Kano’s 5 assembly speakers under Ganduje

In the wee hours of Tuesday, news began to filter out that the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, Abdul’aziz Garba Gafasa, had tendered his resignation in a handwritten letter to his colleagues. This decision led to a change of leadership in the House for the fifth time in five years.

Majority Leader Kabiru Hassan Dashi and his deputy, Tasi’u Zabainawa, had similarly announced their resignation from the leadership of the House about the same time.

Gafasa, in the letter, titled ‘Notification of Resignation,’ dated December 14 and addressed to the clerk and permanent secretary of the House, said he was resigning on personal grounds, while Dashi and Zabainawa did not provide any reason for their resignation.

But there were speculations that the resignation of the former principal officers of the House followed the uncovering of an alleged plot by 35 of the 40 members to impeach them in the early hours of Tuesday, over an accusation of being too subservient to the executive arm, without fighting for members’ interests.

Also, there were reports that the former Speaker, alongside 13 other members, were planning to decamp to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with many suggesting that this may be a fallout of the All Progressives Congress ( APC’s) primaries for the local government elections.

But the Speaker was quoted to have said that there was no place or time he spoke about what happened to him or discussed plans to decamp from the APC with anyone, saying he remained loyal to the party and Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

Similarly, his replacement, Hamisu Ibrahim-Chidari, had also refuted the claims that the former speaker and some other lawmakers had concluded plans to decamp to the opposition party.

A statement by the press secretary of the House, Nura Bala Ajingi reads, “The new Speaker, Hamisu Ibrahim-Chidari, shortly after being sworn in, debunked rumours that some APC members in the House were planning to decamp to the PDP. This is not true.

“All the 26 APC lawmakers are with the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. There is nothing like decamping for now. It is just an action of those trying to bring confusion.”

Ibrahim-Chidari (Makoda, APC), a former deputy speaker, became the new Speaker during plenary on Tuesday when he was nominated by Nuhu Abdullahi, a member representing APC Wudil constituency, a nomination seconded by Sunusi Usman-Batayya, representing Albasu constituency.

The House later unanimously elected Ibrahim-Chidari while Zubairu Hamza Masu (Sumaila, APC) emerged as new Deputy Speaker and Abdul Labaran Madari of Warawa constituency replaced Dashi as Majority Leader with Abdullahi Yaryasa of Tudun Wada constituency as his deputy.

This is the fifth time the House of Assembly is changing its leadership since 2015 when Ganduje became the governor of the state.

In 2015, on the onset of the first term of the governor, Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, member representing Rano constituency at that time, was elected as Speaker of the 8th Kano State House of Assembly. He served from 2015 to 2017 when he was forced to step aside amidst an allegation of collecting money to scuttle the investigation of the then Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II. Rurum denied the allegation.

Under the leadership of Rurum, the House had moved to investigate the then emir for alleged corruption, but later backed down after intervention by prominent Nigerians.

The News Agency of Nigeria had reported that the former Speaker was alleged to have collected N100 million from a business mogul, Aliko Dangote but failed to share the money to members. Dangote’s spokesperson, however, denied that the business mogul gave any money to the speaker or anyone else to halt the impeachment moves.

Shortly after his letter of resignation was read and accepted, the lawmakers elected the then Majority Leader, Yusuf Abdullahi Atta as new speaker.

Atta, who represents Fagge constituency, was nominated by Babangida Yakudima and Zubairu Mamuda and the nomination was unanimously accepted by members, including Rurum.

However, on July 30, 2018, Atta was impeached by 27 out of the 40 members of the Assembly, alongside two other principal officers. His impeachment followed a motion raised by Labaran Abdul Madari, member representing Warawa constituency, and seconded by Abdullahi Chiromawa, member representing Kura/Garum Mallam constituency.

The Assembly had closed, two months before the impeachment, after threats to remove the speaker surfaced, but the issue was rested following the intervention of the state government.

The House witnessed a shakeup, where the deputy speaker resigned and was replaced, as well as other principal officers, yet the impeachment threat was reopened upon resumption.

The reason for the impeachment of the Speaker was formally given as his inability to effectively run the affairs of the House. However, it was widely reported that the real reason behind the impeachment was not unconnected with an alleged disagreement between him and the state government on a proposed policy.

Surprisingly, Rurum, who had resigned and supported the emergence of Atta as Speaker, returned to the position and completed the 8th Assembly. He later proceeded to the House of Representatives after winning the election to represent Rano/Bunkure/Kibiya federal constituency.

Consequently, the Assembly elected the member representing Ajingi constituency, Alhaji Abdulaziz Garba-Gafasa as the new Speaker of the 9th Assembly. The election followed his nomination by the member representing Dala constituency, Lawan Hussain of the PDP during the first plenary of the 9th Assembly.

Gafasa was also speaker during Malam Ibrahim Shekarau’s second tenure as the governor of the state.

The Assembly also elected Ibrahim-Chidari as the Deputy Speaker for the fourth time.

The House of Assembly under Gafasa would be most remembered for passing into law, an executive bill that split the state into five emirates through the creation of four new emirates, leading to the eventual removal of Muhammad Sanusi II as the Emir of Kano.

His leadership of the House was generally believed to be very subservient to the state executive, a reason said to be key to the alleged move to impeach him.