We have humbled Shekarau now -Kwankwaso

Now that you have won the governorship election in Kano, what do you have for Kano people in terms of socio-economic development? I want to thank the media for their support throughout this journey. I want to also seize this opportunity to thank the good people of Kano State who have expressed their confidence and […]

Now that you have won the governorship election in Kano, what do you have for Kano people in terms of socio-economic development?

I want to thank the media for their support throughout this journey. I want to also seize this opportunity to thank the good people of Kano State who have expressed their confidence and support for us especially members of the PDP, the Kwankwasiyya and the people that supported us. They have worked so hard in the last 12 years from the time we were in government for four years up to the time we were out of government. What you see today as the outcome of the governorship election is the result of their handwork. People believe in us and our ideology. In the state assembly election we won 30 out of 40 seats. In the senate we have two out of three and we have 14 out of 24 House of Representative members.

Even the few that we lost, we lost them because of misunderstanding and in some cases the issue of candidature. The PDP is solely on ground. Even the votes that the ANPP got were not real people. They are just lies. I believe that the people of Kano have voted wisely and we shall surely work hard to pay them back. In 2003 there was no election. It was just sentiments. We lost the election not because we didn’t have the people on the ground but because of the Shari’a issue. In 2007 they came here and deceived our leaders that Kwankwaso was the problem and we don’t want him. But they knew I was the solution. They convinced our leaders and a day before we were given flag, I was told overnight to bring somebody other than me.

They said all sorts of lies against me. I agreed and presented somebody. They know that one on one they cannot match me. So I had to be stopped at all costs. I voluntarily agreed and put Ahmed Garba Bichi. At the end of the day, he got 600,000 and Shekarau got slightly over 600,000.They blocked the result of the Tudun-Wada local government because they knew if that result was added, they would have lost the election. The state assembly member from Tudun-Wada is still there till date. It’s like they dashed Kano to ANPP in 2007. In 2011, they tried to do the same thing. You remember the issue of re-run. There was nothing to re-run in that election.

Out of 1,700 delegates, I got 1,555 delegates which is more than 90 percent. But they still want re-run. Locally they knew I was strong because they know that once I got there they are in trouble. I am happy that I am allowed to contest and I won. What remains now is to work for the good people of Kano State to justify the confidence that our people have in us. We will face this task squarely so that by the year 2015, when a candidate emerges from our party, we will all rally around him so that he will win the election. Kano has been left behind in terms of development. If you go to other states you will see development but in Kano there is nothing. The issue of water which you talked about, we have seen how the ANPP government goes about bragging that they have provided 50 million liters per day.

For us we have seen the building but not the pipe that will convey the water. When we take over we shall examine what they have done and see how to improve upon it. But for now it is completely useless.

When you lost to Shekarau in 2003 election, you congratulated him. Has he congratulated you?

I don’t know. You should ask him why. He was a civil servant while I was governor. He left to contest election. He was lucky in 2003 because he didn’t win the primaries. In fact he didn’t get 10 percent of the delegates. Ibrahim little won with more than 90 percent but the leaders of the party then thought that the man was not good enough to be governor of Kano State.

They used the popularity of Buhari and religious sentiments then. We were so matured in politics that we didn’t go to court. I went to his house together with the deputy governor and some commissioners to congratulate him. I made a broadcast in the state and asked everybody to support him. I left Kano and in the first one year I went to Kano only once and that was during the Emir of Kano’s 45th anniversary.

In fact it was because the President was going to Kano that I went because I never wanted to go. I gave them all the time to settle. Now it’s been weeks since I won the election. Not even a messenger has come to congratulate me. What I hear are all sorts of stories. But that is not the issue. We have the solid support of the people. My regret is not contesting against Shekarau in 2007. I wanted to contest against him and not his boy.

If my leaders have allowed me in 2007 I will have crushed him, finish him. But we thank God that we have humbled him now. Ordinarily he imagines that he is an extraordinary human being. Whatever he imagined happened. He was governor for eight years. Nobody has ever done that. It was just an opportunity he had. In 2003 it was Ibrahim Little that was denied ticket. In 2007, he was lucky because I was stopped. Even then we won the election in 2007. I thank the people of Kano for this opportunity once again. We are not seasonal politicians who practise hit and go. We are here to stay. The people know our capacity to deliver and we shall deliver. We will bring the positive change required in Kano.

What will be the fate of Shari’a and the Hisbah when you take over?

People are talking about civil servants. Civil servants are part of the government. We are in government to support them. I was a civil servant for 17 years before I resigned and joined politics in 1991. They are my friends, brothers, sisters and colleagues. I have nothing against them. But we have to do the right thing whether it is civil servants, businessmen, the Ulama or the traditional institution. We have to do the right thing.

Ours will be a corrective government. We have to pay back what we have taken from society. Everybody will have to sit up. If there is a syndicate that put ghost workers into the civil service like I found out during my first tenure, we will not accept it. We will flush them out. In 1999 I inherited 33,000 civil servants, 8000 of them were ghost workers. We had to remove them. There was no genuine civil servant that was affected.  Same thing with pensioners.

We inherited 14,000 pensioners. We reduced them to 7000. We removed the ghost pensioners. We will provide opportunity to civil servants. We will create opportunity for non-civil servants. You know that the industries in Kano are dead. We will revive them. But the thing is that we will not allow civil servants to do what they are not supposed to do. We have no problem with Shari’a. The Shari’a you are talking about we established with all the institutions, including Hisbah and other committees. We will strengthen them but they have to do the right thing. We have Muslims, Christians and non-adherents of the two faiths in Nigeria. We are responsible. They will operate. We will have a good state. We are aiming at development. That is the key word. We have to develop the economy. They know us and I don’t think that anybody has got anything to fear.

What about the issue of the White Paper chat that incumbent governor did against you?

The White Paper is not an issue now. The issue was purely political. It is a nonstarter. For eight years that I was out of government and I was roaming about he didn’t do that. He was the court. He will sit down in his office and hold court on me. So, White Paper is not relevant now. They said they checked my governorship expression of interest form and that I filled that I was not indicted. All that is a none issue

Are you going to probe Shekarau’s government?

That is not important. Ask me what I am going to do for Kano people in terms of education, agriculture, water, health, empowerment, infrastructure and all that. That is what I think is important.

What should Kano people expect from you in the first weeks of your administration?

We have already set up committees. We have 23 committees that are going round collecting data. You see, when he took over in 2003; the first committee they set up was on investigation. We don’t have anything like that. What we have is committee on agriculture, health, youth empowerment, women empowerment. Our concern is how to improve the lot of the people. They wasted all their time investigating me. In the end they succeeded in making me more popular than I was in 1999-2003. Today I am a very strong man in Kano courtesy of enemies.

How do you respond to insinuations that you are not in good terms with traditional institutions?

People come to Abuja to spread lies that Kwankwaso is not friendly to the traditional institution. That is all lies. My father has been a traditional ruler since 1955 and he is still there. He is the Majindadi of Kano and district head of Madobi. He inherited it from his father; his grandfather inherited it from his father and so on. So we have a long history of traditional institution in my family.

But we believe in everybody, both the masses and the traditional institution. Everybody is important. From the farmer, sugarcane seller, the cola nuts seller, everybody. You can’t claim to be better than them because you went to school. It is an opportunity you had which if extended to them they might even do better. Some people believe that I am from a special family. How much did I pay to be where I am? It is all about opportunities. Nobody had the choice of where to be born into. Give everybody the opportunity. We have good relationship with the emir, the district heads. I was brought up in that tradition.