Ganduje makes U-Turn, says Buhari can visit Kano now

Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano State has given assurances that President Muhammadu Buhari can go ahead with the planned visit to Kano.

“We are very much ready to receive him and we have a lot for him to commission including federal government projects and state government projects. They are state-of-the-art projects,” Ganduje said Sunday after a visit to Buhari’s country home in Daura.

It could be recalled that Ganduje had reportedly earlier urged President Buhari to postpone his visit to Kano citing concerns over currency swap difficulties among others.

The governor however made a U-turn Sunday, while acknowledging that fresh measures approved by the President would address the ssues at stake, especially the Naira notes scarcity.

“Seeing is believing. You can see that I have led a powerful delegation from Kano State on the issue of new naira notes and we have seen Mr. President. We have laid the complaints of the Kano people and we are very happy.

“He explained to us and also he assured us that the time is extended and the quantity of new naira (notes) will increase so that the suffering of the people will be reduced.

“We informed him that Kano is the most populous state in the federation and also the commercial nerve center of the northern part of Nigeria, second to Lagos.

“But in terms of cash transaction, Kano is much higher than Lagos because Lagos has gone far in terms of cashless society, cashless transaction. But Kano State being comparatively a rural state, so to say, still we have 24 local governments without banks. Most of the banks are concentrated within Kano (metropolis).

“So, you can imagine the suffering of the rural areas, rural people in terms of cash transaction. But we are happy that the time has been extended and also the quantum of the naira notes will be increased.

“So, we are so grateful to the President for effort.”