Shekarau: I didn’t touch LGA allocations, got no kickback as Kano governor

Ibrahim Shekarau, former governor of Kano, says he had less than N100,000 in his account when he contested the 2003 gubernatorial election in the state.

Shekarau spoke in Abuja on Wednesday during a press conference ahead of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria’s (MSSN) 70th anniversary, slated for October 12.

Shekarau, who was the governor of Kano from 2003 to 2011, was responding to a question on the recent financial autonomy granted to the LGAs in the country by the supreme court.

The former Kano governor said his participation in politics was from a place of “persuasion” and not by choice.

Shekarau added that he did not spend LGA allocations or receive kickbacks from contractors during his eight years in office.

“I have never taken any negotiating percentages with any contractor,” he said.

“I always challenge them; if any contractor who has worked with me in the last 44 years knows that I have asked him for a percentage or brought any money, let him come out and say so.

“Secondly, none of my commissioners has ever brought one naira to me in the name of feedback from a contractor.

“No local government chairman, during my eight years as governor, has ever given me one naira. I have never tampered with their allocations.

“Up until the end of my second term in 2007, I had no house of my own.

“I remember an elder statesman, who was my former teacher, coming to me two months before the election, saying, ‘governor, I want to delve into your personal affairs’.

“He asked, ‘suppose you lose in the election; which house will you go to?’  I said I would go back to a rented house. I left a rented house to move into the government house.”