Uproar as Kwankwaso ‘converts’ The Triumph to public toilets

Mixed reactions have continued to trail the building of multi-million naira public toilets inside the premises of the once famous The Triumph newspapers which was closed down by Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso two years ago.Established in June 1980 by the late Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi, when he was governor of the old Kano state, the newspaper […]

Mixed reactions have continued to trail the building of multi-million naira public toilets inside the premises of the once famous The Triumph newspapers which was closed down by Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso two years ago.
Established in June 1980 by the late Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi, when he was governor of the old Kano state, the newspaper outfit which started with Albishir, a Hausa vernacular edition, Alfijir, ajami (Hausa written in Arabic letters) newspaper grew from strength to strength to become one of the most vibrant newspapers in the North in the 1980s, through 1990s and up to the early parts of year 2000.
At its peak, the newspaper outfit, which was seen as the training ground for media practitioners in the North cum powerhouse of good journalism, had on its stable Daily, Weekly and Sunday Triumph titles.
It was one of the leading newspaper owned by a state governments in the country. Many outstanding journalists in the North passed through the tutelage of founding editorial staff of the outfit.
Like the closed New Nigerian Newspapers, the fortune of The Triumph went upside-down about a decade ago when its circulating strength and advertisement reduced drastically. The management of the company was managing the trend until when Kwankwaso returned to power in 2011.
Shortly after his return to Kano government house, Kwankwaso appointed a new Managing Director for the company, in the person of Alhaji Kabir Mohammed Gwangwazo, who was a former staff of the newspaper and politician.
Before then, it was gathered that the state government had, right from the era of Mallam Ibrahim Shakarau in the state, been doling out N11 million monthly to the company. Out of it, N9 million was for the payment of monthly salary of the company’s staff, numbering about 200 including casual workers, while the remaining N2 million was for logistics.
On his appointment, our correspondent gathered from government and ex-workers of the company, Gwangwazo had demanded for a take-off grant and that with it, he would be seeing to the monthly salaries of the workers.
“He told the governor that he should be given N129 million in order to run the company properly. He said with the grant, he did not need the monthly N11m subvention of the state government.
“Instead of giving him the amount he demanded, the governor gave him N50 million and told him that he would pay the salaries of the workers of the newspaper outfit for six months. And that was what happened, “he said. A management staff, who preferred anonymity because he is still an employee of the state government, said after six months, the Managing Director couldn’t pay salaries.
He said the situation of the company worsened owing to the inability of the Managing Director to pay workers salaries which affected their morale.
“Following the non-payment of the salaries, the workers kept complaining and sooner it got to the governor. During one of the state executive council meetings, the governor summoned the Managing Director,” he said.
A government source told our correspondent that during the council meeting, the Managing Director was asked to explain to the council the situation of the media outfit.
“The MD couldn’t give any satisfactory account of the situation of the company. In fact, he was murmuring so he pleaded to be given another date in order to give the account of his stewardship,” he said.
Angered by the development, our correspondent gathered, the governor ordered the immediate closure of the company, following which security men were deployed to guard the building.
After the closure, the company’s permanent workers were redeployed to various ministries and agencies of the state government.
The printing machines and other equipment in the company rot away during the closure.
The company which is located in the heart of Fagge Local Government Area of Kano, remained closed until when an operational base of the Joint Task Force in the state was stationed there.  
The trend has been like this until weeks ago when construction workers were mobilized to the premises to build public toilets by the state government.
When our correspondent went to the place on Monday, construction workers were seen building the toilets inside the company.
“If we finish it, it will be handed over to somebody who will be managing the toilet and at the end of the month, he will be paying a stipulated amount to the state government,” one of the construction workers said.
Our correspondent gathered the governor was at the premises of the company on Wednesday to inspect the construction of the toilets.
When contacted, the state Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Danburam Abubakar Nuhu said the state government closed the company after several efforts to make it stand on its own failed.
“Government did not just close it like that; we did that after all avenues to make it work failed. The state government gave all the necessary logistics that will make it work, yet it failed,” he said.
He said the state government is willing and ready to discuss and partner with private investors under Public Private Partnership (PPP) to breathe life back to the company.
On the conversion to toilet, the commissioner said: “I’m not aware of the issue but in any case it is not illegal for government to erect building within its lands. I don’t think anybody has business with that.”
Efforts to get the Managing Director, Alhaji Gwangwazo to comment yielded no result as he did not pick the calls put to his mobile phone.
Meanwhile, workers of the company are groaning over the construction of public toilets in the premises of the media outfit. It has become the topic of discourse among media practitioners in the state with many of them expressing reservations and mixed feelings.