The Nasarawa Emir’s palace, home of Kano’s 15th Emir, Alhaji Ado Bayero, is set to undergo rebuilding and renovation, with a total budget of N99,928,541.63 approved by the Kano State Executive Council.
This was revealed by Governor Abba Yusuf on his official Facebook page as the result of the council’s fifteenth meeting, which took place on Saturday.
Despite a court ruling that overturned the government’s dethronement of Bayero, the state administration ordered his removal from the little palace in Kano’s Nasarawa neighborhood on Thursday.
After Muhammad Sanusi was reinstated as the 16th Emir of Kano, Bayero was forced to relocate from the main palace to the little palace at Nasarawa. But the Federal High Court upheld Bayero as the Emir of Kano and declared Sanusi’s reinstatement to be invalid.
The state administration issued an order to demolish the Nasarawa palace, where the troubled Bayero was staying, and declared that it would fight the ruling. However, security measures prevented the planned demolition of the small palace.
In addition, the state’s commissioner of police, Usaini Gumel, refused an order from the government requesting that Bayero be removed from his property.
However, in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Sunday, Governor Yusuf stated that the state executive council had sanctioned ₦99,928,541.63 for the repair and renovation of the small palace’s damaged wall, fence, and surrounds.
According to the statement, the council also approved a contract for the construction of a post-midwifery institute at Gezawa Local Government Area, worth N770,858,450.39, and the renovation and upgrade of the D-Ward for the creation of a Sickle-Cell Care Unit at the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Kano.
The council also authorized a contract of N57,066,422.52 to finish building the College of Nursing and Midwifery in the Madobi Local Government Area.
The council set aside N447,621,640.79, according to the statement, to pay lecturers at the two state-owned universities, Yusuf Maitama Sule University in Kano and Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology in Wudil, for their excess workloads.
To draw the government’s attention to issues including the governing council’s non-reinstatement, unpaid entitlements, and the university’s egregious underfunding, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities at the two institutions went on a two-week warning strike in May.
