other garbage are still being used by the present administration to keep Kano clean. We did not use the monies for anything other than to tackle environmental problems. All these things we did were well documented and the documents are still there with the present administration to see.
How strong is the PDP in Kano after Kwankwaso?
PDP, more than ever before, is very strong in Kano today with defection of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and his teeming supporters into the party. As you can see, not all Kwankwaso’s supporters followed him into APC. For example, Kano speaker remained in PDP, his commissioner of education Faruk Iya resigned as he cannot follow him to the APC. Some members of the National Assembly from Kano joined PDP. We also understand that there is move at present by some prominent APC members to leave the party for PDP. In fact, the coming of Shekarau into PDP added value to the party. Almost all Shekarau’s followers followed him into the PDP, and this is because of the respect Shekarau commands in Kano and beyond. Look at the turnout of people at the Polo Ground to receive President Jonathan! People are not fools, they know we are the people winning elections in Kano.
Why did Shekarau leave APC where many believe he can make more impact as a known opposition politician?
Shekarau had to leave APC because Kwankwaso only joined the party to cause chaos, and this is exactly what is happening in Kano APC. Everybody is complaining. I reliably learned that three top APC members from the state will soon leave the party because of Kwankwaso’s excesses. As the local government election is around the corner, Kwankwaso has already destabilised the party as he has reneged on the agreement that certain percentage of the key council positions for contest be given to those who came from ANPP. There are so many bad things happening in that party at the moment. It is really unfortunate, indeed. To our understanding, Kwankwaso is a sent agent to APC to destabilise the party, no more no less. He is simply there only to scuttle Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential aspiration.
Who is PDP leader in Kano?
Shekarau made it clear already, right from day one when he joined PDP, that with defection of Kwankwaso to the APC, Foreign Affairs Minister Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali should be the leader of the party in Kano as stipulated by the PDP constitution. Shekarau accepted Wali as PDP leader in Kano.