Governor Muhammad Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso made what some have described as history in a dramatic hand over of power from his foremost political foe, Ibrahim Shekarau.
It was the same Kwankwaso who, in 2003, handed over power to Shekarau  after he  stunned the bookmakers to emerge as the second governor of Kano State in this Fourth Republic.
That it was Shekarau who, last Sunday, had to hand over to Kwankwaso only goes further to confirm the vibrancy of Kano politics.
In this chat, the lion of Kano politics – as some would like to  describe Kwankwaso -gives some insight  into  what to expect from his new administration.
Kwankwaso spoke tough.
He explains that the people of Kano may have been taken for one very long ride which has led them nowhere. He bemoans the fate of the state, especially regarding the huge debt profile.
According to Kwankwaso, “But this money in question is just for paying hotel bills, for somebody to go and stay in a hotel room. Some people are permanently there, enjoying themselves. And God knows during Sharia what was committed in the hotels. The worst side of it even is you leave your house and go to the hotel; a Kano man, you are in a hotel, what are you doing? And you say you are a Sharia man, you are honest; you are holy”.
Excerpts:

By AbdulSalam Muhammad,

How would you describe the  alleged last-minute execution of contracts and issuance of jobs by your predecessor?

That is the game they were involved in before I was sworn in. The moment they heard that the lion is here, everybody started putting his house in order. But ask them, I don’t know, I see them working on roads (at a rate that is) faster than any other time in the past eight years. I laugh and say this is part of the game. It shows that the Kano electorate have done the right thing. Find out when they gave out the contract, maybe  two years or five years ago and nobody was talking about it and for the simple fact that Kwankwaso is coming in, they are panicking everywhere.

Anybody listening to you now would think you are just coming in as a fresher but these same people defeated you in 2003.

When we lost election in 2003, they immediately went and froze our accounts. That didn’t worry us, because if, out of 48 months they are blocking your account for just one month, it’s no problem. We didn’t panic. They didn’t see us running helter-skelter to complete any job.
They defeated you?

Their problem is that they overrated themselves because of the simple fact that they got it on a platter of gold in 2003, on a platter of diamond in 2007 and now that they could not get it, they’ve embarked on destruction. They never prepared for 2011 in the first place, whereas those of us who had one term were prepared to do it. Losing and winning election to us is like a joke.

But somebody must win and somebody must lose.

You are in politics to win or lose election, so, if  at the end you get one of the two results, it should not be a shocker. If you get either of the two, just thank your God and move on, that is why we went and congratulated them after losing in 2003. We didn’t even go to court. But what do we have now? After their eight years, Shekarau wanted to hand over power to his associate; when that didn’t happen, he refused to recognise us.

He doesn’t want to congratulate us. Not one even as low as a messenger was sent from Government House to congratulate us and what do we hear: They will take it by all means. That they will stop May 29 from coming up.

It won’t happen. Now, how could that happen? It didn’t happen.

When you could not stop us from winning election and moreover when we have learnt from our mistake that removed us from power in 2003, you now say you will sack us from Government House.

What mistakes?

I think there are so many things; there are so many mistakes and so many problems on the ground presently.

But I assure you that we will handle this messy issue of governing Kano, because it has been messed up in the last eight years. And, I always say it, if these people are allowed to continue for the next six months, the disaster in the state would have been unquantifiable.

Somebody was alleging to me that there were some deductions that were supposed to go for pension. They (the money) left the deduction point, but they are yet to arrive anywhere. The money is said to be about N3 billion.

How do you intend to handle the liabilities allegedly left by the Shekarau administration?

We are confronted with problems that everybody hopes from May 29 we would begin to help them solve. But we need the support of everybody. People should endeavour to pay taxes and civil servants should try and be honest. We have to make sacrifices, we have to make contributions, we have to support Kano and make it a better place to live in.

I believe we will find a way out of this mess; a way I cannot yet tell you about now. But, somehow, we will sort out this mess.

We are going to do our best. Now, we are better experienced than we were 12 years ago and we have started working.

Recently, we held a meeting in Abuja with stakeholders and people from all walks of life, USAID, MDGs, organisations and ministries that are willing to support Kano State to solve its problems of water supply, problem of education, health, sanitation and you name it. So, people are willing to support us, but what they are saying is, at the end of the day, ‘whatever efforts we all put in, corruption comes into play’. I told them we are on the same page, but we can’t kill corruption, however, we will minimise it. And, that we will continue to do our best.

We will make sure that everybody is on his toes and, by the grace of God, these four years will bring some positive changes in Kano.

Do you have plans to probe the Shekarau administration?

Read  Kwankwaso’s  answer to this question and the full interview in tomorrow’s edition of Sunday Vanguard.