The Kano State Government has disclosed that immediate-past governor, Sen. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, left behind a debt of N350 billion which the state is still struggling to repay.
The disclosure comes three years after Kwankwaso, who is the current senator representing Kano Central senatorial district, left office as governor and a month after he defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Commissioner for Information, Youths and Culture, Muhammad Garba, made the disclosure over the weekend, describing the debt as a huge embarrassment to the state.
Kwankwaso over the weekend disclosed his desire to launch Hus 2019 presidential ambition.
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Garba said, “Such debts cut across contracts for construction of projects such as uncompleted fly-overs, roads, among others, including the controversial scholarship scheme of Kano students sent to study in universities abroad and those enrolled in five private universities in the country. This scholarship debt alone amounts to over N15 billion.
“There is no need engaging in unnecessary war-of-words with Senator Kwankwaso and those he described as ‘his blind followers’ because the good people of Kano and, indeed, Nigerians already know their antics.
“More so, the growing unease in their already divided Kwankwasiyya camp as the 2019 elections approach confirms the fact that they have lost political relevance. It is also unfortunate that whenever they want to deceive the public, they keep on mentioning failed projects of the Kwankwaso administration.
“They claimed that Kwankwaso built 26 skills acquisition institutes. The question is: how many out of all the 26 institutes functioned 100 percent while he was in office? None! Some empowerment programmes such as the Lafiya Jari health programme were not sustained during Kwankwaso’s administration because of lack of transparency on the part of those that handled it.
“How many of the fly-overs constructed by Kwankwaso were completed before the end of his tenure? How many of those fly-overs were constructed in accordance with standards that befit an emerging megacity like Kano contractors handling the projects were not duly mobilized. The said fly-overs were abandoned, all of which were inherited by Ganduje’s administration, and are being constructed in line with the policy of continuity.”