Kehinde Fajobi
Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election and leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, has accused Lagos of trying to “colonise” the northern region.
Speaking at the convocation ceremony of Skyline University in Kano, the former Kano State governor alleged that Lagos played a pivotal role in Kano’s emirate crisis and criticised its influence in northern affairs.
Kwankwaso remarked, “Let me note our situation here in Kano and indeed northern Nigeria.
“The emir is just being a stooge at this very difficult time, especially in this part of the country (northern Nigeria).
“Today, we can see very clearly that there is a lot of effort from the Lagos axis to colonise this part of the country.
“Today, Lagos wouldn’t allow us to choose an emir; Lagos has to come to the centre of Kano to put their own emir.”
He also accused Lagos of centralising economic control and draining resources from northern states, including Kano.
“Today, we are aware that the Lagos young men are working so hard to impose taxes and take away our taxes from Kano and this part of the country to Lagos,” he claimed.
“Even the telephones that we make or register here in Kano, efforts are there to take all the taxes to Lagos. Even our sons and daughters who have brought factories—many of them here in Kano and northern Nigeria—and even banks, somehow, are forced to take their headquarters to Lagos because taxes will now have to go to Lagos.”
The former governor expressed concern over growing economic inequality, warning that it posed a severe threat to the nation.
“We have seen the efforts of some people to make the poor poorer and the rich richer, and I believe this is more dangerous,” he stated.
Kwankwaso urged northern lawmakers to resist policies that could disadvantage the region and criticised past legislative actions that, according to him, harmed the northern economy.
“At this moment, I would like to call all our National Assembly members to keep their eyes open so that they don’t do anything that would cheat the people of northern Nigeria, especially here, Kano,” he said.
Recalling a specific incident, Kwankwaso alleged that lawmakers were bribed between 1999 and 2000 to pass laws that weakened the northern economy.
“We are witnesses to what happened during the first term, 1999 to 2000, where our members of the National Assembly were bribed, were treated into collecting huge sums of money to support offshore in this country.
“That law put a huge blow into our economy not only here in northern Nigeria but all other states,” he claimed.