COVID-19: Why President Buhari turned down Kano Governor Ganduje’s N15 Billion Request – Femi Adesina reveals

The presidency has revealed reasons President Muhammadu Buhari refused to approve the N15 billion request made by the Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, to help in fighting Coronavirus in the state.

The president had in March approved N10billion and N5billion to Lagos and Ogun states respectively to help both states in the fight against Coronavirus. but Ganduje made his own request few days after Kano State started recording COVID-19 cases/

Speaking on a Wazobia FM’s live Radio chat, ‘As E Dey Hot’,  Buhari's senior presidential adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, said the President turned down governors request for simply prioritising money over preliminary proactive logistics.

According to him, the FG gave Lagos and Ogun financial assistance after having been convinced that these states had rolled out plans to fight the virus.
He added that Lagos State only requested for technical, manpower and facility support from the Federal Government unlike Kano that wanted just financial support.

“They said it didn’t take 30 days for Lagos to get support, no! It was the work that Lagos was doing that the Federal Government saw and said this state needs help and then helped Lagos State [with N10billion].
“Any other state that is also doing its work and is not grumbling, is not complaining and is not saying ‘bring money, bring money’, the Federal Government will do all that is necessary to assist [that state with the same financial support as Lagos State].

“Technical support is very important and Lagos State brought technical support before it got financial support.
“That was why the president sent technical support to Kano State, which the government felt was what the state needed most at that material time.”