Interview (4)
By dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kwankwaso
My readers may recall that in my interview with Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, the former governor of Kaduna State, he was sincere enough to acknowledge that performance among governors did not end with the PRP governors of the Second Republic. If properly searched for, he said, it is possible to find "even as we speak now in 2012" some governors who are performing equally well.
I did not press him to mention any. However, from my observation, I can suggest two here in Northern Nigeria: Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Governor Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State. Not coincidentally, the two PDP governors are both scions of the old PRP. I have four yeas ago written a page on Lamido when I crowned him my best governor of 2008. But where Kwankwaso may excel is that in addition to his spectacular performance in the last one year, which I have studied in the past two weeks while in Kano, is his wholesale subscription to the talakawa doctrine of Malam Aminu Kano. His austere lifestyle and approach to governance, his financial prudence and his pro-poor oriented programs, all combine to make him in the eye of the dispassionate a faithful disciple of Malam Aminu Kano and a rare gem among Nigerian governors.
We should be large-hearted to give honour to whom honour is due, whoever it may be. For me, it is a duty, especially in these days when all hope seems to be lost. I have seen a lot in Kano and prepared materials which I will avail my readers with shortly. The materials are a must read, not withstanding their number and lengths, especially for our youths who have turned despondent. Reading them will help to rescue the youths from the disturbing grip of pessimism, narrow-mindedness and political intolerance that have become commonplace in Nigeria today.
However, as a start, I think it is suitable to open the gate with an interview that Newswatch and I held with the governor at midnight on Tuesday, 13 June 2012, in his office. The questions, except the last, were asked by Mr. Kayode of Newswatch. In the interview, the governor speaks of his achievements eepecially in the area of education and poverty alleviation, why he brands every project with the "kwankwasiyya" mark, how he lost the 2003 election, why he has not probed his predecessor (yet?), his tight grip on the finances of the state, why he does not have the office of the first lady, how he saves much to execute projects, his disapproval of security vote, the next governor he wishes Kano would have, the present security situation, the ideological contradictions in the composition of PDP, and why Kano recovered so quickly from the 21st January attacks. Happy reading.
The Interview:
Question: what can you say ae your achievements in the last one year?
Kwankwaso: In the last one year so much has been achieved. We are happy that we didn’t disappoint our people. You can see our achievements in various areas. For lack of time, I will, as an example, briefly dwell on some of the achievemnts we have recorded in education.
We decided to put education as our number one program on our agenda because its critical in transforming the lives of people. During our first term, in the area of primary education, by the grace of God, we were able to build thousands of classrooms in Kano, feed our primary pupils lunch five times a week, give them two sets of uniforms, etc. we are still maintaining those important programs.
In addition to that we have our Community Reorientation Committee (CRC) in all the forty-four local government areas of the state and the supervisory committee at the state level that carry out renovations of old structures and conducts the school programs I just mentioned. In each local government, the CRC is composed of our "best eleven": the district head, chief Imam, local government chairman, chairmen of PDP and the second best party in the last election, member of House of representative in the constituency, a representative each of National Union of Teachers, youths, women, businessmen and elders. You must have seen our one-storey building across the state – the Kwankwasiyya blocks of classrooms. Over 800 classes are completed in the first one year, 400 offices, 400 toilets, furtniture, etc.
By the way, the CRC also runs programs on poverty alleviation in which we support our youths and women. We have trained 44,000 women and supported each with a N10,000.00, free. The training of another 44,000 is going on at the rate of 100 per local government weekly. Youths are also trained on animal traction and given a loan of N150,000.00 to cover the cost of bulls and plough. The Lafiya Jari program is also on, where we have trainEd 1,200 unemployed of from different health institutions on the basics of commerce and give them a loan of N80,000.00 each to open small medicine shops in rural areas and neighborhoods.
In the area of secondary education, you must have visited the newly established Governor’s College. We have three other similar schools. We have improved the feeding of pupils in all our boarding schools. We are paying teachers and other civil servants by the 25th of every month, including the payment of the minimum wage of N18,000.00 that started last January.
In addition to our existing 10 tertiary institutions, we are establishing additional 28 institutes – ranging from nursing school, midwifery, health technology, fisheries institute, livestock institute, agric mechanization institute, horticultural institute, sports institute, Kano Corporate Security Institute, Kano Informatics, etc. Some of these institutes have already started on temporary sites.
We have earlier established Kano State University of Technology during our first term. Now we are establishing the Northwest University, which is a conventional university instead of KSUT that is limited to technology based courses. As the name implies the new university will cater for the six northwestern states. Of course, Kano is shouldering 100% of the responsibility now but at the appropriate time we will link up with our colleagues in other states in the zone to see how we can work together on the project. We are building its permanent site already and have advertised for staff positions including those of its principal officers.it will take off this September. Having noticed that we will have delays due to the civil works, we will use the Ado Bayero House as our temporary site while we are working day and night on the permanent site.
Our investment in education is based on the belief that it helps break the vicious circle of poverty. If you are educated, you can cater for yourself, either in this country or elsewhere. Additionally, we believe it is in the best interest of this country. You cannot have two countries in one: one very educated, the other very illiterate. Then there would be danger. We felt we should narrow the gap, create opportunities so that we can move together. This is very important for the security of our country. At this juncture, I would like to appeal to all those concerned, especially those that are rich enough to establish private institutions especially in the North. I also appeal to those of us in government to give education a priority.
Question: Why do your projects bear Kwankwasiyya mark? Some people think you are personalizing them.
Kwankwaso: When people make such remarks, they are either not aware of our intention or they are our opponents in the first place. We are not the first to brand any project. Why are they not talking of ETF? In addition, PTF stopped in 1999 but its signs are still there. Why are they not talking of MDG whose signs are everywhere. Our action is based on experience. During my first term, I can’t remember one classroom that was marked to indicate that it was done by my administration. Some governors are naming institutions after themselves or locating them in their villages or local governments. We didn’t do that before; we are not doing it even now.
You see some people had the opportunity to perform for eight years. They didn’t do anything other than pick our projects and use them in their calendars. It was very painful. I was in the Ministry of Defence when I saw a calendar carrying projects that I suffered in various ways to execute during my first tenure. That is why when we came back, we said, “Okay. Now we are moving with supersonic speed in the execution of our projects. How do we mark them to enable people know? If MDG and ETF are doing it now, if you have Ahmadu Bello University – and remember I haven’t named the new university Rabiu Kwankwaso University – why not us?
This is politics. You have blow your trumpet. I have learnt that the hard way. We have inherited a project of 1000 classrooms from the former administration that it started since 2008. Yet, only a third of the money was paid. So two-thirds are abandoned. I have asked them to bring the estimates. We will complete them, now that we have made our marks. If I didn’t write Kwankwasiyya on mine, you would have thought that we are still on the drawing table, that our predecessors constructed the buildings.
We are not ashamed to mark the building we constructed. We would only be ashamed were we stealing projects. Now in one year alone, we have built 800 primary school classrooms, 400 offices for teachers, the same number of pit latrines, etc. We have bought equipment worth hundreds of millions of naira for our tertiary institutions. Teachers in these institutes were not even paid salaries because some people were stealing the money. We will not allow anybody to steal. If anyone steals and we catch him, we will punish him. So we will have enough money to execute our projects. We have 28 institutions of various kinds taking off as I said initially. But we will mark them as we build them such that people would know. It is no secret.
Someone would say, “Well, if someone comes, he will scrub it.” Well, if someone comes he can even use a bulldozer to demolish the building. But if he has the time to say he doesn’t like it, why wouldn’t he build his own and write his name? If he is handamiyya – people who steal public money – he should write it. We have seen some buses marked, “donated by so and so.” We did not stop them. If we execute a project, we will mark it such that at least for the next three years people will know that we executed them.
Question: After you left office in 2003, your predecessor probed you and issued a white paper that sought to ban you from holding public office. Why haven’t you chosen to probe your predecessor in return?
Kwankwaso: It is because of our experience. When I was leaving this office in 2003, it was unimaginable that I would return here. The chances were slim. May be, I came back because of the white paper. As they were doing it, I continued moving. I became the Minister of Defence, the adviser to the President, then to NNDC. Obsanjo told them, “You can go and probe. But bring a proof to me that my minister has stolen money. There wasn’t any.” Anybody can ask your enemies to write anything about you and receive it over a cup of tea.
In 2003, I didn’t contest election with them. I contested with Buhari because presidential and gubernatorial elections were held same day for the first and only time in the history of this country. Sentiments were built based on ethnicity and religion such that the political atmosphere was so hazy that people weren’t reasoning well. People were told that if you vote for a religious man, you would all go to heaven. As time went, people saw that these people were drinking SWAN water, building estates when they didn’t have even a plot before, and so on. Their eyes were therefore shined.
I am happy to say that we were able to manage success in 1999 and failure in 2003. When we lost elections in 2003 for whatever reason, I went to the house (of the new governor), in his sitting room, the first and only time in the history of Nigeria and said, “Congratulations! We will support you because this is Kano. If you fail, Kano fails.”
I believed then and now that if performance were the only requirement for winning a second term, I would have won then even if it were among few governors in Nigeria. I knew that in addition to performance, there are many other things. The good thing is if you build schools, as we do now, people will benefit; if you bring in water, people will use it; if you build roads, people will use them. You can criticize that we are writing names on the buildings but your children will go and use the buildings while those who have stolen your money are sending their children overseas.
You see, Kwankwasiyya is an ideology and you can see the result. Go and see how our streets are clean and lit in the night. This is not how we inherited them in 2011. Look at the four major roads that lead into Kano. Additional lanes are added to them, with shoulders, drainages and walkways. Even on the old roads, we are putting interlocking blocks for pedestrians. We are working, day and night.
So I believe it is always good to be responsible, reasonable and mean well to people. That is why I am not in a hurry to probe anybody. Give them the benefit of the doubt. But I know if you build around you so many deep wells and you continue to move around them recklessly, one day you are likely to fall into one. People will reap what they sow. That is my position.
Question: Despite meeting an empty treasury last year, you were able to execute so many projects. Yet, you have not borrowed a kobo from any bank, local or international. What is the secret behind this success?
Kwankwaso: It is the policy of our government, even during the first term, not to borrow a kobo. And when we were leaving, we left behind N4 billion cash in our treasury despite all what we did. So the same thing when we came back, we inherited a debt of over N77billion and over US$200million. But we haven’t paid, and we are not in a hurry to pay. We just said, “Draw a line. I don’t want to open any can of worms. Let me prove to the people that yes, Kwankwaso is back. I don’t want to hear N77billion or $200million. Let's move." And we are moving.
What we did was to introduce checks and balances. I was a civil servant here for seventeen years. As a result, most of the civil servants – especially the senior ones – were my colleagues in school and in the service. Mind you I am also a pensioner though I forewent my pension since I retired in 1991 as a principal engineer. So we know the level of wastages that exists and saved so much from the angle of the civil service. We inherited 43,000 civil servants. Along the line, based on our measures, we removed over 8,000 ghost workers. These were people who were practically getting money for nothing. We met a law that said we should pay civil servants certain percentage of their salary for fasting and purchase of rams, etc. We paid for the first sallah. But by the time the second came, we realized from the files that there were so many problems. Now we would have paid 8,000 ghost workers 50% of their salary. We are now trying to sort out things and pay the civil servants. Our target is the ghost worker, not the real workers that are messengers, permanent secretaries or directors.
On the part of the politicians – myself downwards: advisers, commissioners, SSG, Chief of Staff, everybody, we said, “Look. Let us not start dipping our fingers into government money. It is neither good for us, nor is it for the society. There are people outside there who have also supported us but who are battling with what they would eat daily. Many of them may sleep on empty stomach.” You see, if I take 10 million, for example, it may appear small to me but it can do a lot in terms of education, health, water supply, or even in maintaining street and traffic lights. We started from there.
Between 2003 and 2011, so many things in the cost of running government have been inflated, like overheads and so on. So we said, "let's return to where we were in 2003. That is the one we know. Let us revert to that in terms of recurrent expenditure." I said that if they have any complaint, they should refer to me.
My commissioners and advisers wanted vehicles. I asked the SSG to estimate the cost. It was over N2billion. I said, “No. Use the old vehicles we inherited.” At the Ministry of Defence, I used the only two vehicles that I inherited from TY Danjuma. On many occasions, the 607 would fail on the road. There is nothing wrong with that.
Now we can go on and on. So we not only saved so much money there but we also sent the right signal. Despite what we were executing in terms of projects, from N77billion debt in May when we took over, by January this year when we were opening our books we had over N20.5billion cash. I still believe that up till now we have a similar figure. Commissioners now have to defend their budget by proving value for money. No commissioner was ever declined any request because we don’t have money. We return him only because he hasn’t followed due process or because it is too expensive at that rate. We told them that this government is a serious one. There is no room for anybody – from the highest level to the lowest one – to break the law. You have to abide by it. If you break it, we will put the maximum weight of the law on you. That is why so much is happening in all areas, so much so that nobody, including my humble self, can tell you how much we have done in the past one year.
What is critical is that we have confidence of the people. One thing good is that the people of Kano are law-abiding people. They want to see you lead by example. You don’t, as their leader, say one thing and do the other: You swear by Allah but everybody knows you are telling lies. If you do that, people won’t take you seriously. If you tell them don’t do something, they will go and do it.
On internally generated revenue, the state was generating only between N300million and N500 million when we came in. We believe that everybody must pay tax. If you have enough, even if you’re not paying zakat, you have to pay tax. By December, we were getting over up to N1.2billion. My target, despite the security challenges, is to have enough money to pay salaries and allowances. We are making progress. I wouldn’t need to get money from Abuja to pay salaries. If we cannot pay civil servants and ourselves, then there is something wrong with us. People have to pay. That is why I asked the commissioner of land to assess my ground rent. It now enables me the moral locus to ask others to pay theirs. No matter how big you consider yourself, you are small if you cannot pay your tax. Nobody is perfect. But as far as we can, we want to do the right thing.
Question: Could it be why you jettisoned your security vote?
Kwankwaso: Now, the same thing applies to security vote. I told people that governments are using it to siphon away resources. We have seen records here that, apart from N70million, N80million and so on – in one day N127million was withdrawn as security vote. That was the highest. Since a governor cannot give an approval of more than N10 million, the money was removed in twelve installments of N10million each, plus N7million. (Here, Kwankwaso adjusted his red cap and gave a sardonic smile.) In four years, billions were thus withdrawn in the name of security vote.
So the way we are handling it here is to account for everything. If you come as a big man and I want to dash you N10.00 from my pocket, I give it to you. If I would give you N10,000.00 from public money, I will give it but it will be on record. So if you like it that way, take it; and if you don’t, leave it. That is important. If I want to give money to the police or army – and we give them very little despite the security situation – we write it. We even arrange for their feeding and allowances in addition to what they get from the federal government. Now, what I give the contractors for the feeding is there on record, for example. In addition to that, we follow up. I go there sometimes to count the bread and the cans of fish they are given, just to make the contractor understand that he is not left alone.
I believe that governors, as much as possible, should avoid the issue of security vote. You know mischief-makers used it against me in the white paper. I used N97million as security vote for the 2003 elections. The record is there. I gave N2million to the security committee of each local government. The panel summoned each of the chairmen of those committees and none of them disputed that I gave him the money. They explained how they used it and nobody said he gave me even N2.00.
Question: Has the present security situation affected governance in your state with effect from January this year?
Kwankwaso: Every leadership, throughout history, has faced its own version of challenges. There is none that is not facing one form of security threat or another. We can put it on scale and measure it. Southeast has its own challenges; so does the south-south or southwest. Come to the north, you find the same thing. Of course, you when you weigh them you can say this one is heavier, the other lighter. If you’re in the area where people are kidnapped and your father is kidnapped, you wont believe that Jos is less secured than your place. So it is an issue of how it affects you.
Coming to the issue of how it affects us, you see we didn’t know the security challenges that will face us when we came in last year, just as we didn’t know the ones we would face when we were elected in 1999. From then to 2003, you find Hausas were killed in Lagos. The issue of shariah also came up. I didn’t campaign for it. I didn’t even thought about it in 1999. But it became a serious issue and it cost me even my seat at that time because the sentiments were too much: Obasanjo was our candidate, Buhari was their candidate, so went the sentiments. They blocked roads to polling booths and demanded which of the two voters were going to vote for – mosque or church? If you do the same in Port Harcourt, the persovoter which one he is going to vote for. It’s the same thing in Kano. So we didn’t lose election in 2003 for lack of performance or somebody was more popular than us. No. It was mere sentiments.
However, now, the dust has settled and things are clear. (Smile) By 2011, the young men and women we bred during our first tenure were 18. They were in charge of the polling booths. The women we empowered with a free capital of N5,000.00 – thousands of them – came out. The tertiary institutions and secondary schools we established or supported all came out and voted for us. We had no state government, no local governments, no contracts, and no money; yet, people voted for us and defended the votes. Some people wouldn’t imagine that it was this evil called Kwankwaso that was returning – the most hated Kwankwaso. All the promises of 2003 about Shariah were gone. Kano people, you know, are very smart, very fast.(Smiles) They can surprise you anytime. You can only deceive briefly. But the moment you start moving, they would say, “Ah. God don catch you.” That is why we have this challenge to prove ourselves.
The challenge of security is not peculiar to Kano. It is all over the country and the North in particular. We are working very hard. That is why whenever I have an opportunity like this, I appeal to all people, including all politicians, to join hands. When the attacks happened on 20th January we gathered people across parties, including the ANPP, businessmen, the Emir, the Chief Imam, everybody. We sat down and discussed what could be done. We have been meeting and we will continue to meet in the interest of the state, appealing to everybody to come forward and put the issues , if any, on the table. And if anybody wants us to facilitate anything – the federal government, anyone – we will be very happy to do so to make sure that there is fairness and justice. And unless there is justice from both sides, we will continue to have problems. The problem of security doesn’t help anybody.
Question: Due to time factor, I will put two questions in one. One, you are the only governor in this country that doesn’t have the office of the first lady. Two, when we look at the people in your cabinet, they are almost the same ones around during your first tenure, particularly your deputy. What is the secret behind this practice?
Kwankwaso: I am sure the position of first lady isn’t in the constitution. So, first things first. First of all, my wife is my wife – the wife to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; then, secondly, if you like, she is the wife to the Governor of Kano State.
You see everybody has his own way of doing things. I am not saying that what others are doing is wrong, but I don’t believe that others should think that my own is wrong. My wife doesn’t go to any ministry. I don’t allow commissioners to go to my wife. In any case, if my wife has the governor at her disposal anytime, why would she need a commissioner? "If you want anything in government, tell me," I told her. But she knows - and everybody knows - that I cannot steal anything in government and bring it to her. If there is anything genuine that everybody is entitled to, then she can also go for it.
To me creating an office of the first lady endangers the wife by exposing her to all sorts of risks – the inherent problems associated with politics, with leadership, etc. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you end up in one problem or the other. Also, if you have people who have not gone through the system – like our wives – they may create one problem or the other for themselves. Sometimes, if you cannot fell the tree, you go for the branches because they are very easy to cut and fell. That is why you should not give your enemies that opportunity. We have people who cannot come to terms with marking buildings with kwankwasiyya, what would they do if they catch my wife stealing public money?
On the issue of the deputy governor, I will say that he is someone I knew very well. We have worked together for long. The issue is you can throw away an object and buy another one. However, it it isn’t the same with human beings. We have only one Dr. Ganduje in Kano, in Nigeria and probably in the whole world. That is very important. If I have made the mistake of picking him as a deputy governor, that mistake was done in 1999. At that time I had the liberty to pick another person. But not now.
He became the deputy governor and we were there for four years. We went into election and lost. He was my SA in the ministry of defence. We had to keep on moving together. And these are the secrets that kept us strong. Friendship is based on mutual agreement between two people. A friend is the sort of thing that you choose willingly, unlike your father, mother or child. The deputy governor is committed to this friendship nd so are other people with whom we are working together.
The longest time I would remain here is three years. Now given the treacherous nature of politics, one has to train many people – not one, not two, not three – such that if anyone decides to defect, there would be others to continue with the struggle. That is why we continue to build up the team.
In fact, the way PDP was constituted doesn’t help matters. In 1998/99 we were just interested in the military leaving. So three groups – MDF and the two groups from PRP – formed the new party. There is no way we can go together. The ideologies are different.
Our ideology is now coming out. We are speaking about the poor, women, children and the sick. Many people don’t want to hear that. They are speaking of the interest of the big man. How much did you give him? What is his benefit? Which benefit? Let him go and sleep well. He has so much to eat, so much to enjoy. That is not to say he doesn’t benefit from our services. When you build road in the city, the poor doesn’t have the road. It belongs to the big man. That is why we put interlocking blocks on the side walkway so that the poor that sells garden egg or motar (turmi) can also walk or sit on a hard clean surface. The large part of the road is for the rich. If you are providing security, it is mainly for them. They have twenty taps in their houses; use twenty gallons to flush their toilet, while the poor would just use his small kettle to clean himself.
So our concern is that the poor should have the minimum requirements for life. It is based on our ideology, that of Aminu Kano. He wears this red cap, white cloth and black shoes. That is the colour of the PRP. Ours is red, white and black; if you like, you can use green in the shoe to represent the colour of the PDP.
That is the PDP by coincidence. But some in the party don’t believe in this. We are not fighting them but we can’t work together. In 1998/99, we were sharing positions amongst the three groups. When I became governor, many people didn’t want to recognize that life is dynamic. They kept on fighting, calling me “this boy.” I said, “Thank you very much. Yeah! This boy, the governor of Kano.” I am afraid that many of them will develop high blood pressure because they are not reconciling their thought with the decree of God.
And you see, people have to understand the dynamics of life; otherwise, they will get frustrated. If God has decreed that you will be xyz, you have to be and I have to prepare my mind to accept it. The least person I expected to come and inherit my seat was the one who came. God had decreed so. I was here. He was a permanent secretary. Now I see my deputy governor, commissioners and advisers. One of them may inherit this seat. I don’t know. The only thing is that I am training them. Everyday, I go out with my cane, if you like, and ask why is this so, why is that so? I just want anybody that would come here to be a competent person. It will be the biggest disservice to this state if I would see somebody come here who would once more allow what we have seen in the past eight years. We want strong and powerful people, those who agree with our philosophy.
Now we go out coloured to show everybody who we are. We are not ashamed of our identity. We are consistent in what we say and believe. That is why people believe whatever we promise to do. During the campaign, we study our facts before we mount the podium. When we said we will give women N10,000.00 support, some people were doubting it, wondering from where we would get the money. But already, within one year we have given it to 44,000 women and we will continue doing so until the last day we are leaving government.
What we want to do in Kano is to help people at the grassroots to start small businesses as we have seen in the emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, etc. That is how they started, not with mega things. If our resources are prudently managed, there is enough to help the poor in different sectors, ranging from health, to agriculture, education, everything. By the time December comes, we would be generating over N3billion. Aliko Dangote, as a demonstration of the confidence that people have in the prudence of this government, gave us N600 million to partially finance our poverty alleviation programs. Again, as we start the second batch now, he is giving us another N600million. So we are happy that people in different levels of society have confidence in us. Of course we have enemies. These are the ones talking about kwankwasiyya. And they are the very ones that motivated us to put the mark. And the more they shout, the more we put it.
Question: I have gone round and seen that Kano has bounced back within a short time. All shops are once more open unlike when I visited it three weeks after the 20th January attacks. People who left the city have returned. One can say that Borno and Yobe aren’t that lucky. They are practically paralysed to date. What is the secret behind this quick recovery?
Kwankwaso: Kano is a centre of commerce. People of Kano really love peace because they know that without peace there will be no business. When the attack of the 20th happened, people were shocked... We placed a 24 hour curfew. Later we reduced it to 18 hours, then 12 hours, and now 6 hours. We are considering ensuring that there is no curfew in Kano. When you came then you might have seen many checkpoints. As the situation is improving, we kept on reducing the number of checkpoints. Now we have few of them and each one is there for a reason. And very soon we will make sure that they are removed from our streets...
Security is the paramount responsibility of any government. And while people are working very hard to ensure that there is security in Kano, at the same time I am calling on everybody to come together and work with us in the interest of the state. This not withstanding, let me say at this juncture that Kano is the centre of knowledge also. We have people who are praying across the state 24 hours a day. In fact, that was why on 29 May instead of celebrating we went to the mosque to pray to Almighty Allah for peace not only in Kano but also throughout the country. The same thing took place in all local governments and wards in the state that day. And you know God is great. We are beginning to see peace coming back in Kano.
THE END
Bauchi,
16 June 2012
Showing posts with label Kwankwaso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kwankwaso. Show all posts
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Discourse 345: Kano Bounces Back from Coma
Discourse 345
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kano Bounces Back from Coma
Like a victim of a ghastly accident, Kano went into a coma last January when it recorded the most elaborate bomb attack yet in the country. The scale was as devastating as it was elaborate. Over 150 people were killed and hundreds injured that afternoon. The city was thrown into uncertainty about its future. Some felt it was its version of 9/11. Many feared it would go the line of the northeastern states of Yobe and Borno, where all activities remain in constant state of paralysis for more than one a half years. Few – and I was not one of them – entertained the hope that it would overcome the shock and not only forge ahead but also regain its vibrancy in the few months ahead.
That was the physical and mental states of Kano when I visited it last February for the first time after the bombings and before I continued on my tour of the bomb-affected areas of the North then. The old Kano of traffic jams at junctions, of two-million okadas polluting its air, of hundreds of thousands of richly packed shops, of several supermarkets that remain open until midnight, of seven million people each waking up every morning to one commercial activity or another, of clubs and cinemas, “of women and vehicles”, as Shata would put it, was pathetically absent.
The new Kano I met three weeks after the attack was totally strange. It was a patient in the intensive care unit. It was a Kano that very few traders would visit, of few opened shops, empty streets, scarce and difficult movement, checkpoint in every hundred meters, few commercial vehicles, and people trekking on its roads. There were no customers for the few shops that opened even in the large Sabongari market. Few Igbo traders remained after sending their families back to their hometowns in the East. At Kantin Kwari, there were no traders to buy the bulk textile materials. They hardly came. Those who came arrived late due to checkpoints, and leave early to avoid spending the night in their buses and trucks due to same reason. The market had to close at 4.00pm and the scamper for the few buses to convey people to their homes would immediately start. Many would start to trek. At the bus stop along the nearby Ibrahim Taiwo Road, I saw many men and women compete in joining the one or two buses that arrived after a long wait, some getting in through the booth, some through the window, and only few through the door because it was blocked by disembarking passengers. Life, with all the vastness of its space and time, was reduced to few hours and places .My heart appealed to my eyes for tears. I restrained them and allowed it only to share in the sorrow of the departing passengers. I took few snapshots of the scene of despair and confusion at the bus stop before starting to trek back to the hotel.
Back in my room, I sat down to review my experience of that day. My mind remembered Uzair, the prophet who once passed by the ruins of an ancient city and wondered, asking, “How long would it take God to revive this city after its death.” The same question readily came to me: how long would it take the city of Kano to regain its normalcy? And would that path be littered with blood, rape, arson, summary executions and other human right abuses that characterized the path of Maiduguri? How long would the distress last?
The following day, I gave my advice to the authorities before I headed for the epicenter of the crisis, the two states in former Borno State. My experience there made me pray that Kano be spared from the pain and horror of their unending trauma.
Less than six months after the first attack, God in his mercy seems to have answered our prayer. As I now sit in the hotel to write this article, I can hear that the noise of the old city has returned, including that of a train that is filling the air with its siren. In the past one week I have been in the city, I have seen almost everything return to normal except for those things that would require time to heal. I have gone round in the mornings to witness children going to school like it was before and just as in other cities. All schools are open. I have witnessed vehicles take over the streets at dawn and continue to build up their presence as the days grow. Throughout the town, I have seen shops open – all shops, except those that are near police stations. At the peak of activity, I have visited the Sabongari and Kantin Kwari markets, as well as the numerous Igbo spare part shops in the neighbourhood of Ibadan Street. I could breathe freedom and calm in the surrounding atmosphere.
I interviewed a number of traders, each of whom expressed delight at how quick the recovery took place. In particular, I met the family of Ugochukwu, the satellite parts dealer, in his shop. His daughter, Chidimma, told me that they returned to Anambra after the January bombings. Now they are back. With little reservation, she agreed that there is little to worry about now, except that business is still not as much as it was before the bombings. At France Road where last February I listened to traders complaining about the closure of their shops in the whole segment of the dual carriage street where a police station is located, I found all shops opened, though traffic is still controlled on the side of the station.
“We are happy that traffic now flows freely, unlike before”, said Auwalu, a dealer of ceramic plates and other kitchen wares at Sabongari market, when I interviewed him. “Our only remaining problem is the 6.00pm ban on motorcycles”, he complained. Though he corroborated Chidimma’s assessment that business has not fully returned, he nevertheless expressed delight that it is picking up, especially from the past one month. “Auwalu”, I tried to remind him, “when you wake up from illness, it takes time to fully recover your apetite and vigor. Let us hope that the trend continues and very soon you will see your customers return fully.”
Across the road and on the recently rehabilitated overhead pedestrian bridge, I took the photographs of the mass of people below who were preoccupied with their businesses on both sides of Murtala Mohammed Way. I took the steps down and as I walked up Bello Road, I found myself greeted by hundreds of small and large trucks, each loading bulk household items like flour, biscuits, soaps, etc. This is the centre of bulk commerce in Kano. On the eastern side of Ado Bayero Street that cuts across Bello Road, I found trucks of Alhaji Harisu and other traders from Niger Republic that come to Kano for trade every Saturday and Tuesday. “Are things okay now, Alhaji,” I asked him. “Wallahi”, he replied, “we are grateful to God. Things have normalized and all my colleagues have resumed their weekly trips.”
I took Ado Bayero Street to Kantin Kwari. It was a fascinating scene. Kano is really great. Sometimes I just wonder how these traders, most of whom we deride as ‘illiterates’, successfully coordinate their transactions hitch free so much so that we take for granted the availability of the little items they provide in our neighbourhoods. If we the elite had shown similar commitment in our various offices, this country would have been great. On that street, all shops were opened and everybody was consumed in business.
At its southern end, the street ushered me into Ibrahim Taiwo Road, which I crossed to embrace the famous Kantin Kwari market. The spectacular sight of thousands of shops stocked with wrappers and other textile materials was just overwhelming. This is the lake that would quench the thirst of every Nigerian girl interested in traditional dress. I doubt if a better collection of wrappers and brocades would be found anywhere in the world. As I walked on one of its lines, a voice shouted at me, “Stop Malam.” I turned back to notice a familiar face. It was Hamisu, my guest when I visited the market in February. He asked me: “Wasn’t it here where you stopped some months ago, bought us oranges and asked us some questions? You were holding the same camera.” I nodded. We chatted for a while and I asked him about the position of trade now. Hamisu sounded pessimistic. “Still, things are not back to where they were”, he said. I concurred, but persuaded him to appreciate the development: “But there aren’t those many checkpoints you were complaining about the other time, neither is the curfew now 4.00pm. In fact, except for motorcycles, you can now stay outside until midnight.” He agreed, but, again, he was quick to express how the limitation on motorcycles hampers the activities of small traders. He said, “Not all of us have cars. Every major trader has boys who travel by bike. So once it is time, they have to close shop and head for home before it is too late. Wallahi, once it is six you would find it difficult to ride your bike in some areas beyond the major roads. I wish the ban (doka) will be shifted to say 8.00pm.”
That evening, I went out to see how the city looks like at night. From Suleiman Crescent, I left to visit a friend at New Site, Bayero University. I noticed a congestion of traffic along Post Office Road. “That is always how it is because of the ban on motorcycles once it is six,” said Muhammadu Auwalu that I found selling engine oil by the roadside. I made the mistake of passing through the Emirs palace where the checkpoint also creates another jam at dusk. As I drove up towards Kabuga, I realized that there were more roadblocks in the city at night. During the day, however, they are reduced to the barest minimum. If you were to enter the town from Hadejia, you will meet only one check point from the first roundabout you hit on the eastern ring road up to Kofar Nassarwa. That would be the one on Ahmadu Bello Way, just after the railway crossing. And if you were to go straight through Murtala Mohammed Way, until you reach Babban Titi after Rijiyar Lemo, which is like traversing the entire city, you would not find a single checkpoint during the daytime. This is a tremendous relief. At night, one would meet several such checkpoints.
I arrived at New Site, stayed there late, and returned to the hotel just before 11.00pm midnight. I wanted to assess the city by the traffic on its streets that late. On my way back, I admired the bright traffic lights that illuminated my path immediately I reached Kabuga Gate and all the way back to the hotel through BUK road. Many motorists could still be seen on the streets.
The night, if I will summarize it, has almost normalized. Large supermarkets and restaurants now open until late, as it was the case before the bombings. I often take my dinner late at Sultan Restaurant along Sani Abacha Way. The atmosphere in the sleeping hours of the night is peaceful. I am only awakened every morning by the call of the dawn prayer from the nearby mosque of Sheikh Ameenuddeen Abubakar.
In all, one has every cause to rejoice. The patient is discharged, though he is still under observation. It will be wrong to think that all is okay and the crisis is over. Though there are still complaints about harassment of citizens by security personnel at checkpoints and about the ban on motorcycles after six as my various guests have pointed out, there is a lot of difference between how government has handled the security situation in Kano from that of other areas. Elders, like the Emir of Kano, have spoken on a number of occasions on such abuses. The state government too has not let the work of the Joint Task Force to paralyze the state. The removal of most of the checkpoints as well as withdrawal of the curfew has contributed in no small measure in stabilizing the situation and give citizens of the city a sense of relief. This may not apply to Maiduguri and Damaturu. There too, elders have spoken but it may be a different situation all together.
Despite expressing this reservation, when all is taken into consideration and the situation is assessed dispassionately, we cannot fail to commend the people of Kano for the courage with which they have faced the challenge. They did not shrink into their shell, like snails in face of danger. They have endured, as I appealed to them in the concluding words of my article, “Weep not, Kano. Be Innovative.” The city might have wept in the moment of the attack – as the Capliph Abbad of Seville wept when his forces were once defeated at Cordova – but it has not allowed the tears to last long. Truly, the great endures great calamities.
Also, the innovation I expected might have come from both the state and federal governments. We may never know the secret. What is however certain is that the treatment they applied to Kano appears to be more effective than the one they gave other cities afflicted by the same plague. Did the two differed in kind or regime, or in both?
As I was editing this article, I received an invitation to interview the state governor along with a team from Newswatch magazine. I asked him what is the secret behind the fast recovery of life in the city. And he modestly answered:
"Kano is a centre of commerce. People of Kano really love peace because they know that without peace there will be no business. When the attack of the 20th happened, people were shocked... We placed a 24 hour curfew. Later we reduced it to 18 hours, then 12 hours, and now 6 hours. We are considering ensuring that there is no curfew in Kano. When you came then you might have seen many checkpoints. As the situation is improving, we kept on reducing the number of checkpoints. Now we have few of them and each one is there for a reason. And very soon we will make sure that they are removed from our streets... Security is the paramount responsibility of any government. And while people are working very hard to ensure that there is security in Kano, at the same time I am calling on everybody to come together and work with us in the interest of the state. This not withstanding, let me say at this juncture that Kano is the centre of knowledge also. We have people who are praying across the state 24 hours a day. In fact, that was why on 29 May instead of celebrating we went to the mosque to pray to Almighty Allah for peace not only in Kano but also throughout the country. The same thing took place in all local governments and wards in the state that day. And you know God is great. We are beginning to see peace coming back in Kano."
From the modesty of the governor we will now express the caution of his predecessor. I posed the question to Malam Ibrahim Shekarau two days ago at his Mundubawa residence when I asked him to evaluate the performance of Governor Kwankwaso in the past one year. “Your Excellency," I asked him, "don’t you think that your successor and the federal government deserve some commendation on how they handled the security situation in the state?” His reply was both honest and cautious:
“Well, I commend the effort of both governments – state and federal – particularly the security agencies for being up and doing in terms of trying to restore peace. But I am sure if you crosscheck, you will find that the one day bombing was one big thing that happened at a time and attracted attention. Naturally, that would send the people underground but thereafter the threats have been on. It is almost a daily affair now. There is hardly any forty-eight hours in Kano without you getting a report of some shootings here and there, some people attempting to bomb one place or the other, or police finding a bomb about to detonate, and so on. So the scare is still there. The tension is very much around and people are still completely not at ease.”
True. The shootings and the bombs may not be over. Nobody ever claimed they are. As I write this paragraph, by coincidence, some shootings are reported at FGC Kano. Yet, like other citizens of Kano, I look forward to the day soon when this tension would disappear and that ease would return. Meanwhile, the city, I believe, has bounced back, with its streets free, its markets open and all its traders back to their shops. It should continue to trust in God and remain vigilant. The chance of relapse is always there hanging over patients that suffer such severe strokes. The doctors must not relent in observing the patient. Slowly, he may be completely relieved of his condition, we pray. And may God answer our prayer.
Kano,
11 June 2012
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kano Bounces Back from Coma
Like a victim of a ghastly accident, Kano went into a coma last January when it recorded the most elaborate bomb attack yet in the country. The scale was as devastating as it was elaborate. Over 150 people were killed and hundreds injured that afternoon. The city was thrown into uncertainty about its future. Some felt it was its version of 9/11. Many feared it would go the line of the northeastern states of Yobe and Borno, where all activities remain in constant state of paralysis for more than one a half years. Few – and I was not one of them – entertained the hope that it would overcome the shock and not only forge ahead but also regain its vibrancy in the few months ahead.
That was the physical and mental states of Kano when I visited it last February for the first time after the bombings and before I continued on my tour of the bomb-affected areas of the North then. The old Kano of traffic jams at junctions, of two-million okadas polluting its air, of hundreds of thousands of richly packed shops, of several supermarkets that remain open until midnight, of seven million people each waking up every morning to one commercial activity or another, of clubs and cinemas, “of women and vehicles”, as Shata would put it, was pathetically absent.
The new Kano I met three weeks after the attack was totally strange. It was a patient in the intensive care unit. It was a Kano that very few traders would visit, of few opened shops, empty streets, scarce and difficult movement, checkpoint in every hundred meters, few commercial vehicles, and people trekking on its roads. There were no customers for the few shops that opened even in the large Sabongari market. Few Igbo traders remained after sending their families back to their hometowns in the East. At Kantin Kwari, there were no traders to buy the bulk textile materials. They hardly came. Those who came arrived late due to checkpoints, and leave early to avoid spending the night in their buses and trucks due to same reason. The market had to close at 4.00pm and the scamper for the few buses to convey people to their homes would immediately start. Many would start to trek. At the bus stop along the nearby Ibrahim Taiwo Road, I saw many men and women compete in joining the one or two buses that arrived after a long wait, some getting in through the booth, some through the window, and only few through the door because it was blocked by disembarking passengers. Life, with all the vastness of its space and time, was reduced to few hours and places .My heart appealed to my eyes for tears. I restrained them and allowed it only to share in the sorrow of the departing passengers. I took few snapshots of the scene of despair and confusion at the bus stop before starting to trek back to the hotel.
Back in my room, I sat down to review my experience of that day. My mind remembered Uzair, the prophet who once passed by the ruins of an ancient city and wondered, asking, “How long would it take God to revive this city after its death.” The same question readily came to me: how long would it take the city of Kano to regain its normalcy? And would that path be littered with blood, rape, arson, summary executions and other human right abuses that characterized the path of Maiduguri? How long would the distress last?
The following day, I gave my advice to the authorities before I headed for the epicenter of the crisis, the two states in former Borno State. My experience there made me pray that Kano be spared from the pain and horror of their unending trauma.
Less than six months after the first attack, God in his mercy seems to have answered our prayer. As I now sit in the hotel to write this article, I can hear that the noise of the old city has returned, including that of a train that is filling the air with its siren. In the past one week I have been in the city, I have seen almost everything return to normal except for those things that would require time to heal. I have gone round in the mornings to witness children going to school like it was before and just as in other cities. All schools are open. I have witnessed vehicles take over the streets at dawn and continue to build up their presence as the days grow. Throughout the town, I have seen shops open – all shops, except those that are near police stations. At the peak of activity, I have visited the Sabongari and Kantin Kwari markets, as well as the numerous Igbo spare part shops in the neighbourhood of Ibadan Street. I could breathe freedom and calm in the surrounding atmosphere.
I interviewed a number of traders, each of whom expressed delight at how quick the recovery took place. In particular, I met the family of Ugochukwu, the satellite parts dealer, in his shop. His daughter, Chidimma, told me that they returned to Anambra after the January bombings. Now they are back. With little reservation, she agreed that there is little to worry about now, except that business is still not as much as it was before the bombings. At France Road where last February I listened to traders complaining about the closure of their shops in the whole segment of the dual carriage street where a police station is located, I found all shops opened, though traffic is still controlled on the side of the station.
“We are happy that traffic now flows freely, unlike before”, said Auwalu, a dealer of ceramic plates and other kitchen wares at Sabongari market, when I interviewed him. “Our only remaining problem is the 6.00pm ban on motorcycles”, he complained. Though he corroborated Chidimma’s assessment that business has not fully returned, he nevertheless expressed delight that it is picking up, especially from the past one month. “Auwalu”, I tried to remind him, “when you wake up from illness, it takes time to fully recover your apetite and vigor. Let us hope that the trend continues and very soon you will see your customers return fully.”
Across the road and on the recently rehabilitated overhead pedestrian bridge, I took the photographs of the mass of people below who were preoccupied with their businesses on both sides of Murtala Mohammed Way. I took the steps down and as I walked up Bello Road, I found myself greeted by hundreds of small and large trucks, each loading bulk household items like flour, biscuits, soaps, etc. This is the centre of bulk commerce in Kano. On the eastern side of Ado Bayero Street that cuts across Bello Road, I found trucks of Alhaji Harisu and other traders from Niger Republic that come to Kano for trade every Saturday and Tuesday. “Are things okay now, Alhaji,” I asked him. “Wallahi”, he replied, “we are grateful to God. Things have normalized and all my colleagues have resumed their weekly trips.”
I took Ado Bayero Street to Kantin Kwari. It was a fascinating scene. Kano is really great. Sometimes I just wonder how these traders, most of whom we deride as ‘illiterates’, successfully coordinate their transactions hitch free so much so that we take for granted the availability of the little items they provide in our neighbourhoods. If we the elite had shown similar commitment in our various offices, this country would have been great. On that street, all shops were opened and everybody was consumed in business.
At its southern end, the street ushered me into Ibrahim Taiwo Road, which I crossed to embrace the famous Kantin Kwari market. The spectacular sight of thousands of shops stocked with wrappers and other textile materials was just overwhelming. This is the lake that would quench the thirst of every Nigerian girl interested in traditional dress. I doubt if a better collection of wrappers and brocades would be found anywhere in the world. As I walked on one of its lines, a voice shouted at me, “Stop Malam.” I turned back to notice a familiar face. It was Hamisu, my guest when I visited the market in February. He asked me: “Wasn’t it here where you stopped some months ago, bought us oranges and asked us some questions? You were holding the same camera.” I nodded. We chatted for a while and I asked him about the position of trade now. Hamisu sounded pessimistic. “Still, things are not back to where they were”, he said. I concurred, but persuaded him to appreciate the development: “But there aren’t those many checkpoints you were complaining about the other time, neither is the curfew now 4.00pm. In fact, except for motorcycles, you can now stay outside until midnight.” He agreed, but, again, he was quick to express how the limitation on motorcycles hampers the activities of small traders. He said, “Not all of us have cars. Every major trader has boys who travel by bike. So once it is time, they have to close shop and head for home before it is too late. Wallahi, once it is six you would find it difficult to ride your bike in some areas beyond the major roads. I wish the ban (doka) will be shifted to say 8.00pm.”
That evening, I went out to see how the city looks like at night. From Suleiman Crescent, I left to visit a friend at New Site, Bayero University. I noticed a congestion of traffic along Post Office Road. “That is always how it is because of the ban on motorcycles once it is six,” said Muhammadu Auwalu that I found selling engine oil by the roadside. I made the mistake of passing through the Emirs palace where the checkpoint also creates another jam at dusk. As I drove up towards Kabuga, I realized that there were more roadblocks in the city at night. During the day, however, they are reduced to the barest minimum. If you were to enter the town from Hadejia, you will meet only one check point from the first roundabout you hit on the eastern ring road up to Kofar Nassarwa. That would be the one on Ahmadu Bello Way, just after the railway crossing. And if you were to go straight through Murtala Mohammed Way, until you reach Babban Titi after Rijiyar Lemo, which is like traversing the entire city, you would not find a single checkpoint during the daytime. This is a tremendous relief. At night, one would meet several such checkpoints.
I arrived at New Site, stayed there late, and returned to the hotel just before 11.00pm midnight. I wanted to assess the city by the traffic on its streets that late. On my way back, I admired the bright traffic lights that illuminated my path immediately I reached Kabuga Gate and all the way back to the hotel through BUK road. Many motorists could still be seen on the streets.
The night, if I will summarize it, has almost normalized. Large supermarkets and restaurants now open until late, as it was the case before the bombings. I often take my dinner late at Sultan Restaurant along Sani Abacha Way. The atmosphere in the sleeping hours of the night is peaceful. I am only awakened every morning by the call of the dawn prayer from the nearby mosque of Sheikh Ameenuddeen Abubakar.
In all, one has every cause to rejoice. The patient is discharged, though he is still under observation. It will be wrong to think that all is okay and the crisis is over. Though there are still complaints about harassment of citizens by security personnel at checkpoints and about the ban on motorcycles after six as my various guests have pointed out, there is a lot of difference between how government has handled the security situation in Kano from that of other areas. Elders, like the Emir of Kano, have spoken on a number of occasions on such abuses. The state government too has not let the work of the Joint Task Force to paralyze the state. The removal of most of the checkpoints as well as withdrawal of the curfew has contributed in no small measure in stabilizing the situation and give citizens of the city a sense of relief. This may not apply to Maiduguri and Damaturu. There too, elders have spoken but it may be a different situation all together.
Despite expressing this reservation, when all is taken into consideration and the situation is assessed dispassionately, we cannot fail to commend the people of Kano for the courage with which they have faced the challenge. They did not shrink into their shell, like snails in face of danger. They have endured, as I appealed to them in the concluding words of my article, “Weep not, Kano. Be Innovative.” The city might have wept in the moment of the attack – as the Capliph Abbad of Seville wept when his forces were once defeated at Cordova – but it has not allowed the tears to last long. Truly, the great endures great calamities.
Also, the innovation I expected might have come from both the state and federal governments. We may never know the secret. What is however certain is that the treatment they applied to Kano appears to be more effective than the one they gave other cities afflicted by the same plague. Did the two differed in kind or regime, or in both?
As I was editing this article, I received an invitation to interview the state governor along with a team from Newswatch magazine. I asked him what is the secret behind the fast recovery of life in the city. And he modestly answered:
"Kano is a centre of commerce. People of Kano really love peace because they know that without peace there will be no business. When the attack of the 20th happened, people were shocked... We placed a 24 hour curfew. Later we reduced it to 18 hours, then 12 hours, and now 6 hours. We are considering ensuring that there is no curfew in Kano. When you came then you might have seen many checkpoints. As the situation is improving, we kept on reducing the number of checkpoints. Now we have few of them and each one is there for a reason. And very soon we will make sure that they are removed from our streets... Security is the paramount responsibility of any government. And while people are working very hard to ensure that there is security in Kano, at the same time I am calling on everybody to come together and work with us in the interest of the state. This not withstanding, let me say at this juncture that Kano is the centre of knowledge also. We have people who are praying across the state 24 hours a day. In fact, that was why on 29 May instead of celebrating we went to the mosque to pray to Almighty Allah for peace not only in Kano but also throughout the country. The same thing took place in all local governments and wards in the state that day. And you know God is great. We are beginning to see peace coming back in Kano."
From the modesty of the governor we will now express the caution of his predecessor. I posed the question to Malam Ibrahim Shekarau two days ago at his Mundubawa residence when I asked him to evaluate the performance of Governor Kwankwaso in the past one year. “Your Excellency," I asked him, "don’t you think that your successor and the federal government deserve some commendation on how they handled the security situation in the state?” His reply was both honest and cautious:
“Well, I commend the effort of both governments – state and federal – particularly the security agencies for being up and doing in terms of trying to restore peace. But I am sure if you crosscheck, you will find that the one day bombing was one big thing that happened at a time and attracted attention. Naturally, that would send the people underground but thereafter the threats have been on. It is almost a daily affair now. There is hardly any forty-eight hours in Kano without you getting a report of some shootings here and there, some people attempting to bomb one place or the other, or police finding a bomb about to detonate, and so on. So the scare is still there. The tension is very much around and people are still completely not at ease.”
True. The shootings and the bombs may not be over. Nobody ever claimed they are. As I write this paragraph, by coincidence, some shootings are reported at FGC Kano. Yet, like other citizens of Kano, I look forward to the day soon when this tension would disappear and that ease would return. Meanwhile, the city, I believe, has bounced back, with its streets free, its markets open and all its traders back to their shops. It should continue to trust in God and remain vigilant. The chance of relapse is always there hanging over patients that suffer such severe strokes. The doctors must not relent in observing the patient. Slowly, he may be completely relieved of his condition, we pray. And may God answer our prayer.
Kano,
11 June 2012
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sako 2. Murnar Cin Zaben Kwankwaso
Aliyu U. Tilde 9:11am Apr 29
Labaru sun zo mana kan irin murnar da wasu mutane ke yi a Kano ta cin zaben Kwankwaso ta hanyoyin da ya ke nuna suna maraba da shi don zai kau da Shari'a. Wannan zai sa in kura ta lafa mu yi dogon tattaunawa kan tarbiyyar al'umma a tsarin demokradiya na wannan zamanin.
Su wadanan da ke murna ta hanyar yin wadannan abubuwa, kar mu dauka da addini su ke ja. Hasali ma, sau da yawa in aka wa addininsu kalubale, ko da a gidan giya ne, to wallahi kaca-kaca ake da su. Sai su tashi su pasa kwalba, su yi ashar, su ce za su kara da duk wanda ya baci addininsu.
Wancan satin a kauyenmu, Tilde, akwai 'yan wiwi da ke busa sigarinsu a bayan gidana, da unguwata da nake shugabanta, da kuma makarantar firamare da ke kusa da ni. Mutane sun aza sun addabemu. Nakan ce mu rika hakuri da su. Suma akwai ranarsu. Don ina da sanin amfaninsu a fadan zangon kataf da sharia a Kaduna. Ile kuwa. Wancan satin, da aka ce ga kabilu can sun kawowa Tilde hari daga duwatsu, su wadannan yan wiwin su ne kan gaba wajen kare garin. Kowa sai sa musu albarka ya ke. Akwai yara da suka rika yawo suna barna suna kona gidajen kirista bayan an ce Buhari ya fadi zabe. Ko mutanen gari sun musu magana, ba sa saurarensu. Amma da zarar sun hango 'yan wiwin nan, sai su ruga, su bar wurin. To, shege ma da ranarsa!
Watau, dan Adam yana da wuyar sha'ani. In ya yi wani abu yakamata mu nazarce shi, mu gano dalilansa. Akasari sai ka ga ba abun da muke tsammani ba ne. Zai yiyu, mun tsananta wajen gudanar da sharia ta yadda ta saba da asalinta ko da zamaninmu. Zan ba da misalin shan giya.
In ka duba batun shan giya, ni a raayina an zafafa. Ko a Madinar Manzon Allah ana sai da barasa a wasu unguwanni har zamanin khalifofinsa. Haka kuma a manyan biranen musulunci irin su Damascus, da Bagadaza, da Kufa, da Seville, da Cordoba, da Alkahira. Ban taba jin inda aka yi dokar hana sai da ita ba tamaman tunda a ko yaushe, saboda sassaucin muslumci, akwai wadanda ba musulmi ba tattare da musulmi. Kai! Har a kasar Hausa, su Shehu Usumanu basu damu da su yi doka da zata hana samar da giya ba kwata-kwata. Shi ya sa kusan ake da bauda a daukacin kasar Hausa, birni da kauye. Amma tanadin sharia shi ne duk musulmin da aka kama ya sha, to a masa bulala 80. Shike nan. Akwai wanda Umar ya sa aka wa bulala don an same shi a bauda, duk da cewa an tabbatar ba giyar ya ke sha Ba. Umar ya ce to me ya kaishi zama a inda ake shanta? Wannan, a maimakon Umar ya yii dokar hana sai da giya ba.
Kuma burin sharia ba wai ta maida mutane mala'iku ba ne da za su zam ba sa laifi kwata-kwata. Sam. Allah ya fi son ya gansu a 'yan Adam dinsu, masu laifi lokaci-lokaci, amma kuma masu reman gafararsa a kullum. Ina jin akwai ingantaccen hadisi qudusi a kan wannan. Malamai suna iya binciko mana. In burinsa marasa laifi ne, ai yana da mala'iku da ba sa sabama umarninsa, suna masa tasbihi ba dare ba rana.
Don haka, yana da wuya a kauda dan Adam daga wannan dabi'ar da aka halicceshi a kanta, dabi'ar laifi da zunubi. Dama shi mai sabone asalan. Aikin addini shi ne ya kira shi ga alheri, in ya amsa sai ya ribanta da kyautata sabon nan da aikin alheri da hali nagari, kamar yadda za a hana shi mummunan aiki ta hanyar da ta dace da lokacinsa da abunda nassi ya kawo na wa'azi da ladabtarwa yadda ya fi dacewa.
Hakanan kan abubuwa da yawa wanda harkar film na cikinsu. Fasaha bata wanzuwa sai cikin 'yanci da walwala. Ai ido ba mudu ba ne amma ya san kima. Da yakamata a duba yanayin kasarmu, da matsayin tarbiyyarmu, a fara da sassauci hatta kan abubuwan da musulunci ya tsananta, kuma a yi sassauci har abada kan abunda bai tsananta ba...a bimu sannu sannu har mu fahimta, mu daidaita sahu.
Don haka, a takaice, wadannan 'yan'uwa namu ban yi tsammani wai yaki da addini suke yi ba. Hanyar da muka bi wajen d'abbaka shariar ce kila bai dace da zamaninsu ba ko d'abi'arsu. Kila mun gaggauta wasu abubuwan, mun tsananta a wasu. Don haka suka nuna bijirewarsu ga tsarin amma ba ga addinin ba.
In an tuna ai a zamanin Kwankwaso aka fara shariar, irinta wannan zamanin. Ina tuna lokacin da mataimakinsa, Ganduje, da Malamina, Aminuddeen Abubakar, suke yawo otel otel suna farautar kilakai a cikinsu. Don haka ba bakinta ba ne. Kwankwaso na da nasa malaman. Ba ni da haufin za su bari ya goyawa abunda zai maida musulunci baya.
Kamar yadda na fada jiya, sabon gwamnan sai ya gina kan abunda Malam Shekarau ya yi;ya yi gyara inda ake bukatar gyara; ya cigaba da duk abu mai kyau; ya kuma jingine, bisa shawara, abunda yake ganin kuskure ne. Amma kashedi kashedinsa, kar ya bibiye ma ashararai da za su kai shi su baro. Shekara hudu kamar gobe ne.
Haza wasalam.
Aliyu
Labaru sun zo mana kan irin murnar da wasu mutane ke yi a Kano ta cin zaben Kwankwaso ta hanyoyin da ya ke nuna suna maraba da shi don zai kau da Shari'a. Wannan zai sa in kura ta lafa mu yi dogon tattaunawa kan tarbiyyar al'umma a tsarin demokradiya na wannan zamanin.
Su wadanan da ke murna ta hanyar yin wadannan abubuwa, kar mu dauka da addini su ke ja. Hasali ma, sau da yawa in aka wa addininsu kalubale, ko da a gidan giya ne, to wallahi kaca-kaca ake da su. Sai su tashi su pasa kwalba, su yi ashar, su ce za su kara da duk wanda ya baci addininsu.
Wancan satin a kauyenmu, Tilde, akwai 'yan wiwi da ke busa sigarinsu a bayan gidana, da unguwata da nake shugabanta, da kuma makarantar firamare da ke kusa da ni. Mutane sun aza sun addabemu. Nakan ce mu rika hakuri da su. Suma akwai ranarsu. Don ina da sanin amfaninsu a fadan zangon kataf da sharia a Kaduna. Ile kuwa. Wancan satin, da aka ce ga kabilu can sun kawowa Tilde hari daga duwatsu, su wadannan yan wiwin su ne kan gaba wajen kare garin. Kowa sai sa musu albarka ya ke. Akwai yara da suka rika yawo suna barna suna kona gidajen kirista bayan an ce Buhari ya fadi zabe. Ko mutanen gari sun musu magana, ba sa saurarensu. Amma da zarar sun hango 'yan wiwin nan, sai su ruga, su bar wurin. To, shege ma da ranarsa!
Watau, dan Adam yana da wuyar sha'ani. In ya yi wani abu yakamata mu nazarce shi, mu gano dalilansa. Akasari sai ka ga ba abun da muke tsammani ba ne. Zai yiyu, mun tsananta wajen gudanar da sharia ta yadda ta saba da asalinta ko da zamaninmu. Zan ba da misalin shan giya.
In ka duba batun shan giya, ni a raayina an zafafa. Ko a Madinar Manzon Allah ana sai da barasa a wasu unguwanni har zamanin khalifofinsa. Haka kuma a manyan biranen musulunci irin su Damascus, da Bagadaza, da Kufa, da Seville, da Cordoba, da Alkahira. Ban taba jin inda aka yi dokar hana sai da ita ba tamaman tunda a ko yaushe, saboda sassaucin muslumci, akwai wadanda ba musulmi ba tattare da musulmi. Kai! Har a kasar Hausa, su Shehu Usumanu basu damu da su yi doka da zata hana samar da giya ba kwata-kwata. Shi ya sa kusan ake da bauda a daukacin kasar Hausa, birni da kauye. Amma tanadin sharia shi ne duk musulmin da aka kama ya sha, to a masa bulala 80. Shike nan. Akwai wanda Umar ya sa aka wa bulala don an same shi a bauda, duk da cewa an tabbatar ba giyar ya ke sha Ba. Umar ya ce to me ya kaishi zama a inda ake shanta? Wannan, a maimakon Umar ya yii dokar hana sai da giya ba.
Kuma burin sharia ba wai ta maida mutane mala'iku ba ne da za su zam ba sa laifi kwata-kwata. Sam. Allah ya fi son ya gansu a 'yan Adam dinsu, masu laifi lokaci-lokaci, amma kuma masu reman gafararsa a kullum. Ina jin akwai ingantaccen hadisi qudusi a kan wannan. Malamai suna iya binciko mana. In burinsa marasa laifi ne, ai yana da mala'iku da ba sa sabama umarninsa, suna masa tasbihi ba dare ba rana.
Don haka, yana da wuya a kauda dan Adam daga wannan dabi'ar da aka halicceshi a kanta, dabi'ar laifi da zunubi. Dama shi mai sabone asalan. Aikin addini shi ne ya kira shi ga alheri, in ya amsa sai ya ribanta da kyautata sabon nan da aikin alheri da hali nagari, kamar yadda za a hana shi mummunan aiki ta hanyar da ta dace da lokacinsa da abunda nassi ya kawo na wa'azi da ladabtarwa yadda ya fi dacewa.
Hakanan kan abubuwa da yawa wanda harkar film na cikinsu. Fasaha bata wanzuwa sai cikin 'yanci da walwala. Ai ido ba mudu ba ne amma ya san kima. Da yakamata a duba yanayin kasarmu, da matsayin tarbiyyarmu, a fara da sassauci hatta kan abubuwan da musulunci ya tsananta, kuma a yi sassauci har abada kan abunda bai tsananta ba...a bimu sannu sannu har mu fahimta, mu daidaita sahu.
Don haka, a takaice, wadannan 'yan'uwa namu ban yi tsammani wai yaki da addini suke yi ba. Hanyar da muka bi wajen d'abbaka shariar ce kila bai dace da zamaninsu ba ko d'abi'arsu. Kila mun gaggauta wasu abubuwan, mun tsananta a wasu. Don haka suka nuna bijirewarsu ga tsarin amma ba ga addinin ba.
In an tuna ai a zamanin Kwankwaso aka fara shariar, irinta wannan zamanin. Ina tuna lokacin da mataimakinsa, Ganduje, da Malamina, Aminuddeen Abubakar, suke yawo otel otel suna farautar kilakai a cikinsu. Don haka ba bakinta ba ne. Kwankwaso na da nasa malaman. Ba ni da haufin za su bari ya goyawa abunda zai maida musulunci baya.
Kamar yadda na fada jiya, sabon gwamnan sai ya gina kan abunda Malam Shekarau ya yi;ya yi gyara inda ake bukatar gyara; ya cigaba da duk abu mai kyau; ya kuma jingine, bisa shawara, abunda yake ganin kuskure ne. Amma kashedi kashedinsa, kar ya bibiye ma ashararai da za su kai shi su baro. Shekara hudu kamar gobe ne.
Haza wasalam.
Aliyu
Thursday, April 28, 2011
SAKO 1. KWANKWASO YA KAFA TARIHI A KANO
Aliyu U. Tilde 12:52am Apr 28
Kwankwaso Ya Kafa Tarihi a Kano.
Bana jin a Kano an taba sarkin da ya je ya dawo. In Shekarau ya karya al'adar single tenure, to Kwankwaso, wanda ban sani ba, ban taba gani ba, ya karya al'adar rashin dawowar sarakuna a kasar Hausa.
Ina tuna abinda kakanmu Sarkin Kano Sanusi (Rahimahullah) ya gayawa Abubakar Rimi (Rahimahullah) lokacin da tsohon gwamnan ya sauka a 1983 zai sake takara a wata jam'iyya. Da ya samu tsohon sarkin a Wudil, ya ce mar ga niyyarsa, sai Sanusi ya ce mar, "Kash, dana, ka yi kuskure. Ai ba a barin mulki a dawo." Sadaqata. Dawowar da Rimi bai yi ba ke nan.
Dawowar Kwankwaso ya fito da amfanin hazaka, da rashin karaya da naci a fili. Nasarar da ya samu ya bauta mata, in za a fadi gaskiya. A 2002/2003 in na tuna jifansa ake, har a lokacin ina kiran haka "Kano intifada" a column dina. Amma abubuwa da yawa sun taimaka masa musamman mukaminsa na minista, da kusancinsa da mutanen jamiyyarsa da daukan nauyinsu, da rashin barinta ya koma wata.
Nasararsa abar yabawa ce, kamar ta Shekarau ce a 2007. Haka kuma darasi ne ga 'yan siyasa musamman 'yan jam'iyyar CPC da suke tsammani za su fake a bayan Buhari su ci nasara. Hakan na iya yiyuwa a jihohin kauye, amma ba a Dala Babbar Hausa ba. Yaro ko da me ka zo an fi ka!
Ina taya Kanawa murnar samun sabon gwamna. Allah ya taya mar da basira, da tausayin talakawansa, da aiki tukuru, ya raba shi da halin tsiya na bita da kulli da zalunci da ramuwar gayya. Allah ja zamaninsa in yai haka. Ku ko talakawansa, Allah ya baku ikon hakuri da shi, da taimaka masa, da kyautata masa zato.
Samun mulki don ai mulki
Manufa jan mulkin bis sidki
Ji amarya kan bata hau doki
Ba, Ba Za a aza mata kaya ba.
....
Ai samu yafi iyawa, shi
Kwado bai mallaki ko dukushi
A ruwa aka san shi makomarshi
Nan ne zai sami abincinshi
Ya yi wasanni da nishadinshi
(Abubakar Ladan)
Don Allah a mika nasiharmu zuwa gareshi.
Shi ko Shekarau, Allah ba shi ladan aikinsa nagari, ya yafemar kurakuransa, ya sauwake masa hisabi gobe kiyama. Kuma talakawansa, yana da kyau ku yafe mar, ku san cewa mulki a kasa cike da talauci da mutane masu son zuciya ba sauki ba ne. Sai mutum yana gwamnati zai san haka. A waje muna waliyi, a ciki muna gafiya, sai wanda Allah ya so.
Haza wasalam
Aliyu
Kwankwaso Ya Kafa Tarihi a Kano.
Bana jin a Kano an taba sarkin da ya je ya dawo. In Shekarau ya karya al'adar single tenure, to Kwankwaso, wanda ban sani ba, ban taba gani ba, ya karya al'adar rashin dawowar sarakuna a kasar Hausa.
Ina tuna abinda kakanmu Sarkin Kano Sanusi (Rahimahullah) ya gayawa Abubakar Rimi (Rahimahullah) lokacin da tsohon gwamnan ya sauka a 1983 zai sake takara a wata jam'iyya. Da ya samu tsohon sarkin a Wudil, ya ce mar ga niyyarsa, sai Sanusi ya ce mar, "Kash, dana, ka yi kuskure. Ai ba a barin mulki a dawo." Sadaqata. Dawowar da Rimi bai yi ba ke nan.
Dawowar Kwankwaso ya fito da amfanin hazaka, da rashin karaya da naci a fili. Nasarar da ya samu ya bauta mata, in za a fadi gaskiya. A 2002/2003 in na tuna jifansa ake, har a lokacin ina kiran haka "Kano intifada" a column dina. Amma abubuwa da yawa sun taimaka masa musamman mukaminsa na minista, da kusancinsa da mutanen jamiyyarsa da daukan nauyinsu, da rashin barinta ya koma wata.
Nasararsa abar yabawa ce, kamar ta Shekarau ce a 2007. Haka kuma darasi ne ga 'yan siyasa musamman 'yan jam'iyyar CPC da suke tsammani za su fake a bayan Buhari su ci nasara. Hakan na iya yiyuwa a jihohin kauye, amma ba a Dala Babbar Hausa ba. Yaro ko da me ka zo an fi ka!
Ina taya Kanawa murnar samun sabon gwamna. Allah ya taya mar da basira, da tausayin talakawansa, da aiki tukuru, ya raba shi da halin tsiya na bita da kulli da zalunci da ramuwar gayya. Allah ja zamaninsa in yai haka. Ku ko talakawansa, Allah ya baku ikon hakuri da shi, da taimaka masa, da kyautata masa zato.
Samun mulki don ai mulki
Manufa jan mulkin bis sidki
Ji amarya kan bata hau doki
Ba, Ba Za a aza mata kaya ba.
....
Ai samu yafi iyawa, shi
Kwado bai mallaki ko dukushi
A ruwa aka san shi makomarshi
Nan ne zai sami abincinshi
Ya yi wasanni da nishadinshi
(Abubakar Ladan)
Don Allah a mika nasiharmu zuwa gareshi.
Shi ko Shekarau, Allah ba shi ladan aikinsa nagari, ya yafemar kurakuransa, ya sauwake masa hisabi gobe kiyama. Kuma talakawansa, yana da kyau ku yafe mar, ku san cewa mulki a kasa cike da talauci da mutane masu son zuciya ba sauki ba ne. Sai mutum yana gwamnati zai san haka. A waje muna waliyi, a ciki muna gafiya, sai wanda Allah ya so.
Haza wasalam
Aliyu
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