The governor of Kano State, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, over the weekend met former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ogun State governor Ibikunle Amosun behind closed-doors.
Although the purpose of the separate meetings was not made available to the media but a source close to the governor hinted that the meeting might not be unconnected with the 2015 general election, particularly the yet-to-be-declared ambition of Kwankwaso.
The governor told journalists who later approached him at Crescent University, Abeokuta, the state capital, that he met with Obasanjo and Amosun over matters relating to the development of both Ogun and Kano states and Nigeria as a whole.
“At the end of the day, we are happy that the people of Ogun State, including Governor Amosun, were with me yesterday. We had a beautiful discussion on how to move both states and our country forward,” he said.
The governor has been tipped by many to fly the flag of All Progressives Congress, APC, in the coming presidential election.
Kwankwanso who was at the Bells University, Ota, and Crescent University, Abeokuta, all in Ogun State, to meet with Kano State students, solicited a change of approach to the security challenges facing Nigeria as a nation adding that security goes beyond security operatives and security gadgets.
Explaining while his administration had to spend huge amount of money on free education at all levels, he said his administration was poised to bridge the disparity between the South and the North in terms of education.
Stating this shortly after he had an interaction with Kano State students at the Crescent University, Abeokuta, Kwankwaso claimed that his government had spent well over N500 million on the students who he said were in various tertiary institutions across the country and beyond.
“In addition to all these 400 students who are in this state, we have 250 in Igbinedon University in Edo State, we also have 25 in Auchi, we have 412 in Katsina University, all these are private Universities here in this country and that is in addition to more than 2,000 that we sent abroad for Masters Degree and medicine and all of them are doing well, I visited all of the countries, out of the 14 that we sent our students and we will continue to visit and encourage them to do more.
“The goal of the state government is to close the existing gap between the North and South and that’s the only way we can make progress in this country. What we have today is the North which is less educated and you know illiteracy goes with poverty, violence and all source of things and that is why while we are trying to solve the problems of today we are also trying to ensure that what we are having today doesn’t happen in the future.
“We are aware of what Awolowo did during his time and I am happy to say today, if you call me Awolowo of Kano, I will be very happy to answer because we now have free education at all levels, primary, secondary and tertiary, no indigen of Kano pays anything except if you choose to send your children to a private owned University on their own, we will clap for you and be very happy because you’re taking the burden away from the state government.
“For us, security is not just Army, Soldiers, Police and SSS, that’s just aspect of security, other aspects is education, we want to secure education for every son and daughter of Kano state, we want to secure our agriculture, we want to secure our health, we want to secure our employment, these are things that are key, I am sure many of these young men and women want to become a suicide bomber in the future, because they have hope, because they feel after this, some of them will go for Masters Degrees, Phd, they will become professors, they will become Doctors, professionals, that not only in Kano but this nation will be proud off and we are appealing to them to be good ambassadors, so that when they finish, they don’t have to join all these associations and unions that will team up and fight future governments,” he stated.