Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, has replied his predecessor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, over his claims of failure in governance in the current administration, insisting that Ganduje’s eight-year tenure represented failure and maladministration, characterised by corruption, diversion of public funds and sale of the government’s property.
Governor Yusuf regretted that Ganduje “shamelessly spoke about non-existent failure” in the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) government, instead of facing the nemesis of corruption and political violence hanging around his neck.
Governor Yusuf, in a statement by his media aide, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, insisted that Ganduje presided over two unproductive tenures characterised by siphoning public resources, inability to cater for the needs of Kano’s populace, nepotism and bloodshed that left many families in melancholic mood.
“Our eight months in office have remarkably outweighed Ganduje’s eight wasted years of political caricature and maladministration by all standards,” Governor Yusuf stated.
He advised the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rather buckle up in defence of his battered image at the court, instead of further exposing his impunity in the media space.
The governor, in the statement, reminded Ganduje how his gross penchant for corruption has brought shame and disgrace to the good people of Kano, insisting that no amount of media campaign would hinder the process of bringing him (Ganduje) to book on the glaring cases of corruption filed against him.
The statement further regretted that Ganduje could yet muster the courage to defend himself in the media, despite the embarrassing video clip where he was alleged caught red-handed, stocking his large agbada pockets with dollars, a supposed kickback from a contractor; and other corrupt practices massively associated with his eight-year tenure, during which he ran the affairs of Kano State as a family enterprise. “We wish to reaffirm the present administration’s resolve and readiness to make Ganduje and his co-travellers face the full wrath of the law for their intentional wrong doings.”
Governor Yusuf maintained that his administration was multi-facetedly inclined, prioritising focus and attention on socio-economic and physical infrastructure developments for the overall well-being of Kano and the good people of Kano State.
He stated that for anyone to assume that efforts to unravel the issue of corruption charges against Ganduje and members of his immediate family is an attempt to cover up, clearly means that such category of people were either under false illusion or being economical with the truth.
“For whatever option, Kano State Government would advise the acting national chairman of the APC to show cause why his name, that of his family, and the entire people of Kano should permanently erase from the global embarrassment that the dollar video has generated.”
Governor Yusuf emphasised that his administration would leave no stone unturned in pursuing the dollar video scandal to its logical conclusion. He, therefore, requested the release of the forensic investigation conducted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) on “Gandollar saga” in 2018, for public consumption.
On the allegations of poor governance in Kano despite the increase in federal allocation, Governor Yusuf revealed that his administration was still struggling to recover from the bankruptcy Ganduje plunged the state into.
Apart from inheriting liability and debt running into over N500 billion from Ganduje’s administration, occasioned by his alleged reckless financial misconduct, Governor Yusuf claimed the immediate past APC government sold almost all the property and assets to Ganduje, members of his family, and his cronies.
He further stated that it was also glaring that Ganduje’s administration was associated with massive corruption, nepotism and intimidation of innocent citizens of Kano State, hence, the reason for setting up two Judicial Commission of Inquiry.”
He added that for someone to believe the lies that his administration is a failure for justifying the huge resources in less than a year, means that the person has never been to Kano to see things for himself, or the person is a member of the opposition party who simply wants to malign his administration.
He revealed that the NNPP government has recorded life-changing initiatives, including the foreign post-graduate scholarship for first class students, payment of tuition fees and entrance examinations for hundreds of thousands of university and secondary schools students, provision of free maternal and child healthcare, renovation and equipping of some secondary healthcare facilities, among many other modest achievements that have impacted positively on the lives of Kano people.
Additionally, Governor Yusuf has taken a bold step to pay the backlog of pension and gratuity for the state pensioners, who were denied their entitlements by Ganduje’s administration in the last eight years. We completed the abandoned five kilometre roads in some local government areas.
Governor Yusuf has also distributed four batches of palliatives to hundred of thousands of Kano residents to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal and increase in price of food stuff. Kano residents still remembered how Ganduje’s administration kept food items meant to be distributed to the masses during COVID-19, under the sun and in the rain, until they completely spoilt, while other items were only brought out for distribution during the 2023 elections, after a greater percentage of the items was diverted and sold by his foot-soldiers.
While inaugurating the JCI, Governor Yusuf said the first commission was to investigate issues related to misappropriation of public property and assets, while the second will be to investigate cases of political violence and missing persons in the state. He wondered why Ganduje has started being jittery about the constitution of the commissions, even when he has not been invited to answer for his misdeeds.
According to the statement, the Governor is on the verge of restoring sanity from the spate of political thuggery which the immediate-past administration promoted; and disruption of election processes in both 2019 and 2023 when unsuspecting and hapless Kano people were maimed, injured, dehumanised, brutalised and killed by thugs loyal to the APC and Ganduje.
“We wish to warn Ganduje to stop dragging the name of President Tinubu into his corruption saga, as we believe that our able and well respected President does not interfere in cases before the courts of competent jurisdiction, as we witnessed during our trying times at the Supreme Court, when he allowed justice to prevail for the opposition parties,” Bature added in the statement.
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