Even though Kano state governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has reportedly suspended his attempt to probe Kano Emirate Council with the alleged intention of fulfilling his campaign promise of deposing the emir, it is now clear that the feud between him and Alhaji Ado Bayero has deepened rather than abated in recent times.
During the campaigns for his re-election last year the governor had used the slogan “SABON SARKI, SABON GWAMNA!” (i.e. “new governor, new emir!”), the import of which he pledged to deliver to the father of one of his commissioners if he won the election.
Enquiries by 247ureports.com however revealed that the Kano state House of Assembly Committee on Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs which was ordered by the governor to embark on the dangerous mission aimed at gathering information from District Heads to prepare grounds for the probe of the finances of the Emirate Council, has suspended its tour of the 44 LGAs began several weeks ago.
Our correspondent gathered that the suspension was probably as a result of the exposure by our exclusive report on the clandestine move to remove the emir published on July 18th, 2012 which reportedly caused dismay in government circles.
Our own report was however based on an earlier report aired by the Hausa Service of Radio Germany in which there was an interview with the chairman of the committee, Hon. Alhaji Kabiru Rurum, who confirmed that the government was indeed planning to investigate the Emirate Council.
“His Excellency was so angry when he learned about your report that he relapsed into temporary madness, which is his usual behavior when he is angry or ‘high’, promising to punish any of his aides found to have spoken to the press on the issue,” a reliable source said. The report, he added, appeared to have disoriented the governor so much that it was clear to all around him that he was going to engage a reverse gear.
However, unaware that Kwankwaso had changed his mind the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) enthusiastically obeyed an old directive by sending a query to the emir recently asking him to render account of how all the monies paid to the Emirate Council in the past nine years were spent.
“When the governor discovered that the SSG had sent the query letter without consulting him there was an altercation between the two of them that almost resulted in the latter resigning from his post,” the source added.
The governor wanted the hostilities between him and the emir to cease because a few weeks earlier, at the end of this year’s 30-day Ramadan fast the Emirate Council announced that the emir had suspended the annual colourful durbar undertaken to mark the Sallah festival.
Kwankwaso, who read the writing on the wall, was hit hard by the announcement as it was the first time a governor witnessed the total cancellation of the spectacle, including Hawan Nassarawa which entails paying a courtesy call on the governor, since it was began over 100 years ago in honour of the colonial Resident in Kano as the representative of the British monarchy.
Many people, like Kwankwaso, also viewed the suspension of the event as part of the feud between him and the emir as the council must have viewed the attempted probe with the seriousness it deserved, knowing that the same enquiry of the finances of the Kano Native Authority (NA), then under the emir, was used in 1963 by the Northern Regional government to depose the 11th emir of Kano, Alhaji (Sir) Muhammadu Sanusi.
Profoundly disturbed by the cancellation of the durbar, Kwankwaso was said to have been so ashamed by the turn of events that he could not bear to be in Kano and be the first governor to sit at home and watch a drab Sallah and therefore opted to fly out of town reportedly to Germany where he spent the Sallah holiday.
And now 247ureports.com has gathered authoritatively that the emir has politely asked Kwankwaso to remove his picture placed by the side of the governor’s on the billboard erected at the Lodge Road/Alu Avenue roundabout in Nassarawa GRA, which is a publicity gimmick by the governor aimed at giving the false impression that all is well between him and the emir.
The highly respected Alhaji (Dr.) Ado Bayero, our source further revealed, wanted his picture removed because as a father to all Kano people irrespective of their political leanings his picture should not have been used on a political billboard to campaign for any of the political parties, “as this has never happened before,” the source added.
However, just before filing in this report our correspondent went to the spot and confirmed that the picture of the emir was yet to be removed from the billboard even though the request was said to have been sent to the government about two weeks ago.
All attempts by our correspondent to get the response of the government’s spokesmen in order to get their side of the story proved abortive as neither the Commissioner for Information nor the Director of Press picked calls to their cell phones.
