Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has kicked against the decision of his successor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje–led administration seeking bail out of the sum of forty billion naira.
An impeccable source close to the duo revealed that the erstwhile Governor of the state, now a serving senator representing Kano Central, is protesting the move to secure the loan saying it is against the kwankwassiya ideology.
The source further revealed that Kwankwaso, who is the national leader of Kwankwasiyya movement, had written a letter to Ganduje penultimate week, cautioning him on the idea of emulating other states of the federation of seeking the federal government bailout package.
Kwankwaso advised the government of Ganduje, in the letter that instead of seeking for the bailout, the government should be ingenious enough to explore the option of getting refund of over 50 billion naira the federal government owes the state for federal projects executed by the state government.
The Kano state government had approached the state House Assembly, seeking the approval of 40 billion naira as bailout.
According to breakdown of the loan obtained by our reporter, N20 billion will be used to offset pension and gratuity outstanding, while N10 billion is for power intervention fund and N10 billion is for infrastructure.
It was gathered that the incumbent Governor Ganduje responded to his predecessor’s letter swiftly last week.
Ganduje, in his reply, drew the attention of Kwankwaso to the state of the country’s economy and the dwindling oil revenue, the liabilities of over N300 billion naira left by his administration.
He pointed out that local contractors alone are being owed over N60 billion naira that his administration has started paying.
Ganduje particularly drew the attention of his predecessor to the Murtala Mohammed Way flyover project, which he said was only funded 30% by Kwankwaso’s government, noting that his government has mobilized the contractor back to site and the work is in progress.
It would be recalled that the chairman of the transition committee, Professor Hafiz Abubakar, who is the Deputy Governor of the state, revealed to a quality audience at the Government House that the administration of Kwankwaso was owing contractors N105 billion naira alone, while the state debt was pegged at about over N200 billion naira.
Source: Today
