The Price of Silence: How Local Government Kickbacks Betray the Common Man in Kano
By Mohammed Babagana Abubakar
The recent revelations from the floor of the Kano State House of Assembly are not merely political headlines, they are a heartbreaking audit of systemic betrayal. As 38 lawmakers signed the impeachment notice against Deputy Governor Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo, the numbers presented N462 million allegedly siphoned as “monthly kickbacks” from our 44 local government councils paint a grim picture of leadership that has turned its back on the grassroots.
To understand the gravity of the “gross misconduct” alleged by the Assembly, we must look beyond the millions and look at the villages. When a Deputy Governor, who also sits as the Commissioner for Local Government, allegedly collects N1.5 million monthly from each of the 44 councils, he is not just taking money from a ledger. He is taking:
The drugs that should be in our primary healthcare centers.
The desks that our children in Rano, Gaya, and Gwarzo sit on.
The maintenance funds for the motorized boreholes that provide water to our rural farmers.
Between June 2023 and January 2024, while the people of Kano were grappling with unprecedented economic hardship, these allegations suggest that a staggering N66 million per month was being diverted into private pockets under the guise of administrative “dues.”
The Office of the Deputy Governor is a symbol of stability and secondary oversight. However, by holding the dual role of Commissioner for Local Government, Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo held the keys to the state’s most sensitive treasury. The House of Assembly’s move to invoke Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution is a necessary surgery to remove a growth that is stifling our development.
How can a leader claim to represent the “New Kano” while allegedly overseeing a system where local government chairmen are forced to remit “returns” instead of delivering results? This is not just a breach of fiscal law; it is a breach of the sacred trust placed in this administration by the voters.
The Assembly’s resolution is a bold step toward sanitizing our political culture. If these allegations of kickbacks and “special assignment” payments (totaling another N726 million) are proven true, it confirms that the local government system was treated as a personal ATM rather than a tier of government meant to serve the poor.
We cannot build a prosperous Kano on the foundation of “kickbacks.” The impeachment proceedings must be followed to their logical conclusion to serve as a deterrent.
The era where the resources of the 44 local governments are treated as the spoils of office must end now. The people of Kano deserve a Deputy Governor whose hands are busy with work, not with the collection of N1.5 million envelopes from struggling councils.
