Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has accused Lagos of plotting to “colonise” the northern region.
Speaking during the convocation ceremony at Skyline University in Kano, the former Kano State governor alleged that Lagos played a significant role in the ongoing emirate rulership battle in the state.
Let me note our situation here in Kano and indeed northern Nigeria,” Kwankwaso said.
“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 efforts from the Lagos axis to colonize 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.”
“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 stated. “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, they are forced to take their headquarters to Lagos because taxes will now have to go to Lagos.”
The NNPP supreme also decried the widening gap between the rich and the poor, describing the situation as perilous for the nation.
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.
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,” Kwankwaso concluded.
