Kano: Battle Of 2 Governors And Godfather

Former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state was reeling with anger when he visited President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Aso Rock, on Friday to express his anger over the decision of his successor to take over properties belonging to him and some former officials of the state government.

The new governor, Abba Yusuf has left no one in doubt that he will have nothing to do with the legacies of his predecessor.

The incumbent had sent a strong signal to Ganduje that it will not be game as usual, following his refusal to sit on a chair used by the former governor, in his first day in office, to the amazement of other government officials present.

Since he took power on May 29, the incumbent has seized government properties said to have been allegedly sold by Ganduje to himself and his cronies in a none transparent manner.

The development has not gone down well with ex-Governor Ganduje who accused the governor and a former governor of the state, Rabiu Kwakwanso of witch-hunting him.

After meeting with President Tinubu on Friday, Ganduje told journalists in a fit of anger that he would have “slapped” Kwakwanso after reporters asked him whether he knew that his predecessor had also come to see the president that day.

“I know that he is in the building, but we did not meet inside. I would have slapped him if I met him inside,” Ganduje said.

The duo was said to have been summoned to Aso Rock by the president to settle their rift, but sources in the Presidency told the magazine that the effort did not yield any result as the former allies have now returned to the trenches.

Not a few have described Ganduje’s comment as very uncouth, adding that prominent people like him are not supposed to speak in such a manner in public, considering the relationship he once shared with Kwakwanso.

Recall that Ganduje was Deputy Governor to Kwakwanso, who according to watchers of the state’s politics ensured that the former succeeded him in 2015, in a bid to strengthen the longtime relationship that blossomed after the former Minister appointed Ganduje as an aide when he was made Minister of Defense under the Obasanjo regime.

But the relationship took a dive after Ganduje swept into office in 2015 and decided to do away with the legacies of his benefactor.

In this quest to undermine Kwakwanso, Ganduje severed himself from the Kwakwasiyya pollical group on which he rode into power headed by his predecessor.

Governor Ganduje further nailed the rift with Kwakwanso after his government deposed Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Emir of Kano, an action that did not sit well with the ex-minister.

Some have recently suggested a plan to return the deposed Emir back to the throne, following a comment made by Kwakwanso that his dethronement will be re-visited by the current administration.

Governor Yusuf is a son-in-law to Kwakwanso, a former Minister of Defence, and leader of the New Nigerian Peoples Party NNPP, the party which swept to power in the commercial city after the March Governorship Election.

Ganduje had failed to install his successor, thus paving the way for the NNPP Governor who is now doing all in his powers to totally erode whatever has been done by his predecessor.

The governor took the most drastic action against his predecessor this week after he alongside the state Commissioner of Police led a demolition exercise of a three-story building with 90 shops, located on a race course at the Nasarawa GRA.

Speaking on the demolition yesterday, Ganduje accused Kwakwanso of being behind his problem.

The governor could not have carried out the act, he explained, without approval from the former minister.

“This new government under the directive of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso demolished the building. The issue is in a court of law,” he lamented.