The report captioned above, written by Auwalu Umar, published in the Sunday Trust of last week, makes an interesting reading. Though the writer has professionally strived to be as dispassionate as possible, he has come out handicapped in some areas. This rejoinder seeks to correct these anomalies for the proper education of readers.
As Auwalu mentioned, the genesis of the crisis between the two leaders stems from Kwankwaso’s victimization of Shekarau when he downgraded him from the position of permanent secretary – a position he occupied long before Kwankwaso became governor in 1999 - to a classroom teacher. This was in 2001, not 2003. It defies logic and common sense for the Kwankwasos to now admit their leader goofed, but only because the downgrade was requested by Shekarau. The position of a permanent secretary is the zenith of the civil service career and it is preposterous to say anyone reaching it will seek a much-lower position.
It is also wrong to say in 2003, Kwankwaso gave-up what Auwalu called the media war between him and Shekarau because he no longer had the resources to continue the fight, having lost power after being defeated in that year’s gubernatorial election by Shekarau. The records are there to show that Kwankwaso continued to tackle Shekarau from the day he handed over power to him up to this time. Countless articles chastising Shekarau, full of unfounded allegations have been written by elements around him. There is overwhelming evidence that they were sponsored by Kwankwaso to do so. He also got some media men he now appointed to key positions in his government to serve his interests and subvert Shekarau in the organizations they worked. In any case, Kwankwaso has never lacked adequate resources. He became defence minister immediately after losing power in 2003.
Talking about the White Paper issued to Kwankwaso, it shall be noted that it was a result of wrong information given to Shekarau by Kwankwaso during hand-over of power in 2003. Virtually all claims he made differed from those of the transition committee set up by Shekarau upon winning the gubernatorial election. Kwankwaso never deemed it fit to invite Shekarau to the Government House to reconcile all information and figures. So on hand-over day, as he reeled out false figures, Shekarau came to his rescue, asking that civil servants be allowed to sort out the issue.
Immediately after, contractors started besieging Shekarau’s newly-formed government with requests for payment of work not reflected by Kwankwaso in his handover note. Thus, the government formed an administrative panel of inquiry to sort out the confusing situation. Naturally, Kwankwaso was invited to shed light on his claims, but he felt too big to respond to such summons. Yet, more and more requests continued to be made by all sorts of people, claiming to have done some work or discharged services for Kwankwaso. When he refused to appear or provide any information, the Shekarau administration was left with no option than to form a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the claims, especially to make sure government was not short-changed by the claimants.
It was this commission that opened up a can of worms. Not only ecological funds were tampered with by Kwankwaso, students of tertiary institutions had their scholarships denied them and diverted. Members of Kwankwaso government are on record to have attended the commission and gave testimony about how monies meant for security, scholarships, etc, were diverted and given to political supporters to ensure Kwankwaso won re-election. At the end of its sitting, the commission had no option than to hang the White Paper on Kwankwaso, as he was found neck-deep in all sorts of sleaze.
Kwankwaso disagreed and took the government to court, which affirmed the findings of the commission of inquiry. Dissatisfied, he went to the Court of Appeal, which also agreed with the lower court, and he took the matter to the Supreme Court, which is yet to give final judgment on the matter.
Kwankwaso has also been giving the wrong information that he established the state university of technology, and for that reason, Shekarau was envious and starved the institution of funds. Nothing is further from the truth. To start with, the university was established by the then military governor, General Idris Garba, in 1988. Professor I. H. Umar was appointed its first vice chancellor with the Emir of Lapai as Chancellor. Shekarau is on record to have done his best to uplift that university, which was why it gained accreditation in virtually all its courses and its products could hold their own anywhere. As is well known, education is like a bottomless pit. However much is put into it, more would still be required, especially for a state that is the nation’s most populous.
Another anomaly is the assertion that Shekarau did not wait until he left office to have a house, as required by law, to be built for him. The law talks about drawing from the gesture after a successful term of office. It is well known that Shekarau is the first person and so far, the only one to win two consecutive terms of office in Kano’s political history. The house project did not take-off until well into Shekarau’s second term. He succeeded himself in 2007. That’s why the project was executed under his tenure. Even at that, his office project is still on-going, but he fully paid Engr. Magaji, who was his first-term deputy, and who entangled him on several fronts while it lasted. He could not pay Engr. Gwarzo only because he was his second-term deputy, and the law says the privileged can only be enjoyed “after one successful term of office,” which for Gwarzo, is effective from May 29, 2011.
If Shekarau were vindictive, he wouldn’t have paid Kwankwaso hundreds of millions of naira in benefits from the law, or his deputy, Dr Ganduje, who also collected five hundred million naira for serving only one term of office, though he now claims to have collected half of that. And if he were greedy, Shekarau would have insisted on enjoying double benefits from the generous provisions of the law which gives full package for serving every term of office.
Gaya, a one-time senior aide to Shekarau, sent this piece from No. 15, President Avenue, Bompai – Kano
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