Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Wednesday accused
President Goodluck Jonathan of plotting to eliminate him, in a fresh twist to a
longstanding row between the two leaders.
In an exclusive interview with Premium Times Wednesday, Mr.
Kwankwaso said the president was after his life and had ordered the withdrawal
of half of his security details in a ploy to open him up to physical attacks.
“I have told my friends, and people of Kano, Nigerians and
indeed the international community to hold Jonathan responsible for whatever
happens to Kwankwaso, his family or even the people of Kano state,” Mr.
Kwankwaso said at Kano State governor’s lodge in Abuja.
He accused the president of igniting crisis in Kano State
after a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, emerged
the emir of Kano Sunday.
Presidential spokespersons, Reuben Abati and Doyin Okupe,
did not respond to Premium Times requests for comments Wednesday.
The relationship between President Jonathan and Governor
Kwankwaso, which for months had been all but warm, deteriorated in 2013 after
Mr. Kwankwaso decamped from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the
All Progressives Congress, APC.
Since then, both men have openly accused each other of
corruption and ineptitude.
Mr. Sanusi’s emergence, Sunday, as emir of the powerful Kano
emirate, revved up the squabble.
The presidency and the PDP were clearly opposed to the
candidacy of the former CBN boss, who was removed from his post by Mr. Jonathan
in February.
Protests broke out in Kano shortly after the announcement of
the new emir, as his supporters clashed with those of his opponent, the son of
the former emir, Ado Bayero, who died Friday.
Mr. Kwankwaso told Premium Times he has “credible
information” the president instructed his supporters in Kano to unleash
“mayhem” on the state.
“We don’t know his intention, but, certainly the intention
is not good,” he said. “We have to tell him that igniting crisis in Kano is not
in the interest of anybody. We have enough crisis already in the country, and
now they are funding their stooges in Kano to protest and burn government
properties.”
The governor accused the president of igniting crisis in
Kano because the state is controlled by the APC.
“Recently, we also lost an esteemed Emir in Gombe and they
basically followed the same process to elect a new emir, but they did not say
anything because it is a PDP state.
“Now they are funding crisis in our state, I have never seen
something like this,” the governor said.
Siege on emir’s palace
Mr. Kwankwaso said the new Kano emir is unable to move to
the palace due to a police siege on the building- a development he blamed on
the presidency.
He accused the presidency of planning to arrest Mr. Sanusi
to stop his appointment as emir.
“We got information that they were planning to arrest him,
so, we moved him to the Government House. I don’t want to imagine what would
have happened if they succeeded,” he said.
The governor said his government and the APC enjoy
overwhelming support in the state and was only bidding their time before
reacting to the “intimidation” from the federal government.
“By the recent survey we just had and the local government
election we held, we enjoy about 92 per cent support of the population, and the
remaining 8 per cent are brewing and supporting crisis. There will come a time
when this 92 per cent will be on the offensive, that is when they will realise
that they are making a mistake.
“A sitting president brewing a crisis in a state like Kano?
Everybody in this country knows that it is Jonathan that is creating this
problem in Kano. I am yet to know why, but posterity will clearly show what his
intentions are,” he said.
On the siege on the Emir’s palace, Mr. Kwankwaso said his government was just “watching and seeing how far they can go”.
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