Re: Ganduje dismantling Kano’s 1,000-yr heritage
On the opinion page of the Daily Trust of Monday 17th June, 2019, the paper carried an article with the above caption written by some “concerned citizens” or presumably by the friends of the Emir of Kano in their desperate but glaringly futile efforts to draw sympathy and drum up support for the emir who […]
Kano state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje.
On the opinion page of the Daily Trust of Monday 17th June, 2019, the paper carried an article with the above caption written by some “concerned citizens” or presumably by the friends of the Emir of Kano in their desperate but glaringly futile efforts to draw sympathy and drum up support for the emir who is currently embroiled in a self-inflicted misadventure due to his penchant for dragging the revered traditional institution in the mud.
The Emir has also chosen to join the political opposition in Kano State in their quest of trying to cast His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, OFR in bad light. I would have refrained from joining issues with the “concerned citizens” in their hurriedly written article dotted with sentiments, but for the sake of setting the record straight for posterity to judge so that gullible readers shall not be hoodwinked by the many misrepresentations of historical facts, half-truths and sheer bias contained therein.
Before I delve into the main issues, let me first take the paper’s esteemed readers down memory lane. The newly established emirates of Gaya, Rano, Karaye and Bichi were legitimately created after the Kano State House of Assembly had duly passed a law to that effect and was assented to by the Governor. So, the Emirates have legal and constitutional backing. Furthermore, two of the emirates, namely Gaya and Rano are older than Kano Emirate, while in the case of Bichi Emirate, about four of its former district heads including the grandfather of the present Emir of Kano and the late Dr. Ado Bayero subsequently became Emirs of Kano which underscores its importance in the history of Kano Emirate and the State in general. In a nutshell, due process was followed in the creation of the four new emirates and it was not done in “bad faith” or to corrode the revered Kano Emirate as wrongly insinuated by the “concerned citizens.” The new emirates were created for the overall development of the State and more importantly to satisfy the yearnings of it’s people who have been clamouring for such for close to five centuries or more.
Another issue raised by the “concerned citizens” in their futile efforts to tarnish the image of Gov. Ganduje and his administration is the allegation of him neglecting the education sector in Kano State. This is far from the truth. A few points shall suffice here to turn their argument upside down. The Ganduje led administration had to spend about N9 billion to settle the outstanding bill on the sponsorship of Kano foreign students unpaid by previous admin. This is not to talk about the billions of naira he also spent on Kano sponsored students in private universities in Nigeria, and the payment of scholarship grants to internal students in state and federal institutions across the country that were completely neglected by his predecessor. No harm in doing all these if done in a calculated manner based on needs and resources available. Imagine what could have been achieved with these funds in the education sector if injected internally in Kano State.
Also, Kano State is one of the few in the entire northern region of Nigeria to have consistently met its financial responsibilities towards making available its UBEC counterpart funding running into billions of naira yearly, which has been used to provide critical infrastructures, teaching and learning materials, training of manpower and other essential education tasks. Just last year, the state government recruited and trained over 1,000 female NCE graduates to teach at public primary schools in all the 44 local government areas of the state. This is in addition to the promotion of primary school teachers who have been denied such benefits for almost a decade.
There is no doubt that the education sector, like most other sectors within the country, is in dire need of resuscitation which the meagre resources at the disposal of all three tiers of government will be insufficient enough to handle, but the administration of Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has made frantic and positive efforts to resuscitate it to the admiration and commendation of local, national and foreign stakeholders alike. This is coming at a time when 2/3 of the states within Nigeria struggle to even pay salaries at the end of each month. Just recently during his inaugural speech, the Governor declared that his administration is introducing free and compulsory education in Kano at primary and secondary levels, while people with disabilities will enjoy free Education upto tertiary level. Yet, the ‘concerned citizens’ blinded by sentiments have failed to see all these as postive development in the education sector.
Gov. Ganduje is a product of Kano’s traditional institution and he will be the last person to bastardize nor debase the revered Kano Emirate. Furthermore, it is the current Emir of Kano that has done harmful actions that have cast the emirate in a bad light. Just to mention a few examples, In its over 1,000-year history, no king or emir of Kano has publicly spoken in a foreign language during official engagements within Kano especially within the Emirates, but the present emir has corroded this tradition in his characteristic penchant to impress his audience. Instead, all previous kings or emirs used to speak in Hausa in public whenever addressing even foreign dignitaries within Kano.
Also, no emir in recent history has consistently joined issues with the state or the federal government but the present emir, despite the fact that he has many open channels of communication through which he can bring to the notice of government officials any issue of public interest he so desires, he has many a times, publicly lampooned either the state or federal government to the admiration of the opposition elements. This is unbecoming of a royal father because all the people of the state, irrespective of socio-economic, political considerations and religious affiliations, are his subjects and he is supposed to respect their sensibilities.
Another case of flouting the protocol of the traditional institution by the current Emir of Kano was when he sent his daughter to represent him at a public event in Abuja. This has never been done in the history of Kano Emirate, or any other Emirate in Northern Nigeria.
The Palace of the Emir of Kano dates back to over four centuries which serves not only as a historical site but also as a tourist attraction in Kano. But the emir destroyed most of them and replaced them with modern buildings, one of the doors to the new palace was a handmade wooden piece imported from Morocco. All these to the chagrin of traditionalists, historians and actual concerned citizens of Kano State. On this reconstruction projects, and living lavishly, the emir spent a colossal amount of money running close to N3.4 billion without any compliance with the due process guidelines, instead of spending the money on the socio-economic development of his many impoverished subjects, which he only talks about on podiums to attract applause. Have the so-called “concerned citizens” ever counselled the emir against embarking on these grandeur projects and lavish lifestyle?
It is evidently clear from the above that all the issues raised by the “concerned citizens” lack substance and cannot hold water because they were laced with blatant falsehood solely aimed at hoodwinking some gullible readers. May I equally advise them and others alike that reconciliation efforts are currently ongoing to resolve the issues at stake by authentic concerned citizens at the centre, therefore they should refrain from embarking on detrimental acts that will jeopardize the fragile reconciliation process.