Kano governor needs in-house cleaning of aides

The refusal of the Kano State Commissioner of Police to attend the Independence Day parade at Sani Abacha Stadium has stirred public concern. While the governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, was quick to call on the President to remove the CP, such an approach may not fully address the underlying issue.

The first responsibility of leadership is to look inward. The governor’s security aides and advisers are specifically appointed to maintain harmony between the state government and heads of security agencies. If a Commissioner of Police could ignore such an important national event without any forewarning to the governor, then clearly, there is a failure within the governor’s immediate circle of advisers.

Kano’s political history has shown repeated frictions between governors and federal security chiefs. These clashes are not new, but what matters is how they are managed. Governors who succeeded did so by strengthening their own security architecture, building bridges, and resolving conflicts locally before escalating them to Abuja.

What the governor needs now is not a replacement of the CP, but a thorough in-house cleaning. His advisers must be held accountable for communication lapses, and channels of trust with security agencies must be rebuilt. This will ensure that such embarrassments do not repeat themselves.

Kano, with its population of over 15 million people and its position as a political and economic nerve centre, cannot afford weak coordination between its political and security leaders. True leadership means fixing the house first before pointing fingers outside it.