This Article Is Published as a Right of Reply -Editor
By Obadiah Caleb
The world knows that Malam Nasir El-Rufai openly and actively supported Senator Uba Sani’s candidature to succeed him as the governor of Kaduna state, though many believe it was an afterthought, following threats by the Muslim scholars to campaign against Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, his preferred successor. In recognition of that support, and as a mature politician with years of track record of service to country and humanity, Senator Sani whom we all know and respect, has tactically avoided open confrontation with the man who preceded him in office. He is not one of those political gladiators who would cherish and eagerly jump into the ring to fight their erstwhile benefactors.
Rather, Governor Sani has made the wise decision to focus on the onerous job he was elected to do, which is to deliver good governance to the people of Kaduna state, So, it elicited both shock and disbelief among informed citizens of the state when a hatchet writing surfaced in an online news medium, which created the impression that Uba Sani and his predecessor, El-Rufai, are locked in a war of attrition.
The offensive write-up, which carried a deceptive headline as referenced above, and was published on an obscure website on January 14, 2024, seems to suggest that Malam Nasir El-Rufai has relocated to Katsina state, while his counterpart and immediate past Governor of Katsina state, Rt Hon. Aminu Masari, has taken up abode in Kaduna. However, the statement did not refer to the actual swapping of residential places by the former governors. Rather, in the very words of the writer, it is “a euphemism suggesting that the bold ideas and purposeful leadership that the diminutive Malam (El-Rufai) gave to Kaduna state are now being replicated in Katsina, while Kaduna is witnessing the lackluster performance synonymous with the Masari years in Katsina.”
The main focus of the publication, purportedly authored by one Godswill Gankon, from Southern Kaduna, is to portray Governor Uba Sani in a bad light, contrary to the realities on the ground. The wild claim of lacklustre performance against the incumbent governor of Kaduna state, and the messianic delusion about the immediate past administration, are typical of the El-Rufai group. They would always put others down for El-Rufai to loom larger than life. To feel good, they must always make others look bad, one good reason he was never popular amongst his colleague governors. One is tempted to ask: who passed the judgment of poor performance against Hon Masari and Senator Uba Sani? Certainly, not the good people of Katsina and Kaduna states. It is coming from the fertile imagination of the delusional El-Rufai sycophants.
It is easy to tell that Godswill Gankon, the purported weaver of this basket of lies and distortions, against the calculative Governor of our dear state, bears a fake name, which is not surprising. After all, no author of a malicious piece would want to append his true identity to it. The sponsors of the grandiose misinformation deserve commendation for using a Christian from Southern Kaduna considering the weight the write-up will generate. A southern Kaduna man or woman defending Nasir El-Rufai will naturally gain traction, considering the sour relationship between them and the man who unabashedly presented himself as their traducer-in-chief.
There is so much noise about El-Rufai’s developmental strides. The emerging picture, however, is that Kaduna state people were shortchanged while being hoodwinked with media propaganda. The much-touted urban renewal projects, despite a World Bank loan, plus an unapproved facility from Zenith Bank, were left largely uncompleted by the El-Rufai administration. The same thing goes for health, schools, and the public service which the El-Rufai administration left in a battered and pitiful shape, in the name of reforms. Amazingly, a fictitious Gankon is satisfied with El-Rufai’s 70:30 percent discriminatory policy against the good people of Southern Kaduna, which equally saw the former governor denying Christians the traditional deputy governor position they have always occupied since the creation of the state.
In continuation of a futile attempt to sustain his false identity claim, Gankon wrote: “As someone from Southern Kaduna, I am not a fan of Malam Nasir El-Rufai because of some of his actions and inactions. But, my reservations notwithstanding, one cannot in good conscience deny his developmental strides within the eight years that he held sway as helmsman in our dear Kaduna state.”
Here comes the interesting aspect of the unwarranted attack and campaign of calumny deployed against Governor Uba Sani. It was based on the belief that the incumbent governor is solidly behind some clandestine plots to rubbish or deny the so-called developmental strides of Malam Nasir El-Rufai. Those who know the facts can testify that Senator Uba Sani, before the malicious attack on his humane approach to governance and public policy, has never engaged anyone to help him denigrate the fabled “achievements” of the immediate past administration.
But how did the former governor and his chorus singers conclude that Senator Uba is at war with them? Let us, again, refer to the obnoxious online publication which pushed us to make this response. It says: “In recent times, there have been media reports and interviews suggesting some friction in the relationship between the incumbent governor of Kaduna state, Senator Uba Sani, and his predecessor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai”. And what is the evidence of this concocted friction?
It’s laughable that the only evidence of the so-called friction between Governor Sani and his predecessor are the words of Alhaji Yahaya Jisambo and an unnamed public servant. The two men, in separate media interviews, had allegedly been engaged in painting the El-Rufai administration black by either questioning the intention or the cost of the projects it initiated or executed. Sadly while no proof has been provided to convince anyone that the people who questioned El-Rufai’s projects did so on behalf of the incumbent governor, the El-Rufai gang has nevertheless declared war on the poor man.
What the public knows, for a certainty, is that Alhaji Yahaya Jisambo and many others who know the facts have publicly expressed negative views and legitimate concerns about El-Rufai’s policies. And they are entitled to their opinion. Or, when has questioning the cost of government projects become a crime, especially when the projects were not completed? What we see littered in several parts of the state are over-priced and abandoned projects, including in Kafanchan, where the author of the offensive publication claims to live.
The El-Rufai sympathisers think that Governor Sani ought to have stopped anyone from speaking against anything done by the immediate past administration, whether right or wrong. In the alternative, they expected the state government to respond with an official rebuttal to any public criticism of past policies of the government that continue to tell badly on the welfare of the people. That was the kind of undemocratic practice that El-Rufai favoured during his time in office. But Senator Uba Sani, who is made of sterner stuff, has refused to toe El-Rufai’s hardline. As a well-honed democrat, who fought for the entrenchment of democracy, he knows that not everyone in his government or political party would agree on every issue in discourse. Governor Sani respects the rights of people to disagree.
True democrats can disagree to agree on policy directions and still share a stake in ensuring that whatever policy is agreed to will be implemented in the best interest of the greater number of Kaduna state residents. Allowing people in government to express divergent views shows Uba Sani’s commitment to the legitimate rights of the people, which El-Rufai never recognized. He can only authorize and own anything published by his official media aides, but he cannot stop anyone else, not those of us watching from outside, from expressing our views on matters of public interest. Kaduna State belongs to us and El-Rufai is no longer in a position to shut us up with threats of court actions.
As part of our reaction to the antagonistic publication against Governor Uba Sani, we consider it appropriate to respond directly to some of the issues raised in the malicious piece. For instance, El-Rufai and his cohorts have continued to boast about quantum leaps in the Internal Generation Revenue (IGR) of the state during their tenure. For the records, IGR grew from less than N13 billion in 2015 (when El-Rufai resumed office) to N58.09 billion at the eve of his departure in 2023.
No doubt, we all can say that the El-Rufai administration did a fantastic job in this regard. But it still doesn’t explain why the debt profile of Kaduna state ballooned to high heavens, and many projects were stalled by lack of financial backup, despite the impressive leap in revenue collection. The improvement in local receivables also depreciates in real meaning when placed in the context of excessive borrowing for both local and international money lenders. It just doesn’t add up, and the best the El-Rufai cheerleaders can do is to shut up and allow the incumbent to navigate the rickety boat left behind by the past administration.
Another repulsive aspect of the January 14, 2024, attack on the current administration in the state was the insinuation that Governor Uba Sani, rather than working hard to fix whatever needed to be fixed, is busy looking for scapegoats to blame for his lackluster performance. In our view, nothing could be farther from the realities on ground. First, to my knowledge, the incumbent governor has never spoken out about the challenges of clearing the Augean stables, or the huge mess, that Nasir El-Rufai left behind after eight years of mercurial recklessness. Instead, Senator Sani has quietly, but methodically, instituted strict financial regulations to ensure the prudent use of public funds for the maximum benefit of the people. No lamentation has been heard from him, either directly or from his official spokespersons, unlike El-Rufai who regularly berated his predecessors throughout his tenure. In keeping quiet over the misdeeds of El-Rufai and the resultant precarious economic and social conditions of Kaduna State, Governor Uba Sani in my view is simply paying the price of friendship.
Governor Uba Sani has without doubt kept faith with his promise to provide good governance. It was true that he sang El-Rufai’s praises to the high heavens during the electioneering campaign, and promised to sustain and build on the legacies of the outgoing regime. Even then, some of those who knew better than him (because he was looking from outside) warned him to be cautious about wholesale approval of El-Rufai. Now in the saddle, he has seen the true picture of things. It is not as rosy as it seemed from the outside, but the governor is striving to make the best of a bad situation.
They would want to impale the incumbent governor for making some personnel changes in some areas of the public service. Is that fair to stop a governor from tweaking his workforce for optimum performance? The good people of our dear state can rest assured that the removal of certain officials did not, in any way, mean that Senator Uba Sani has broken the promises he made to the people. Several key officials from the El-Rufai administration are still in their seat. It’s the obnoxious mentality of “we know it all” that makes the El-Rufai gang always conclude that if it’s not them, every other person is incompetent.
We recall that, as part of the electioneering campaign, Malam Nasir El-Rufai had pledged not to get involved, or seek to teleguide the actions and choices of his successor. But it’s public knowledge that he reneged on that noble promise. He singlehandedly nominated Sani Jafaru as a minister, when the Senate rightly rejected him after watching the video of him boasting about Islamization plot. He certainly made input into appointments, while promising to stay away.
No matter what Governor Sani’s detractors may say or do, Governor Sani will certainly succeed. The signs are there. He is richly endowed with human empathy. He understands the need to heal the state first, while also delivering on his promises. Among other commendable steps, the government of Uba Sani has laid the foundation stone for skills acquisition centers, one in each senatorial district, to train and equip the teeming youths of Kaduna State with the technical and vocational skills needed to successfully compete in the modern economy. He recently recruited 7,000 men and women into the state vigilante services to strengthen security across the state and the effort seems to be yielding incremental benefits in the declining incidence of criminalities in the state.
We conclude by rephrasing the concluding part of the sponsored attack on Governor Uba Sani. Indeed, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has had his time and left the stage when the ovation was loudest. He should desist from causing distraction for his successor but rather allow him to govern the state as he deems fit. El-Rufai should enjoy his well-deserved rest and pursue other private endeavours while those in the saddle try to justify the confidence reposed in them instead of having to respond to unwarranted attacks from El-Rufai’s attack dogs.
