Insecurity in Kano Government House

Insecurity in Kano Government House by SULEIMAN UBA GAYA in the Leadership of 8/7/2011

It is not for personal hatred that some of us have been critical of the new governor of Kano State, Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso.  The reasons are many and fundamental, and they include the fact that, by commission or omission, he is by his actions (and inactions) seen to be encouraging lawlessness in the society. 

Convinced that Kwankwaso’s campaign for governorship was taking a dangerous slant, I had written articles drawing attention of the security services and all men of goodwill, asking that he be called to order.  At a time, I became convinced that the man was above the law, because no one was doing anything to tame him.  Virtually throughout his campaigns in Kano’s 44 local governments, Kwankwaso was directly and indirectly inciting the youths against constituted authorities.  In Bunkure local government, for instance, he is on record to have called out the names of some renowned deadly-thugs, asking why they ‘siddon look’ (apology to late Bola Ige) while some people in the then government, who he referred to in very abusive language, were allegedly making things pretty difficult for him.  He challenged these thugs to do something about it!

In Dala local government, he is on record to have threatened to deal decisively with anyone who dared stand on his way.  His political soulmates at the campaign even threatened to kill anyone who continued to make things impossible for them.  When he campaigned towards the election at the now-disputed massive land at Kofar Na’isa, Kwankwaso asked the youths to draw blood from anyone who might try to stop him from winning the election. I have the records of all of Kwankwaso’s campaigns. Surely this column cannot be enough, for reason of space, for me to list all the  shocking, very dangerous utterances made by the man who is now calling the shots in Kano State.

Kwankwaso had indeed said worse things by way of inciting the youths, and it was quite disastrous how this man was allowed to go scot-free with highly-sensitive, highly-inciting statements.  For about eight years that Malam Shekarau reigned as governor, Kano witnessed unprecedented peace.  For the first time in the state’s history, non indigenes felt truly at home, in a state that had become a major flashpoint of violence.  For these reasons, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had bestowed many awards on the former governor, including the latest one coming a few days to handing over of power to Kwankwaso.  I have no doubt that if my counsel had been adhered to by the security services and Kwankwaso was called to order, the mayhem that erupted in parts of Kano after the presidential election will not have arisen. 

Through his utterances that encouraged and abetted violence, Kwankwaso easily succeeded in fouling the air in Kano State, and some of the youths must have felt nothing was going to happen to them if they breach the peace.  The then government’s relentless campaign, through its social re-orientation programme had made so much meaning and created so much impact in Kano, until Kwankwaso came on the scene, towards the 2011 campaigns.  One of his followers, who he now made a special adviser, was said to be buying intoxicants and distributing to these youths, to encourage them to breach the law and do their dirty bidding.  These intoxicants are now known to bear her own name, and nobody is doing anything about it.

So I was not at all surprised when on Sunday, May 29, 2011, the day Kwankwaso was sworn into office, these thugs invaded Kano Government House and ransacked the whole place.  When some of the responsible policemen on duty tried to stop them, they simply broke the fence that was erected long before most of them were born, and which had never been tampered with for decades, and gained forceful entry into the Government House.  Within minutes, they succeeded in carting away properties worth several millions of naira.  Anyone in doubt could take a walk to Kano Government House.  The aspects of the wall that were destroyed by these youths are still yet to be repaired.  It has only been covered with zinc. 

This dastardly act was indeed reported by a few newspapers.  But what has largely remain unreported or under-reported is the robbery act that took place right inside the Kano Government House, in the servants quarters located right behind the main residence.  It is the place where some of the drivers and cooks of the governor are being accommodated, and I know that some of these domestic servants have been living there when Kwankwaso was still an undergraduate.

On this fateful Sunday, these unruly youths went to the house of one Alhaji Ado, a senior driver of the Government House.  They went there brandishing all sorts of arms.  They forced the door leading to the house open and threatened to kill his family if they do not surrender all valuables in their possession.  The man has a daughter called Zainab, a student of Bayero University, Kano.  She was in the process of getting married and by tradition, the father had purchased furniture, electronics and other household items for the use of his daughter in her matrimonial home. 

The groom-to-be had also brought expensive materials called Kayan Lefe in Hausa, consisting of brocades, wax materials, cosmetics, jewelries, etc worth hundreds of thousands of naira.  Zainab’s elder brother also had tailoring machines in the house.  He was engaged in tailoring to help the family make ends meet.  It was a happy family by all standards, even if they were certainly not rich. But when the Kwankwaso agents of darkness descended on the house, they whisked away everything in sight, including all the aforementioned materials and properties. 

The youths had a reason for descending on this driver, which was that he was perceived, surely erroneously, as a loyalist of the immediate past governor, Malam Shekarau.  Till date, the police have not announced the arrest of any of the miscreants that defiled the Kano Government House and robbed a junior civil servant, a responsible and defenceless Nigerian. Only God knows the trauma this family has been living ever since. If Ado driver were an adherent of the Kwankwasiyya movement, surely he will have been adequately compensated.  But till date, not a kobo has been given to him.
The same unruly Kwankwaso-youths took the law into their hands a few days after this dastardly act.  On the day he was swearing-in the caretaker chairmen of the 44 local governments, they had a major confrontation with the police.  In their thousands, they easily overpowered the policemen at the gate of Kano Government House, broke the gate and gained forceful entry.  Once inside, they made their way straight to a building named Africa House, venue of the event, and started breaking the glass walls of the building.  They chanted war songs, abusing the security men, claiming, and rightly so, that they were the ones that stood by Kwankwaso and ensured his election.

As it is now, only God knows what is going to happen next.  If a well-secured place like the government house could be so easily attacked and taken over by thugs, one can only imagine the state of insecurity and fear that Kwankwaso is bringing to Kano.  An indication that all the action of the youths had his tacit support could be gleaned in the fact that thus far, he has not come out to condemn it, and it doesn’t look like he will ever do so.

With every passing day, Kwankwaso is proving to be a huge embarrassment to Kano State.  He is engaged in so many policy-somersaults that the respected Daily Trust newspaper had to publish a strong editorial on June 24, 2011, asking him to reverse his ways and save Kano State from imminent disaster. It remains to be seen if he will ever adhere to any well-meaning-counsel.