Yusuf Ata, who was recently named Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, said that his job is to give Kano State to the All Progressives Congress in 2027.
The event happened after Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo, who was the minister of state for housing and urban development right before Ata was chosen as his replacement, said it was a bad political choice.
After being sworn in as minister, Ata made his first trip to Kano and told reporters, “My appointment was mainly for political reasons; APC has lost Kano State and now it will take Kano State.” It’s mostly the Kano Central, and I’m from there.
“Even when I become a minister, I will still sit in this ward. We are going to work very hard to make sure that the APC takes over Kano State by 2027.”
“Like I said, my mission is only political.” And even though I work for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, I will do my job. But every week I will go to Kano State to work on taking control of the state.
It was not just for him that President Bola Tinubu made the decision, the minister said. It was for the people of Kano and Nigeria as a whole.
Because of this, he told the President that the APC would win Kano in 2027.
He said, “This is the promise I made to the President.”
In a recent change of the cabinet, the President fired Gwarzo and four other ministers.
In an interview with BBC Hausa on Saturday, Gwarzo said that the President should have picked Nasiru Gawuna as the APC candidate for governor in 2023 in order to help the party do better in the Kano Central senatorial district.
The former minister said that he was fired not because he didn’t do his job, but because some party leaders in Kano were plotting against him politically.
“I was shocked that I wasn’t found to have done anything wrong or done a bad job.” I was also a minister of state under the senior minister, who is in charge of most of the ministry’s work.
I knew what the President was going to do before he made the statement.
“He said Kano North had too many political officers and that’s why a balance had to be found.” We told them what to do, but they didn’t listen.
“After that, I started to think that someone was behind it, since that wasn’t a good reason in my eyes.”
“If it’s true that Kano Central will get the ministerial spot, we have our top leader in Kano Central who is also running for governor in 2023.” Why not think about giving him the spot?” The Gwarzo asked.
He also said that Mr. Gawuna’s present job wouldn’t allow him to run his structures properly.
“The job should be offered to Gawuna first, unless he says no. If that happens, it could be given to someone else.”
“All of his other colleagues who ran for office in other states, like those from Plateau and Zamfara, were given jobs,” Mr. Gwarzo said.
The former minister also said that he had accepted his fate and moved on, and he promised to keep supporting the President’s government.
ALSO READ:
Donald Trump Names Tom Homan, Who Is In Charge Of Immigration, As “Border Czar.”
