Kwankwaso, Shekarau battle over Kano treasury

Posted by admin Headlines, Kano, State News Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Since the conduct of the 2011 gubernatorial polls in Kano State, the state has remained deeply divided. And the rivalry between former governor Ibrahim Shekarau and his successor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is not making the matter any better.

The crux of the matter is the performance of Shekarau, who believed that his government performed well above average. But to the new government, the opposite is the case. Kwankwaso made no mistakes about this at his inauguration.
Lamenting that he is inheriting an empty treasury, in spite of the huge resources that accrued to the state in the last eight years, he alleged that the state government and the 44 local government councils received over the last eight years, an income of well over a trillion naira. He added he was inheriting over $209 million debt as external loans and an internal liability for contracts /supplies and recurrent expenditure of over $77 billion:

“Records indicate that from September 2010 to date, deductions from the salary of civil servants as well as government’s contributions towards contributory pension scheme in the sum of over N3billion were deducted, but are neither in the treasury nor remitted to the Pension Trust Fund’s Account. The conduct of government during the last eight years was far from making Kano a model state. Leadership style could not rise to the need of actualizing of the dream and aspirations of the Kano people.

“Despite the huge financial resources received from the Federation Account and the Population Endowment of Kano State, the potentials and strength of its people were not harnessed to the fullest, thereby betraying the yearnings of the people of Kano to have their affairs truly run on the basis of the Shariah.”

A few days before May 29, the spokesperson of the office of the governor-elect, Ja afar Ja’ afar hinted on the N77 billion liabilities, and a foreign loan of $209,635,334., which he stated, were based on the documents tendered before the transition committee by the state Accountant General. He noted a sharp disparity between the statutory allocation figures tendered before the committee and the one obtained from the Federal Ministry of Finance, as well as the N4 billion hotel bills allegedly spent by the Shekarau administration.

The impact of the disclosures was better imagined. People questioned their long-held belief about the former government. Many were heard aloud saying “but we told you”. But there were those who doubted the allegations, insisting that they would only form a standpoint after they had heard the other side of the same story. These cynics did not have to wait for long.

SHEKARAU’S REACTION
The Shekarau camp could not remain mute any further. Time was running out. Shekarau’s former Senior Special Assistant (Media), Alhaji Sule Yau Sule, admitted that when they heard the accusations, they decided to give the new governor, a chance to retract them. When that did not happen, they were left with no option but to join issues with him. Specifically, Sule accused Kwankwaso of embarking on a clear blackmail, crying that the whole exercise is designed to smear the reputation of Shekarau. He wondered why the new governor would quietly sign the handover notes in the Government House, only to go out, a few minutes after, to disown the same document he personally signed. He stressed that in public service, to append ones signature to a handover note is an indication that the signatory has concurred with the contents of the notes as the account of how it is.

Describing the allegations as nothing but an excellent propaganda, he said that facts and data about the state treasury in the last eight years were manipulated and mischievously distorted, even as he cautioned media practitioners to be critical of information coming their way as some of them may not be the whole truth. He faulted the subtle suggestions that his principal left an empty treasury. He pointed out that the Shekarau administration left behind a credit bank balance of N4,361,905,917.15 and a cash book balance of N5,932,341,273.19 in the different accounts under the treasury of the state.

Among these accounts, according to the former governor’s aide, include the main account of the state and the salary account of the state with Oceanic Bank, Local Government Account, State /Local Government Joint Project Account, Interest account, and Sub Treasurer’s account with the Unity Bank Plc, among others. He also noted that the administration has a total of N1,019,091, 203.82 excess crude oil for May 2011 for the state that was yet to drop less N513, 422,779.94 and N1,064,766,931 excess crude oil for May 2011 for local governments that was yet to drop into the account of the state.

The administration, he stated, further left another N13 billion being the indebtedness of the Federal Government to the state government, a figure he stated was incurred as a result of the various federal roads reconstructed/repaired by the state government adding that, the payment of the debt had been approved by President Goodluck Jonathan, but were not released as at May 27, 2011. He acknowledged the fact that the state is still to be paid $81,704,959.65 which has been reconciled with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the Debt Management Office and the consultants, as yet another money due to the state. This money, he recalled, was part of the claim of $202,715,648.55 filed by Messer Global Straskills Consult Limited on behalf of the state government against the Federal Government as amount wrongly deducted from the state’s allocation over the years in the course of foreign loans settlements.

Sule stated that the state received a cumulative sum of N497,251,637,311.32 in the last eight years adding that of this figure, the internally generated revenue and other collections by parastatals stood at N54,963,018,202.12. He explained that the liabilities in question were simply the sum of all the ongoing projects in the state, whose life span had exceeded his tenure. He said these on going projects, whose schedules of payments were captured in the 2011 budget of the state, were what was repackaged and presented as liabilities, despite the fact that from the budget of the state, it was very clear that their payments would come in installments until they were finally completed.

He insisted that they never took one single foreign loan and challenged the new administration throw light on the claims if they were sure: He explained that the alleged foreign loans were counterpart projects by some development organizations outside Nigeria. He said that these development partners include the USAID, DFID, World Bank, IMF, UNICEF among others. According to him, these partners often come through the Federal Government with zero interest packages and quite often they deal directly with the affected beneficiaries:
“They would come with their package. And they would say that we have so and so funds for disburse as aids or as soft loans. Mostly, they give it on zero percent interest. And then, they will ask you to also contribute certain amount of money. Some of these organizations they would come with the lists of states of their interest which they select for their own reasons. But mostly they go to the most prudent states.

“For instance, one of such projects that we have and is currently working in the state is the FADAWA project. In this FADAMA project, they come to assist our local farmers; they assist them in procuring fertilizers, with insecticides and new techniques of farming. They never gave their package to the government; they go directly and liaise with the farmer organizations.” He explained that it was these foreign packages that the new administration simply lumped together and presented to an unsuspecting public as foreign loans adding that the sums were given out not to the Kano State government but were dispatched directly to the beneficiary groups:
“Contrary to the impression that hotel bills may have been incurred on account of suggested irregular /unholy activities, Kano being a gateway of the Northern Region of Nigeria is automatically obliged to host a lot of guests from all walks of life and from all corners of the country.”

He volunteered a few examples of those who had enjoyed the hospitality of the state recently to include even top PDP members such as Vice President Namadi Sambo and his entourage, who on three occasions, were in the state, to broker peace among the members of the PDP.

Also listed in the guest lists include past and serving governors, ministers and top government functionaries, including their close family members who were either on their way to perform hajj or on their way back from hajj.
Other recent cases of visitors were members of the Senate that did a week long seminar in the state, the receptions ceremonies in honor of the indigenes of the state, who were either appointed or retired from service, Prefects from Niger Republic visiting the state, a number of AGMs of all the different certified national associations that had visited the state, among others.

-Sunwp_posts

Short URL: https://newnigerianpolitics.com/?p=9379

Posted by admin on Jun 9 2011. Filed under Headlines, Kano, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry