Queen's Trip Was Cancelled Because We Are Sharia State

Weekly Trust (Kaduna)
INTERVIEW
December 6, 2003
Posted to the web December 7, 2003

By - Kano Commissioner of Information

Kano State government has reacted to the cancellation of the official visit of
the Queen of England to Kano as part of her trip to CHOGM in Nigeria. The state
Commissioner of Information Alhaji Garba Yusuf Abubakar spoke on the
cancellation with our Kano Bureau Chief, Musa Kazaure. Excerpt.
WT: what is the position of Kano Sate government over the cancellation of Her
Majesty's visit to the state?
Garba: Yes, we received official communication that Her Majesty will no longer
come to Kano for, what we learnt, is because we are a Sharia state. This is a
very sad development because when they involved our governor in the activities
of the reception committee at the federal level, they officially told him that
Her Majesty will be coming to Kano for the traditional durbar. Furthermore a
delegation of Her Majesty came to Kano to see the arrangements for her visit.
We have even set up committees of which I am the chairman, with representatives
from Ministry of Women Affairs, Environment and Works and others. But suddenly
we received this news. This is very sad because Her Majesty has an affinity to
Kano because if you look back into history, she was here in 1956 And she
specifically requested to visit Kano. It was on her request not ours. We had
put everything in place to receive our august visitor, but unfortunately some
people up there are, who are using Sharia as a camouflage, insisted that she
should not come to Kano.
WT: We learnt that the federal government cited "security reasons" for
cancelling the Queen's visit to Kano. Is the state so insecure that Nigerian
leaders will stop such a historic visit?
Garba: You see, the entire thing is a sad episode because it is not in favour
of the political development of the country. This is a time that we are
preaching political tolerance understanding, but some people take things too
personal that they always want to get even at the detriment of progress of the
country. If Kano is not secured enough for the Queen's visit, then we want to
put it on record that President Obasanjo is a witness to the peace in Kano.
Before we come to power, there was always, stoning and booing whenever the
President visit, this state and that was when his party was in-charge. But when
he visited us during Emir's 40th anniversary, he saw the difference. It was
peaceful without any of such similar incident, our government is a peaceful
government. Sharia does not support lawlessness and certainly abhors violence
in our lives.
So under there conditions, I do not see any threat or reason why the Queen's
trip should be cancelled. I do not believe it was cancelled for security
reasons as postulated by the authorities at the federal level, it must be due
to some elements in power who said we are a Sharia state, so she should not
come.
WT: Has this development been communicated to the Emirate council?
Garba: Of course they have been communicated because I was talking to the
Madaki of Kano during the Sallah ceremonies in a private discussion, when he
confirmed that they have been communicated.
WT: How do you view the entire development?
Garba: You see, we are in a political dispensation and you know what politics
is. Some people see us making progress. Naturally there must be people who are
not happy with the steady progress of the Kano governor, so perhaps they see
the visit as another plus to his tenure. You know our people are used to using
such historical occasion for references in future. May be they don't want the
governor's name to go down in history as being the one to have hosted the Queen
when she made her second historic visit to Kano.
Secondly, perhaps the PDP government at the centre felt slighted that the Queen
is visiting ANPP and AD states only, and so why promote success of other
parties? You know that the Duke is visiting Kano, and none of these states are
PDP states. So we are suspicious that this might have been an underlying factor
to the cancellation of the Queen's visit to Kano.

   

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