A public announcement published in the Daily Trust of April 17, 2014 revealed that Kano state government had concluded arrangements for the sale of 19 important properties it holds in trust on behalf of the people of the state. These properties, which it hopes to sell at the whopping sum of over N7.37 billion, are located in Kano, Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna, including the famous and controversial Lagos Liaison Office situated at No. 13, Waziri Ibrahim Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Several past governments of the state, including those headed by military governors and that of the incumbent governor during his first tenure (1999-2003), had attempted to either lease out or out-rightly sell this property without success due to the objection of the people and the heated controversy that trailed the move.
The statement said the consultant appointed for the exercise, Acnover Investments Limited, had already identified the properties and established their monetary value for eventual sale to interested members of the public. The properties include Plot 122B, Bishop Oluwole Street, Victoria Island; the magnificent 6-storey building christened ‘Kano House’ which is located at Plot 73, Ralph Shodeinde Street, Central Area, Abuja; and an estate of twelve (12) 3-bedroom flats situated along Road 14 by Prof. Umaru Shehu Street, off Abdulwahab Folawiwo Avenue, Gwarimpa, Abuja.
Others are Block 3, Aba Close, Area 8, Abuja; Nawfia Close, FHA, Kubwa, Abuja; No. 5, Dala Road, Unguwar Rimi, Kaduna; No. 20, Tafawa Balewa Road, Kaduna; No. 22, Degel Road, Kaduna; No. 7A, Alkali Road, Kaduna; No. 3, Wurno Road, Kaduna; No. 13, Wurno Road, Kaduna; and seven warehouses located at Dawanau and along Niger Street, Sabon Gari, Kano.
In view of the foregoing, therefore, it is shocking but not surprising that the incumbent governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has this time around the audacity to embark on the costly move of not only selling the Lagos Liaison Office but the whole gamut of our common assets at this point in time.
It is not surprising because since his second coming, Governor Kwankwaso appears to have returned with a stronger resolve to tackle issues head on, without minding whose toe he steps upon. May be because he is no longer looking for another term, but Kwankwaso this time seems to have no qualms whether the electorate are pleased with his actions or not.
Take the demolition of hundreds of private residences said to have obstructed some of the major roads that the state government is rehabilitating, for instance, or the sale of hundreds of government-owned ‘GP’ houses to senior civil servants, his political appointees and associates. No one grudges the sale to civil servants, but it is generally believed that the politicians are undeserving because they were made to reap where they did not sow anything.
The fact that these official houses were the common properties of the people of Kano state and that those who were sold or given the houses are politicians was enough to course uproar in town if it were anywhere in the South. But due to our lethargic and nonchalant attitude neither our elders, youth groups, traditional rulers (the so-called custodians of our cultural heritage), nor any stakeholder had the temerity to put up resistance against the assets-disposal policy.
Thus, seeing that nobody seemed to have cared about the potential adverse implications of his actions, such as the selling of the GRA quarters in Kano to a privileged few, the governor was emboldened and encouraged to forge ahead and attempt selling the remaining valuable assets of the people spread across the country.
However, as a bona fide citizen of Kano state I wish to vehemently object to this arbitrary use of power and clandestine move to deprive me and my fellow citizens of our common belongings. This is because it is a decision of a few without our expressed approval for the sale. In fact, not even adequate publicity was embarked upon as a means of at least acquainting the people with the fact that they are about to lose their common possessions.
Besides, some of these assets were acquired as far back as shortly after attainment of independence in 1960, and most of them after the collapse of the Northern regional government in 1966 and the subsequent creation of states in 1967. This means that the properties were actually acquired long before Jigawa state was created out of old Kano state in 1991. Therefore, I wonder what mandate Kano state governor can claim to have that warrants this wanton disposal of the assets that are jointly owned by the people of Kano and Jigawa states.
Thus, the questions that naturally come to mind are does the mandate given to an elected governor bestow on him the right to dispose of the common property of the people without seeking their consent? Is it morally right for a state governor to browbeat assembly members (that is if he has even done that at all) and make them to legitimize the sale of the assets of the people just so as to achieve his personal goals and desires?
I say this because one can assume that the state government is doing this because, in its bid to excel, it has beaten more than it can chew and that is why the governor is desperately searching for funds to execute projects that, from the look of things, he cannot complete before the end of his tenure in a year’s time. But government is a continuous process; what he cannot complete his predecessors will certainly have to complete sooner or later. He doesn’t have to sell our common assets for whatever reason.
Finally, my objection to the sale of these vital assets is hinged mainly on three points: (a) Its illegality, (b) Its tendency to deprive our children of the security of having some kind of liquidity as it has been with Kano people since the assets were bequeathed to us by our forebears, and (c) The fear that by the time Kwankwaso leaves office in May, next year, there will not be a kobo from that colossal sum of money to hand over to the next government. And, in any case, many people do suspect who the buyers of these assets would ultimately be.
Mandawari wrote in from Tarauni Quarters, Tarauni LGA, Kano saminumanda@ymail.com
248, Layin Masallachi, Tarauni Quarters,
Tarauni LGA, Kano.
