GOVERNOR Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State won a popular mandate to return for another term in office as the chief executive of the Kano State government, after he lost the 2003 election to a successor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, following allegations of corruption involving billions of naira.
Kwankwanso, despite his electoral loss, refused to go into political oblivion but chose the purgatory option of national appointment as defense minister. In October, he was at the Corporate Council on Africa, an organization on infrastructural development formed in Washington DC., USA.
He agreed to an interview session on how to address the cynics’ belief that the outing may not yield the desired push for a net foreign investment in Kano State, mainly because of the Boko Haram menace in the northern Nigeria. He was also questioned on the role he played in introducing political Sharia in Nigeria.
Sharpedgenews.com editor in-chief, Oladimeji Abitogun, was one of the news reporters who pinned Governor Kwankwanso down for the candid session.
EXCERPTS:
Your Excellency, it must be a great task for you to be here to market the potentials of Kano state, with all the security challenges you have to contend with at this point. Do you ever think of this in everything you’re doing, and are you ever frustrated at any point or want to keep growing high?
Thank you very much. Let me start by thanking the organizers of this infrastructure conference here in Washington and also thank them for inviting me, not only just sending invitation but also by showing a lot of interest through visits and telephone calls. We are very delighted to be here.
We are now in the second day; we started yesterday the 10th. Today d 11th and we listened to very useful people, from Nigeria and of course this country (United States) and even beyond, who came with some fantastic ideas on how to work as partners between Nigeria and of course USA.
I’m happy to say that Kano state government is working with our friends from USA and all other parts of the world so as we can benefit from each other’s efforts. We discussed the issue of education which is the cornerstone of our administration. We have investors who are interested in coming to Kano to come and invest in the area of education, especially the establishment of secondary schools and the universities. We have people who are interested in solid minerals that are quite a lot in Kano state, some in agriculture and of course others on the construction of infrastructure, from roads, bridges, irrigation and facilities and so on, so am quite glad we came. We’ll keep on contacting those that got interest in investing in our state.
Are you scared that people may not come; investors may not come after all because of the security challenges?
There are security challenges everywhere including America and even here in Washington. Security is not peculiar to any country or any state in the world so I am sure that investors will come and that is why we have seen people who are collecting my business cards, and I collected quite numbers of cards I cannot remember but I collected over 50 business cards representing 50 businesses from this country. So, definitely, a lot of them will come and we’ll be happy to see them.
What are your areas of priorities in Kano state, given the problem of literacy and the rest of them?
Well, if you listen to my remarks yesterday, I had (emphasized) the issue of education. What we have inherited and what we have done in the last one and half years and what we intend to do for the development of our towns.
We talked about agriculture, infrastructure especially electricity , roads, bridges and so on, so our hands are open. We’re not particular about any area and we’re not here to select. We are not restricted to selecting one or two because we can have all and that is our target.
Sir, yesterday sir, you said the previous government of your state was busy stealing money while you were away from power for 4 years, before returning 4 years later. Sir, can you tell us the debts you met when you came back after 8years that you left office?
Well, the official figure I received was over 77 billion (naira). Am not in hurry to pay all those debts but am in hurry to pay as much as I can with the level state government is collecting. And I am very happy to say that so much has been achieved and one is even determined to do more. That was why we started our major projects very early.
We are now building 5km of nice roads in each of the 44 local government headquarters. We are building a flyover. We’re building even more than flyovers within the four cluster areas. We’re building universities, we’re building 21 institutes, we’re establishing so many mega secondary schools and we’re building roads especially roads that leads into the city of Kano and we have selected 4 major roads plus 6 that have been abandoned by the formal administration. We are lucky things are working in Kano.
Sir, finally sir, having realize that the man stole a lot of money when he was in government for 8 years sir, do you intend to probe him sir, is he ending to jail?
You see, we’re concentrating on the or the dividend of democracy to people and that is our primary concern now, we want to perform and show the light of hope to the people and that is what we’re doing.
Sir, looking at this conference, did this conference meet your expectation, if it does and if it does not what are you taking back at the end of this conference?
Well, one, I have learnt so much in what people cannot promise and what they can do in Kano and of course I have collection of business cards, I have collection of so many proposals. I have also given out my cards to various companies – individuals who are going to get in touch with us and of course also we’ll get in touch with them.
Sir, my question is about security situation in Kano State and the investors will be asking questions on the volatility of the area. I don’t know if you’ve given assurance to investors that are coming to stay. I heard that, when you were in your 1st term as governor in those days you were about Sheriah introduction. In view of what Boko Haram has become today, are you comfortable with that legacy?
Well, I think somebody raised the issue of security earlier on. The issue of security is not peculiar to Kano; it is not even peculiar to Nigeria. The issue of security is all over the world, including United State of America, even Washington. Every leader, in fact all leaders across the world, face their own version of security.
In 2003 we faced so many security challenges, including the introduction of Shaaria, where so many people did not understand what was coming.
So, we have our own version of security and we have security problem when we have so many people in the south and northerners in the south and vice-versa so..so many people were killed at that particular time, so many people were raped so many properties were destroyed and that was the challenges of that time. Now we have another version of security and I believe the state government, Kano state government, and the country and indeed the federal government, all of them are coming together to ensure that we can all live in peace and harmony.