Nigerians Too Interdependent to Break Apart, Says Ganduje

• Gives Sabongari market face lift

By Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, yesterday said the country is so bound together that any attempt to dismember it would be very difficult if not impossible.

Speaking when members of the Goalition of Northern Groups (CNG) paid him courtesy visit at the Kano Governor’s Lodge in Abuja, Ganduje maintained that the entire six geopolitical zones of the country are so interwoven and interdependent that they cannot be separated by any group agitating for the break up of the country. 

“Nigeria is blessed with high population, Nigeria is blessed with a great number of ethnic nationalities, different tribes, languages and environment. Each tribes, different languages, different environment. 

“To us, this is a blessing because we have been saying that each tribe has got its own peculiarities. Each tribe has got something that the other one does not have. So if we come together and we are managing our differences in a modern way, we will be better for us,” he said.

Ganduje who said he and other colleagues in the Northern Governors’ Forum played a pivotal role in securing the withdrawal of controversial quit notice given to Igbo residents in the northern part of the country, expressed optimism that Nigeria can attain the great strides achieved by the United States of America in the comity of nations. 

According to him, “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done. President Muhammadu Buhari has made it clear that the unity of Nigeria is settled and that it is not negotiable. That the quit notice was withdrawn is in agreement to that statement.

“We commend the Igbo leaders in the North for coming forward for discussion because we know that they are very important to us, we too we are very important to them. Unless we sit together, we cannot make progress. We can only flourish when you appreciate that you are important to each other.

“But when one section of the country believes it is only that section that is indispensable to the union of Nigeria, I think that’s where we have a problem when people believe we are important to each other. 

“This is why America is great because it is a country of many tribes and races from all over the world with each of the tribes bringing its own peculiarities to bear for the benefit of all. So Nigeria is also on the path of becoming a great nation,” he said

Meanwhile, the  federal and Kano State governments have entered into a partnership to provide regular electricity power supply to the Sabongari market in the state. 

The Managing Director Federal Rural Electrification Agency (FREA), Damilola Ogunbiyi, revealed this at the weekend during a courtesy visit on Ganduje. 

She said her visit on the governor was mainly on how her agency could secure partnership with the Kano State government to ensure that regular power supply to Sabongari and other markets in the state come to reality. 

Responding, governor Ganduje, who commended the federal government initiative to partner Kano State, described Sabongari market as the biggest in the North with 24 hours trading. 

He explained that under the partnership with the federal government, state  government would be providing regular power supply to the market using Solar energy.

Ganduje also said his government has voted over N1.5 billion to assist the traders who lost their goods to fire disaster in the market last year.