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Tag: el-Rufai

  • El-Rufai : A governor and his tissue of lies

    El-Rufai : A governor and his tissue of lies

    An attempt by Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir El-Rufai to rubbish the contribution of the chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the Southwest to the success of the party in the 2015 presidential election has drawn the ire of many Nigerians. They condemned the statement, which he made in a memo to the President, describing it as reckless. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN reports:

    MONTHS after it became a public document, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s secret memo to President Muhammadu Buhari continues to generate controversies. He is said to be trying to belittle the significant role played by the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in President Buhari’s victory in the 2015 presidential election.

    El-Rufai had in a controversial memo addressed to Buhari created the impression that Tinubu and his group from the Southwest have blown their contribution to the APC victory out of proportion. He stated in the memo: “The Lagos group, more or less led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is the most organised and proactive. This group made a key contribution in our electoral success, but like all groupings, it naturally exaggerates its role in order to increase its influence in the coming administration. The group will use the media to promote its own “GMB Boys” or suggest Northerners of their choice that they think would do their bidding.”

    To lend credence to his assumption, El-Rufai alleged that “some already are boasting that they will choose the next petroleum minister and the executive leadership of the NNPC. They will seek direct control or great influence over key economic portfolios, including agencies involved in revenue generation (NNPC, FIRS, Customs, etc.) law enforcement (Attorney General, EFCC etc.) and financial services regulation (CBN, SEC, PenCom etc). This group will seek an alliance with some GMB family members to help strengthen their pre-eminent position in these areas”.

    Nigerians are unanimous in condemning El-Rufai’s attempt to rubbish the contribution of Tinubu in formation of APC and its victory in 2015; and for trying to sow the seed of discord between the North and the Southwest that came together for the first time to rescue Nigeria from misrule and inept leadership.

    Elder statesman and Afenifere leader Senator Ayo Fasanmi could not understand what El- Rufai wanted to achieve with his memo. He said it is absolutely impossible to write the history of APC, its formation and registration without mentioning the significant role played by Tinubu. He cautioned the Kaduna State governor against making ridiculous statements and urged him to face the business of good governance to restore peace in his state.

    Fasanmi said: “Without the combined efforts of Tinubu and other progressive leaders, the story of APC could have been different.  The position we find the country in which President Buhari is fighting corruption with vigour would not have existed.

    “It does not matter where the president comes from. What should be our concern, I mean the progressives in this country, is how to move the country forward, which I believe is the concern of President Buhari and the leadership of the APC. I wonder why the likes of El-Rufai should be making statements that could cause division, not only within the APC, but the country as a whole.

    “Nigeria must come together to rescue the country; support the administration of President Buhari in his tireless efforts to restore normalcy to the polity and reposition the country.”

    A lawyer and human rights activist, Mr Monday Ubani, said El- Rufai was not sincere with his  claim over the contribution of Tinubu to APC victory in 2015. He said: “El-Rufai has a very bad mindset for making such a statement. I respect him as an intelligent person, but he is very treacherous and not a sincere person; he sees himself as the Alpha and Omega. There was no way Buhari could have won, if he had gone it alone; it was Tinubu and the Southwest that made it possible for him to win”.

    Ubani said Tinubu played a great role in the amalgamation of legacy parties and the emergence of the APC. “He made sure Buhari emerged as presidential candidate and won the election. Asiwaju sacrificed his personal ambition for Buhari to emerge as President after two unsuccessful attempts.

    “It is true Buhari has credibility, but if he didn’t market it well, he can’t win. Tinubu and the people of the Southwest did that for him. He became popular in the South for the first time. El-Rufai’s memo cannot undermine the significant contributions made by Tinubu and Southwest.

    “Let me say for record purpose that President Buhari has never forgotten the contribution of Asiwaju; he said it privately and openly that, without the support of Asiwaju and Southwest, he couldn’t have won the presidential election.”

    Afenifere scribe Chief Seinde Arogbofa was disappointed with the El-Rufai’s comment. Tinubu, he said, unilaterally led the Southwest to Buhari’s camp and wondered why the governor would undermine his role.

    Arogbofa said: “It was not too long ago that many people frowned at the treatment being meted out to Tinubu in the APC because we thought whatever may be his shortcoming, he didn’t deserve such treatment from a party he laboured to bring to power.

    ‘’Tinubu was a force in APC.  Although, different political groups came together to form the APC like Action Congress of Nigeria, led by Tinubu, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Buhari’s CPC. But, the most crucial factor was that of Tinubu in making Buhari president.But for Tinubu, the success story would have been otherwise.”

    Lagos State APC Chairman Otunba Oladele Ajomale said Tinubu was the brain behind the formation of APC, adding nobody can take the leadership of the party from him. He said the ACN which, Tinubu led to the negotiation table for the formation of APC, was a senior partner. “We went there with six governors, the highest produced by the parties that merged to form APC,” he stressed.

    Ajomale recalled that Asiwaju started crusade for the power shift, saying that he should not be rubbished. “Whatever you do you must reap the fruits of your labour,” he said.

    He lamented some leaders were trying to put things right, few are trying to create problems within the party to truncate APC’s plan for the country.

    El-Rufai’s political rival, Senator Shehu Sani, also had harsh words to the governor.

    Sani, who represents Kaduna Central in the Senate, said it was unfortunate that El-Rufai who, smiles with Tinubu during the day light, stings him at night. He described the governor’s act as sad, unfortunate, perfidious and the height of ingratitude.

    He added: “We must accept the stark truth that without Tinubu and the principled position of the Southwest, dislodging Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling PDP  could have still remain a pipe dream, a hollow hope or a political mirage.El-Rufai defecates on a broom that is supposed to clean the littered floor of the nation.

    “President Buhari is the heart of APC and Asiwaju is the lungs. Tinubu’s contribution to the success of the party is unequalled. El Rufai smiles with Tinubu broad day light and stings him at night. He hugs Tinubu with a chest of hooks and shakes him with toxic palms.

    “El-Rufai should publicly apologise to Tinubu and the Southwest. To insult a man publicly and apologise to him privately is to eat your cake and have it. Those heavily drinking from the liquor of power should know that they will later or lately have to drive back home.”

  • El-Rufai v Sani: Hurdles ahead Kaduna 2019 governorship race

    El-Rufai v Sani: Hurdles ahead Kaduna 2019 governorship race

    As the war of words between Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El- Rufai and Senator Shehu Sani continues unabated, Abdulgafar Alabelewe in Kaduna reports that the quest for Kaduna State’s governorship seat is behind the battle 

    With the new twists to the feud between Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai and the Senator representing Kaduna Central in the upper legislative chamber, Senator Shehu Sani, the battle line may have been drawn between the duo, even though they are from the same party.

    Before last few weeks, a lot of people thought the rift between them had been laid to rest, until El-Rufai spoke to newsmen in Lagos, saying Sani was criticising him to position himself to take over as the state governor in 2019, but that the Senator is not a threat to his political ambition.

    Typical of an activist-turned politician, Sani wasted no time at firing back, as he took to his Facebook page with an idiomatic expression that, “Whoever throws a stone to a peaceful beehive should not expect a shower of flowers”, and through parable, Sani has in the last few weeks used every available medium to lash at El-Rufai.

    The Nation observed that the crisis of ego between the duo predated their emergence as governor and senator respectively. Sani was not in the El-Rufai’s camp during the primary, just as the governor, then APC aspirant, also had his preferred candidate, the then incumbent, Senator Mohammed Sani Saleh, just like El-Rufai himself was the preferred candidate of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    However, El-Rufai’s candidate lost to Sani. Also, the camps, including those of the governorship aspirants, became difficult to be united for the success of the party. The situation was only managed to the general election as APC won both the gubernatorial and senatorial seats, except that of Kaduna South, which was won by the PDP.

    Soon after their victory, the sour relationship between El-Rufai and Sani became a common knowledge, especially when the senator started criticising his governor’s policies and programmes publicly.

    Chief among the highly criticised policies of El-Rufai by Sani was the abolition of Ramadan and Sallah gifts, as well as Christmas largesse distributed to prominent persons and organisations by the PDP government, which El-Rufai had described as fraudulent, as he said resources meant for the development of the state and better life for the common people was being wasted on gifts to majority of people who could afford them.

    But contrary to the said governor’s move to save the state’s resources for developmental projects, Sani went public to condemn the cancellation of the Ramadan and Sallah gifts and went further to revive it within his constituency. In fact, the Senator was then nicknamed, ‘Mai Rakumi’ at the event where he distributed rams, cows and camels to his constituents.

    So, for every action taken by the El-Rufai’s administration, Senator Sani has a second opinion. For instance, during the land recovery exercise, where the state government was taking back public institutions’ lands from those who illegally built on them, Sani granted series of press interviews, condemning government’s action.

    The senator went further to accuse El-Rufai of running the state in such a way that, “he will end up ruining all of us, which I will not be part of. He has taken some steps which have only attracted anger from the general public against him.

    “He is a governor, I’m also a senator. He is not bigger than me, neither am I bigger than him. So, as far as I’m concerned, whether El-Rufai is a governor or whatever, anything which he does that does not tally with what is supposed to be done, I will certainly tell him,” he added.

    Explaining further the basis for his anger, Sani added: “He (El-Rufai) is a technocrat, while I’m an activist and a revolutionary. So, my power base is the common people, the masses who constitute my strength. They are the people I have lived with and fought for over the years. The way the governor is running the affairs of government in Kaduna State is the one which, if care is not taken, we will all sink.

    “He has to take consideration of the fact that he met people that were impoverished, that were muscled, harassed and demoralised by the government of the PDP. So, first of all, they don’t need harsh policies that will further impoverish and alienate them. We need to carry them along, taking cognisance of the situation which we find them in. I fundamentally differ with him on that issue.

    “Kaduna is a place I have lived all my life and since I came out of prison in 1998, I have never been out of Kaduna for more than two weeks and I’ve never been appointed to any public office which I will live in Abuja and not know what is happening in Kaduna. So, I can tell you that within Kaduna North, Kaduna South and metropolis of Kaduna, there is hardly any street that I don’t know anybody,” Sani claimed.

    El-Rufai in the recent interview said Senator Sani was only angry with him because, he (El-Rufai) didn’t consider the senator’s men for appointment as commissioners. He however claimed that, Sani’s men were not qualified to be part of his cabinet.

    According to the governor, “Sani’s history is that of an activist, of some type and it is up to you to determine the adjective. He contested the APC primaries and defeated the candidate that I supported (General Sani Saleh), and after the primaries, I brought everyone together and said we all have to win this election. I got Saleh to support him, and we supported him fully.

    “I think the problem is that because Shehu Sani’s mind is that of an activist, he thinks that the way to position himself, is through the media. He thinks politics is being in the media all the time. Activism is different from politics. Sometimes in politics, you don’t want your name in the media, but activists’ oxygen is the media, and he thinks that the way to remain visible and prepare him for running for governor of Kaduna State in 2019 is to criticise everything I do. Even if I breathe air, he will criticise it.

    “I told my media team not to respond to him; we are a government of everybody, including Shehu Sani. Let the party apparatchik respond to him, let people in the streets respond to him, and I also told them to let’s work, let’s produce results because we will get to the point that nobody can come and criticise us.

    “Because of the things he has been doing, criticising President Buhari, saying all sorts of things about me, the party disciplinary process was initiated against him, but he blames it on me. He thinks I engineered it. But frankly, I don’t care about Shehu Sani. I don’t think he is a threat to me politically or in any way. In 2018 when the whistle is blown, we will see who has support on the ground in Kaduna. It is not an issue that I bother about”, he said.

    On the issue of appointments into his government, El-Rufai said “I can choose who to empower. I am the governor of the state, and I have to make appointments, and in making the appointments, I have to balance merit, loyalty and paying off other debts. I don’t owe Shehu Sani anything; he owes me. I asked all of them, including Shehu Sani, to give me names of people that I will appoint to positions, they gave me, and I looked at them, and none of the people from Shehu Sani’s list is good enough to be a commissioner in my cabinet.

    “Shehu Sani’s first anger was that the list of commissioners came out and none from his list. In a state where there are about 10,000 PhDs that I have in my data base; I am not going to take a diploma holder and make him a commissioner just because he is Shehu Sani’s man. I don’t operate like that. When President Obasanjo called me and said he was going to make me a minister, I gave him a condition that ‘you don’t appoint members of my team, I will appoint my team,’ and that is the person that appointed me. If you have a difficult job, you have to appoint your own team.

    “One of the commissioners we appointed has a PhD in Physics; he was a director in the Federal Civil Service. I never saw him until the day that I swore him in. We just looked at his CV, somebody brought it, and we appointed him based on his CV because there is a job to be done. Do I do this all the time? No! When we were appointing local government chairmen, I didn’t get involved. I said let us go and look at those who worked for us at the grassroots and appoint them local government chairmen and councillors.

    “There are 225 councillors in Kaduna State, 23 local government chairmen; I did not appoint one. I left it to the party and our leaders. I said go and do it. But when they brought the list, I looked, and there was no woman; I said it is not possible, 23 chairmen and no woman? So, I looked, I saw one woman councillor in one local government, and I made her chairman! That was the only thing I did. I got two women to be local government chairmen! That was what I did.

    “I did not appoint one person because they are not working directly with me. But the people that work directly with me, I must have confidence that they can deliver. However, many politicians don’t like this because the PDP system of distribution has become so ingrained that people feel entitled that once they help you win an election, you must give them commissioners’ slots or so. Even Obasanjo that made me Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) did not send me one person to work with me”, said El-Rufai.

    Interventions and the hurdles ahead

    With this war of words, the two party men became enemies who don’t see each other face to face. For any event organised by the state government, Senator Sani was always conspicuously absent without any representation or apology, until when Sani lost his mother. El-Rufai paid him a condolence visit, and many thought that was the end of the political war, until weeks after when they both refused to sheath their swords.

    In the heat of the renewed attack, the party at the state level could not help but slam the senator with an 11 month suspension, a situation which dragged the National Vice Chairman of the APC in charge of North West, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir, to wade into the crisis.

    But rather than solve the problem, sources said Abdulkadir’s intervention compounded the crisis. At a peace meeting he called to resolve the crisis, only party stakeholders from Sani’s camp were in attendance, a situation which apparently got the Zonal Vice Chairman angry and overruled the Senator’s suspension by the local chapter of the party.

    The local chapter of the APC, which had turned deaf ear to the Zonal Vice Chairman’s position went further to suspend Sani indefinitely after the expiration of the previous 11 months sanction. Since then, the Senator has not been participating in all the party affairs, but has remained critical of El-Rufai and his government.

    Sen. Sani, just like other El-Rufai’s antagonists took a whip at the governor over his recently leaked memo to President Muhammadu Buhari, saying ‘El-Rufai hugs Buhari in the day time and stabs him at night”. The Senator also wasted no time at joining those who condemned El-Rufai for his alleged denigrating of the contributions of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his South-West base to the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 elections, saying the governor’s remarks on the APC stalwart was the height of ingratitude.

    The senator, in a statement he made available to The Nation, countered El-Rufai, when he said the contributions of the former Lagos State Governor and the South-West to the victory of the APC in the last general elections, was unparalleled, arguing that, without Tinubu, the victory over the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have remained a mere dream.

    According to him, “The memo, written by Kaduna Governor which tends to belittle the contribution of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the South-West is sad and unfortunate. It is perfidious and the height of ingratitude. We must accept the stalk truth that without Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and the principled position of the South-West, dislodging Goodluck Jonathan and the then ruling PDP could have still remained a pipe dream, a hollow hope or a political mirage. El-Rufai defecated on a broom that is supposed to clean the littered floor of the nation.

    “President Buhari is the heart of APC and Asiwaju is the lungs. Tinubu’s contribution to the success of the party is unequal. El-Rufai smiles with Tinubu in broad daylight and stings him at night. He hugs Tinubu with a chest of hooks and shakes him with toxic palms. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a man who built a castle for others to live and asked to appreciate the gift of a room in the boys’ quarters. Those who rubbished a hunter who borrowed them his arrow to disable an antelope will someday come back for same arrow to disable a lion.

    “Tinubu honoured many official invitations to Kaduna, unknowingly; he was back-stabbed with an acidic memo. Tinubu has a history of being betrayed and has a history of overcoming betrayal. The future of the APC is with Buhari and the South-West. Without Buhari and the South-West, the change train will derail and end in smithereens like the fate of Yugoslavia or Soviet Union.

    “President Buhari should be watchful of those who prey behind him and pray before him. Tinubu is an indispensable major component of change. My knowledge of Tinubu dates back to the NADECO days when we were in the trenches during the struggle against military dictatorship.

    “El-Rufai should publicly apologise to Tinubu and the South-West for degrading their contribution to the liberation of Nigeria. To insult a man publicly and apologise to him privately is eat your cake and have it. Those heavily drinking from the liquor of power should know that they will later or lately have to drive back home,” he said.

    The Senator had less than 24 hours before commenting on the governor’s memo when he received traders from a local market (Kasuwan Barci) in Kaduna, which is under the state government’s plan for demolition, saying APC may lose Kaduna State, “if El-Rufai continues with his ‘anti-people’ policies.” He said, the ‘anti-people’ policies of the APC’s administration in Kaduna State is sending people away, arguing that, many people now only have faith in Buhari not in the party any more.

    According to the senator, “most programmes of government in the state are not in favour of the people and if it continues, APC will pay for it. The current administration’s policies are only designed to please some certain group of people in the state”.

    He however urged the state government to shelve plan to demolish the market, famous for its textile and second hand clothing, saying demolishing such market with 4,800 shops at this time of hardship would spell doom for thousands of families.

    Though, neither the governor nor his media handlers responded to Sani, the local APC in a swift reaction described the senator as a political ‘scavenger’ who feeds from the suffering of a common man. The party’s scribe, Salisu Tanko Wusono, urged the party supporters to ignore Sani, for “he is a reckless and disloyal senator that the APC has placed on indefinite suspension”.

    Wusono added that, “The Kaduna State APC team is proud of the record of the APC state government. We are delighted that we have a government that is ready and able to take decisions, and a government that is willing to engage constructively with those who share its passion for progress.

    “Whether it is roads or markets, the government has an obligation to improve them. As shown in Rigasa and Ungwan Dosa, to really improve roads means to dualise them. This means that some structures have to be removed to make this possible. Engagements between government and the residents of Rigasa and Ungwan Dosa have made it possible to arrive at mutual agreements on compensation and cooperation for the projects.

    “Similarly, the government wishes to modernise markets where it is necessary to do so. Traders in Kasuwan Barci have written to government to express their views on why their market should be excluded at this time. The government has directed the relevant agencies to have stakeholder engagements with the traders on the matter. And we trust that once that directive is implemented, a positive solution will be agreed with the traders.

    “The APC urges all its supporters to ignore scavengers like Shehu Sani, a reckless and disloyal senator that the APC has placed on indefinite suspension. Political scavengers treat the concerns of ordinary people as an opportunity to eat.

    “When citizens struggle to find constructive paths to solve the challenges of life, he inserts himself into processes that are advanced. But he will not get what he wants. He will not be allowed to derail the legitimate wishes of the government and the traders of Kasuwan Barci for a better market”, he said.

    But, a party chieftain and National Chairman of Buhari Like-Minds Movement of Nigeria, Hon. Ibrahim Bello Rigachikun, wants Governor El-Rufai and Senator Sani to reconcile their differences and forge a common ground in the interest of the party ahead of the 2019 General Elections, and he is hopeful that the crisis will become a thing of the past.

    Rigachikun opined that the feud is not a war but a campaign of violence, as each of Governor El-Rufai and Senator Shehu Sani is only protecting his political structure.

    According to Rigachikun, “I believe the leadership of the party in the state which could not comply with the manifesto and constitution of the APC is partly to blame. For instance, the party constitution makes it clear that when a seat is vacant, filling same should not be automatic but that election should hold. The Deputy Governor of Kaduna State was the Chairman of the APC in the State, and he became the Deputy Governor. The Secretary of the party became a Commissioner and is now the Chief of Staff to the Governor. So, the flagrant disobedience of the laid procedures by the party became a huge challenge at the onset.

    “So, if there had been reconciliation with those seats legitimately filled, I do not think these problems would arise today. We, the stakeholders have shown concern by drawing the attention of the party leadership in the state to what is happening because if things continue this way, we may have problems in 2019.

    “Whether we like it or not, we need the cooperation of the governor, and that of the senator for they both have their strength. I must say that I am convinced that sooner than later, the two would reconcile their differences in the interest of the party. Has there been any conscientious effort by stakeholders to bring the two together? It has been quite difficult to bring them together because the leadership of the party at the state level is not strong enough. The party leadership has not been able to broker the peace largely because of this.

    “It would be very heartwarming if they can sheathe their swords to keep the peace. This is a crisis that ought to have been over two or three months after the elections, but here we are. Like I said, it is time to put their differences aside, and those who can call the senator and the governor to order should please do so now. But politically, some people are quite happy that the two men are fighting each other because that in itself is a source of food for them. Do not forget that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.

    “It is rather unfortunate that people like us are no longer seen as relevant because we should have waded in to settle this matter a long time ago. The only option is reconciliation but as things stand today, the opposition is very happy with what is happening to us, and they are praying for peace to elude us from now till 2019 when another round of elections would take place.

    “A lot of people love our party in Kaduna State, and it is very unfortunate that this is happening today. We expect these two highly respected men to reconcile their differences especially since elections are over”, he said.

    If the INEC timetable for the 2019 General Elections is anything to go by, it is already less than two years to the polls. The question however is that, can the two party bigwigs who have engaged in battle of supremacy for two years reconcile overnight? If the common political saying that, ‘there is no permanent friend or permanent enemy, but permanent interest’ plays out, good for both of them. The fear is that, if that doesn’t play out, opposition party will certainly take that advantage and give APC a run for its money.

    Looking at the body language and Senator Sani’s constant engagement with those having one issue or the other with El-Rufai, one would be quick to conclude that, he is really determined to slug the governorship seat with El-Rufai in 2019. Aside several interventions he has made within his constituency, observers said some Hausa singers have recorded tracks already addressing the Senator as Kaduna Governor by 2019.

    But considering that, all the 11 APC lawmakers in House of Representatives from the state, as well all the 28 APC lawmakers in the Kaduna State House of Assembly are loyal to El-Rufai’s leadership, the battle promises to be tough for the activist Senator. In fact, if the state party structure remains as it is in the hands of Governor El-Rufai, Shehu Sani’s alleged gubernatorial ambition will not only meet a brick wall, retaining his present seat in the Senate will also be more difficult than a camel passing through the eye of a needle, except if the Senator decamps to another party to pick a ticket.

  • El-Rufai and his disruptive memo

    Asked to substantiate his allegation that some Senators demanded gratification from him to approve his appointment as minister in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai had said God was his witness. Not a few wondered at the time if God would come down from heaven to testify in his case. It was around year 2000. El-Rufai had appeared before the Senate Ethics Committee, which summoned him over the allegation. Some Peoples Democratic Party leaders, particularly then Vice President Atiku Abubakar, had to intervene in the matter to pacify the Senate before el-Rufai was cleared for the ministerial job. He was subsequently appointed Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister by President Obasanjo. He did not leave that office without leaving behind some footprints. El-Rufai did some remarkable things in that office quite alright, but as is his tradition, he ended up a baggage for the Obasanjo government, destroying and demolishing the houses of mostly his critics and political foes under the guise of restoring Abuja master plan.

    The ways of el-Rufai, now Kaduna State governor, have always been puzzling. Attempting a de-construction of the governor in his memoir, ‘My Watch (Vol.2),’ President Obasanjo said el-Rufai was loyal to nobody but himself. “Very early in my interaction with him, I appreciated his talent and brilliance. At the same time, I recognised his weakness,” the former president wrote in the book. “The worst is his inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue consistently for long, but only to Nasir el-Rufai,” he added.

    Nothing can be more accurate than that Obasanjo’s categorization of el-Rufai. This classification of the Kaduna governor has been further exemplified by the way he treated President Buhari recently. Though he called the president his leader and mentor, yet he fired a damaging memo to Buhari, where he took his administration to the cleaners. He said Buhari had failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians and that the nation was drifting away under his watch. Since he had access to the president, would it not have been better for el-Rufai to have sought audience with him and communicated his views directly to Buhari? But that was vintage el-Rufai. That memo was to become a ready tool in the hands of critics and opponents of the Buhari administration to launch a blistering attack on the regime. That move by the Kaduna governor also seemed to have exacerbated the division and dysfunction in the presidency. I shall return to this shortly.

    In the 29-page memo, el-Rufai scoffed at the president, saying he surrounded himself with inexperienced and clueless officials. After the memo went public, the Kaduna governor claimed his secret correspondence to the president was leaked ‘from the Villa,’ apparently suggesting that the same people he had labelled inexperienced had leaked the memo. With that squabble, the battle line seems to have been drawn between those ‘inexperienced’ officials and el-Rufai and the Kaduna governor appeared to have been crushed by the same ‘inexperienced’ men in the seeming power tussle at the Villa.

    El-Rufai’s memo reeks of hate. He claimed the memo was not ill-motivated but he gave himself away when he cast aspersion on the group he called the Lagos group led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He claimed the contribution of the group to Buhari’s victory in the 2015 election was exaggerated. This is how he put it on Page 23 of the memo: “The Lagos group more or less led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the most organized and proactive. This group made a key contribution in our electoral success, but like all groupings it naturally exaggerates its role in order to increase its influence in the coming administration”. To put down such in a memo to the president clearly reinforces the depiction of el-Rufal as a disloyal, divisive, ungrateful and unappreciative person who recognises only himself and his interests in the scheme of things.

    El-Rufai was being mischievous when he sought to create the impression that Tinubu’s only contribution to APC’s victory at the centre in 2015 was in influencing the party’s victory in the South-west. Yes, this was crucial, indeed vital, to the outcome of the election. This is because in Buhari’s three previous failed attempts at the presidency, he never enjoyed the support of a South-west mistrustful of his perceived ethno-regional parochialism and Islamic extremism. But the truth is Tinubu’s contribution to the displacement of a sitting president at the centre goes far beyond what el-Rufai describes as the South-west support. Tinubu and the South-west galvanised the entire nation to back the candidacy of Buhari, leading the way for others to follow.

    The former Lagos governor has one of the strongest relationships with key elite groups across the North. It is on record that he criss-crossed the North and worked hard to win over many influential elites in that region who were suspicious and distrustful of Buhari to support him in 2015.  In his three previous abortive attempts at the presidency, Buhari had considerable grassroots support in the North but at best only very lukewarm acceptance among the region’s influential elite. Jagaban Borgu was a crucial factor in helping to build the very vital support for Buhari among critical power centres in the North that also played a major role in the outcome of the election. This is not to mention Tinubu’s ceaseless and clearly incomparable intellectual, tactical, strategic, organizational, logistical and material contributions to Buhari’s victory. And of course his leading strategic and organizational role in moulding the APC into the awesome political coalition that it became.

    Ironically, the same el-Rufai was in the fence-mending delegation led by Buhari to Tinubu’s Bourdillon, Ikoyi home to plead for another alliance with his ACN after the CPC bungled the earlier one in the build-up to the 2011 election. Buhari’s arrogant CPC had unilaterally picked Pastor Tunde Bakare as presidential running mate without consultations with the then ACN with which it had an alliance. Of course, ACN opted out. The result: Buhari lost to President Jonathan with all the states in the South-west except Osun voting for Jonathan.  At that fence-mending meeting at Bourdillon, which also had Bakare in attendance, el-Rufai was on record to have said that the delegation knew that without Tinubu, Buhari was going nowhere with his presidential ambition. The former FCT minister specifically told Tinubu that “you have been proved right too many times for us to refuse to listen to you”.

    Therefore, to insinuate that Tinubu- led ‘Lagos Group’ was exaggerating its contributions to Buhari’s victory in the 2015 election and on that basis seeking to clinch plum and financially-viable positions in the Buhari administration also shows that el-Rufai is one of those principally responsible for poisoning relationships within the APC and sowing the seed of the mistrust, disharmony, fractionalization and ill-will that has plagued the party till date. This perhaps must have been responsible for the way Buhari constituted his cabinet alienating key groups responsible for his victory in the election particularly Tinubu and his close supporters. It is obvious that even beyond not rewarding Tinubu’s nominees in his cabinet, Buhari also ensured that the Tinubu group had no meaningful influence or input whatsoever in the policy direction of the administration. Buhari’s stance towards the Tinubu group, after that el-Rufai’s memo, became markedly different from his attitude both after the presidential primaries in Lagos and after his victory in the election proper. In the immediate aftermath of the primaries, during the campaigns and after the election, Buhari, on several occasions, publicly acknowledged Tinubu’s invaluable contribution to his victory. That he could be so easily swayed to adopt a thinly-disguised hostile attitude to Tinubu appears to be a reflection of the quality of Buhari’s leadership and character trait.

    El-Rufai’s memo to Buhari also betrays the fact that he has been the arrowhead of the ceaseless and vigorous efforts to create a wedge between Tinubu and Buhari within the APC and whittle down the influence of Asiwaju within the party. This obsession with marginalizing Tinubu’s group in the APC first manifested itself in the fiasco that was the National Assembly leadership elections, with the then el-Rufai-led Abuja cabal of the party spearheading the bungling of the process with the Buhari administration shooting itself in the foot with negative and costly implications for the cohesion of the ruling party in the National Assembly, for harmonious Executive-Legislative relations at the centre and particularly for the president’s anti-corruption war. This ultimately self-defeating anti-Tinubu obsession also played itself out in the Kogi governorship election impunity that has done incalculable harm to the moral integrity of the APC as well as the controversial and fraudulent handling of the APC governorship primaries in Ondo State.

    El-Rufai’s all too well-known opportunistic antecedents make it obvious that his mischievous antics have absolutely nothing to do with any genuine affection for President Buhari as a person or interest in the wellbeing of the APC as a party. All that el-Rufai cares about is el-Rufai’s selfish interest. Unfortunately, this exceedingly egotistic politician, whose extremist belief in Fulani supremacy compounds the intractable crisis in Southern Kaduna, has been caught and incapacitated in the web of his own intrigues. El-Rufai has been outwitted and sidelined by a far more wily inner power circle around Buhari, thus utterly neutralizing his subtle and insidious agenda of exploiting his purported closeness to Buhari to surreptitiously build up a power base around himself within the APC with which to achieve his now clearly-doomed higher political aspirations. Those who know him so well have seen between the lines and have openly lambasted him for his infantile memo. His seeming smartness has caught up with him. But if truth must be told, the frustrations he so bitterly and desperately expressed in the memo suggest that his assumed political astuteness and sagacity are even far less impressive than his diminutive physical presence.

     

    • Balogun, a public relations expert, writes from Abuja.

     

  • El-Rufai under fire over anti-Southwest, Tinubu comment

    El-Rufai under fire over anti-Southwest, Tinubu comment

    KADUNA State Governor Nasir El-Rufai was under fire yesterday for denigrating the contributions of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Southwest base to the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 elections.

    The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Shehu Sani, took a swipe at El-Rufai, describing the governor’s remarks on the APC stalwart as the height of ingratitude.

    In a statement made available to The Nation, Sani, representing the Kaduna Central Senatorial District, said the contributions of the former Lagos State governor and the Southwest to the victory of the APC in the last general elections, was unparallel, contrary to El-Rufai’s claim.

    According to him, without Tinubu, the victory over the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have remained a mere dream.

    Describing Tinubu as the “lungs of the APC while President Buhari is the heart’, the senator said it was unfortunate that “el-Rufai, who smiles with Tinubu during the daylight, stings him at night”.

    The statement reads: “The memo written by Kaduna Governor which tends to belittle the contribution of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Southwest is sad and unfortunate. It is perfidious and the height of ingratitude.

    “We must accept the stalk truth that without Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and the principled position of the south West, dislodging Goodluck Jonathan and the then ruling PDP could have still remained a pipe dream, a hollow hope or a political mirage. El-Rufai defecated on a broom that is supposed to clean the littered floor of the nation.

    “President Buhari is the heart of APC and Asiwaju is the lungs. Tinubu’s contribution to the success of the party is unequal. El-Rufai smiles with Tinubu in broad daylight and stings him at night. He hugs Tinubu with a chest of hooks and shakes him with toxic palms.

    “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a man who built a castle for others to live and asked to appreciate the gift of a room in the boys’ quarters. Those who rubbished a hunter who borrowed them his arrow to disable an antelope will someday come back for same arrow to disable a lion.

    “Tinubu honoured many official invitations to Kaduna, unknowingly; he was back-stabbed with an acidic memo. Tinubu has a history of being betrayed and has a history of overcoming betrayal.

    “The future of the APC is with Buhari and the Southwest. Without Buhari and the Southwest, the change train will derail and end in smithereens like the fate of Yoguslavia or Soviet Union.

    “President Buhari should be watchful of those who prey behind him and pray before him. Tinubu is an indispensable major component of change. My knowledge of Tinubu dates back to the NADECO days when we were in the trenches during the struggle against military dictatorship.

    “El-Rufai should publicly apologise to Tinubu and the Southwest for degrading their contribution to the liberation of Nigeria. To insult a man publicly and apologise to him privately is eat your cake and have it. Those heavily drinking from the liquor of power should know that they will later or lately have to drive back home.”

     

  • Expectations For The Week

    Expectations For The Week

    Last week was one that was surrounded with fresh controversy from the polity; the discovery of millions of dollars in a private residence in Ikoyi, the exchange of words between the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and Governor El-Rufai, and the “battle” between Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido and Governor Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari of Zamfara state.

    Obviously, the last may not have been heard from these cases as this new week may still go on with more. The trending topic in the country is the 43 million dollars alongside other currencies found in an Ikoyi home last week.

    Pictures of the found money circulated the public space like wild fire; the questions started coming in – who owns the money? Who owns the apartment wherein the bogus amount was found?

    Shortly after the information spree, the National Intelligence Agency came forward laying claim to the money, later on, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state said the money belongs to his State. Names of certain individuals (Senator Solomon Adeola, Rotimi Ameachi, Mo Abudu – although these personalities have denied any connection to the found money) were rumored to be behind the money but still, no name has been officially pronounced as owner of the Ikoyi residence.

    Many questions are still begging for answers, who owns the money? Is the NIA trying to cover up for certain persons? Is finding the owner of an apartment in a highbrow part of Lagos a difficult task to carry out?  Who is actually telling the truth? Hopefully, Nigerians will get to know the real situation soon.

    After an open exchange of words, Hon. Yakubu and Gov. El-Rufai last week publicly displayed their pay slips and gave analysis of how security votes allocated to Kaduna state was being utilized respectively. The open “attack” by the duo has gotten many Nigerians happy, are you asking why? Oh, it’s because many consider this a victory for the common man.

    Many are of the opinion that many more of such “argument” will further deepen the roots of our democracy, expose the excesses of political leaders and make the people understand the act of governance better. Will the National Assembly go ahead to reveal their budget as demanded by El-Rufai? It remains to be seen.

    After Gov. Yari declared that God was “punishing” his people with meningitis type C, Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido replied by saying God had nothing to do with the disease that has claimed the lives of about 500 people, and that the governor should look for a solution to the plight of his citizen.

    The Yari/Sanusi controversy is still ongoing. After attacking and counter attacking each other’s comment recently, both eminent individuals are in the news again. Sanusi’s call for northern leaders to further educate their citizens has met Yari’s – “Practice what you preach” comment. Indeed, the Northern leaders need to improve on the educational sector in their environment to enable the youths have the opportunity of a glorious future.

    On Wednesday and Thursday this week, the Nigerian Professional Football League will be alive again as matches will be played across various stadia in the country. Table toppers, Mfm Fc go away to Akwa United, Plateau United host Katsina United, champions Rangers go away to Gombe United alongside other scintillating fixtures.

    Also, the second leg matches of the UEFA Champions League quarter final will be decided on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Will Barcelona be able to pull through with another comeback after three nil defeat in Turin? It remains to be seen.

    Segun Odunayo tweets from @Segun_Odunayo

     

     

  • El-Rufai under fire over Tinubu, S/West’s role in Buhari’s victory

    El-Rufai under fire over Tinubu, S/West’s role in Buhari’s victory

    The controversial memo sent to President Muhammadu Buhari by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State is still generating reactions from within and outside the ruling party. El-Rufai had, in the leaked memo, complained about certain things in the way the country and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were being administered.
    Barely 48 hours after the Kaduna governor’s visit to the presidential villa where he took a swipe at unnamed presidency insiders who he alleged leaked the memo, which was written as a private correspondence to the president, reactions are again trailing his comment on the contributions of the various legacy groups within the party to its victory at the 2015 presidential election.
    In the memo, El-Rufai had posited that, “the Lagos group more or less led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the most organised and proactive. This group made a key contribution in our electoral success, but like all groupings it naturally exaggerates its role in order to increase its influence in the coming administration. The group will use the media to promote its own “GMB Boys” or suggest “Northerners” of their choice that they think would do their bidding.
    “Some already are boasting that they will choose the next petroleum minister and the executive leadership of the NNPC. They will seek direct control or great influence over key economic portfolios, including agencies involved in revenue generation (NNPC, FIRS, Customs, etc.) law enforcement (Attorney General, EFCC, etc.) and financial services regulation (CBN, SEC, PenCom, etc.). This group will seek an alliance with some GMB family members to help strengthen their pre-eminent position in these areas.”
    The memo, according to some revelations that trailed it, was written by the Kaduna governor, and received by the President, sometime in 2015, before the nomination of ministers by President Buhari. Consequently, many of those who spoke with The Nation accused El-Rufai of fanning the ember of discord with his argument.
    A cross section of prominent Nigerians including elder statesmen and politicians who spoke with The Nation, expressed dissatisfaction with El-Rufai’s attempt to water down the roles played by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the South West in Buhari’s victory at the polls and hoped that the Kaduna governor as well as those commenting on his controversial memo will not create problems for President Buhari and the ruling party.
    Former Governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, who is also the National Chairman of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), cautioned El-Rufai and his likes against causing unnecessary friction within the ruling party. According to him, it is very true and undeniable to say that Asiwaju Tinubu and the South-West won the presidency for the APC in 2015.
    While admitting that the various legacy groups played significant roles in the party’s victory, Balarabe insisted that Buhari could not have won the presidency without the support of Tinubu and his camp. He therefore warned against any attempt by anybody or group within the party to deny Tinubu his dues.
    “It is undeniably true that Asiwaju Tinubu and the South-West won the presidency for the APC in 2015. Buhari could not have won the presidency without the support of Tinubu and his camp. I therefore want to say that nobody or group within the party should attempt to deny Tinubu his dues.
    “Come to think of it, it is actually Tinubu and his people in the South West that galvanised the entire nation to support the candidacy of Buhari in the last election. They led the way and others followed. It is therefore a statement of fact that Tinubu facilitated the eventual victory of APC and Buhari in that election. So, I disagree with El-Rufai’s position on that matter.
    Speaking further, the former Kaduna State governor averred that it is not for El-Rufai or anybody to say whether the South West has been fairly treated by the current administration. According to him, it is left for Tinubu and his people to appraise the situation and decide whether they’ve gotten their fair share of the victory.
    “I will say it is up to Tinubu and his associates to say whether he has been fairly treated by his party and the government he help so much to install. It is not for me to say that. It is also not for El-Rufai to say that. I don’t know what Tinubu asked for or what he got in the arrangement. Only him and his people will know that,” he said.
    Also, frontline PDP chieftain and former gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, Mrs. Remi Adiukwu, asked El-Rufai to tell Nigerians the role he played in the victory of both the ruling party and President Buhari in the 2015 general election before his statement about Tinubu can be taken seriously.
    The female politician described the Kaduna governor as someone who is fond of seeking attention at all times. “That is the reason why he usually talks balderdash,” she said while submitting that rather than contributing to Buhari’s victory, El-Rufai merely benefited from the political success that the likes of Tinubu turned APC into in 2015.
    “I will want El-Rufai to tell Nigerians the role he played in the victory of his party and President Buhari in the 2015 general election before I can take his statement about Tinubu serious. I’ve known the Kaduna Governor as someone who is fond of seeking attention at all times. That is the reason why he usually talks balderdash. There is no way Buhari could have been President without Tinubu or the South West behind him.
    “El-Rufai contributed nothing to Buhari’s victory even in his home state of Kaduna. He merely benefited from the political success that the likes of TInubu turned APC into in 2015. Without Buhari and the APC platform in 2015, he wouldn’t have even contested not to talk of winning the election. He benefited from the politics of Asiwaju Tinubu. He is not qualified to question Tinubu’s place in the party or government,” Adiukwu said.
    Former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, said while it is true that all parties to the victory played one role or the other in the presidential victory of the ruling party, it is on record that Tinubu and his people from the South West worked exceptionally hard for the emergence of Buhari as President in 2015.
    “All the people involved played their parts well. I think victory should not be attributed to one person or group. But it is important to state that Tinubu worked hard to see Buhari win the election. The fact that he agreed to the merger that led to the formation of APC should give him a lot of credit. They should give him credit. I think El-Rufai is talking too much. He should know better than to say such things.
    “The South West played the major role in APC’s victory in 2015. Buhari cannot win the presidency without the support he got from the southwest and this was made possible largely by Tinubu. El Rufia should not create disaffection within his party with such claims as he is said to be making about the role of TInubu and the South West.
    “Tinubu is the arrowhead of APC’s emergence as a ruling party. As to whether he has been fairly treated, I will say yes. But if someone like El Rufia is now trying to water done his importance in the ruling party, or in the government he laboured so hard to put in place, he is not being treated with the respect he deserve,” he said.
    When asked for his take on the raging controversy, Afenifere chieftains and frontline PDP leader, Chief Ebenezer Babatope declined comment, saying, “Thank you very much for interviewing me. But the matter at hand is not a PDP affair; it is strictly an APC issue. As such, it is of no interest to me. I can only wish them good luck.”
    But fellow Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin sees the issue differently. According to him, it is only an ingrate that will make the type of statement being credited to Governor El-Rufai. Odumakin accused APC leaders of denying the South West its rightful place in the scheme of things after the region worked hard to install Buhari as President in 2015.
    “It is only an ingrate that will make such a statement. Buhari contested three times before 2015 and though he won in the north, he lost the presidency. Buhari will always win in the north. But he won the presidency in 2015 because he won 52 percent of the votes in the South West. That was what gave him victory. If the South West had voted the way South East and South-South voted, APC couldn’t have won the presidency.
    “Sadly, apart from ministerial slots which is statutory, South West have not been fairly treated by APC and Buhari. Look at the security chiefs, except for the Chief of Defence Staff, which is even ceremonial, all other service chiefs are northerners. And that is also the situation in many escorts of the country today.
    “The contribution of the likes of Asiwaju Tinubu to the victory of President Buhari during the last presidential election have not been properly appreciated. And when one now begin to hear the type of statements said to have emanated from Governor El Rufia of Kaduna state, it shows the party is unappreciative of Tinubu’s sacrifice for the APC,” Odumakin explained.

  • El-Rufai in Aso Villa, says no rift with Buhari

    El-Rufai in Aso Villa, says no rift with Buhari

    GOVERNOR Nasir El- Rufai of Kaduna State declared yesterday that his relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari remains intact despite his September 2016 memo that caused a stir in the polity. El-Rufai, who spoke to reporters after observing the Jumaat prayer with Buhari at the Villa, blamed those he called saboteurs for leaking the memo. He also spoke on his recent stand-off with House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara during which he demanded accountability in the finances of the National Assembly.

    “There is no strain in my ties with the President. The Villa is a bigger place. Within the Villa, there are people that like me and there are those who don’t and it is normal. “ My relationship with the President has never been strained in anyway. I met with him last night (Thursday). I did not talk about things like that, but our relationship with him is like that of father and son and it is privilege for me. I told him I will come today (yesterday) for the Jumaat and I did,” he said. On how he was received by the President, he said: “As usual with great warmth and graciousness and I am grateful for that.” He had, in the memo, challenged Buhari to step up the tempo of his governance, saying Nigerians were demanding more from his administration and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Some critics accused the governor of playing to the gallery by writing the letter. But asked yesterday why he wrote the letter in the first place,the governor said it was aimed at ensuring development of the country. His words: “It was a private memo and it is not a letter. If you want to ask any question about it, you ask those who leaked the memo because I wrote it seven months ago.

    “I have written similar memos to the President in the past and none of them got leaked. He knows that he can count on me to give him my views of what is out there that he may not hear and to give him sound advice without any interest on my part. “If anyone reads that memo, he will see that there is nothing in the memo that has anything to do other than the success of Mr. President and progress of the country. That is my goal, my motive and I am driven by that. I stand behind the President to the very end.” On whether his views in the letter have changed since he wrote it, he said “Yes, I believe that since September last year when I wrote the letter, there has been significant improvement in the delivery of services at the federal level. “Some of our federal programmes have started in earnest. “Social protection for instance. The N-Power, budget releases have been accelerated, this is an unprecedented move.

    The Minister of Finance has released up to about a trillion naira of capital budget. In September last year, little or nothing was released and that was part of my concern. Since then, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan has been done and published. “At the time I wrote the memo, there was no five-year plan for the country. Since then, the government has moved ahead to change some of the appointees of President Jonathan in parastatals. This was something that we were worried about. “Many of us in the APC felt that we were in office, but not in power because the people that Jonathan appointed were still running most of our key agencies.” He expressed disappointment that the letter was leaked, saying: “I am disappointed that a private communication to the highest office in the land can be leaked and it was leaked from the Villa. I am told by those that published it. “But this is a fact of life. We live in an age where anything you write or say can be leaked. “

    It is ok, my intentions are clear. I have no ill motive, but I wanted to communicate with the President what many Nigerians are talking about and what steps can be taken to improve governance of the country and move the country forward. “That was my motive and if tomorrow, as I said, I see anything that the President needs to know, I will discuss with him and I will articulate and put it into writing and on the record for him to have a reminder document to work on. I have no regrets and I have no apologies.” He denied suggestion that he was stopped at a point from coming to the Villa. “No, no one ever stopped me from coming to the Villa and no one can stop me from coming to the Villa. As a governor, I come here. I have a blank cheque; no one checks me at the gate,” he said. “The President needs quality time to rest because it is meeting too many people that strains leadership. I am a governor and I know that when I meet 10 people in a day I get really tired, it is not the paperwork, it is not really the memos approving them or asking questions that strains a leader, it is the stream of visitors.

    “I do not want to contribute to the President’s problem by coming here every day. I am in touch with him, I know everything going on and I do not think I should add to his burden. Most of the time I come to visit the President, I do not come to the office, I go to see him at home.” Fielding questions on his recent verbal exchange with Dogara, El-Rufai said he has a right like every other Nigerian to call for transparency in the financial dealings of the National Assembly. He said: “There is nothing like falling out with the National Assembly. First of all, I am a state governor and do not have any direct relationship with the National Assembly.

    “The National Assembly is the legislature of the federation and we have very good relations with the legislators. There are senators from my state and there are representatives and I meet regularly with those of them that are ready to meet with me. Here, beside me are Senators Abu Ibrahim and Marafa. “If I have problems with the National Assembly, they will not be standing beside me. So there is no problem. The issue is what I did last Friday was to ask the leadership of the National Assembly to fulfil the promise that they made themselves to publish the details of their budget and asking for that is my duty as a citizen. Every Nigerian is entitled to ask that question. “It is in the National Assembly’s interest to actually publish it because there are rumours of bogus amounts of money that they are getting which I do not believe is true. “ I think that the best way to kill that rumour is to publish the details of their budget, but some people took exception to that call for transparency and I have no apologies because as citizens we have the right to demand for transparency on how resources are being spent.”

  • I was never banned from Presidential Villa – El-Rufa’i

    I was never banned from Presidential Villa – El-Rufa’i

    Nasiru El-Rufa’i of Kaduna State says he was never banned from coming to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The governor, who stated this while fielding questions from State House correspondents after joining President Muhammadu Buhari to perform the two-raka’at Juma’at weekly prayer at State House Mosque, Abuja, on Friday,

    Reports on the social media said El-Rufa’i was banned from the Presidential Villa for allegedly leaking a memo he wrote to Buhari on Sept. 22, 2016.

    In the memo, El-Rufai alerted President Buhari that he was losing the vision and the momentum with which All Progressives Congress (APC) started its Change Agenda.

    The governor also in the memo, advised the President to effect changes in the leadership of some federal agencies and establishments, and to communicate constantly with Nigerians, so they will know the plans of his government.

    El-Rufa’i, however, told the State House correspondents that he was not stopped from coming to the Aso Rock, and that nobody can stop him from visiting the Villa.

    According to him, he stopped frequenting the villa because the President needs quality time to rest and also attends to challenges of governance.

    “No one ever stopped me from coming to the villa and no one can stop me from coming to villa.

    “As a governor I come here, I have blank cheques, no one checks me at the gate but I believe what the President needs is for those that love him to keep away from him and allow him to rest.

    “The President needs quality time to rest because it is meeting too many people that strains leadership.

    “I am a governor and I know that when I meet 10 people in a day I get really tired, it is not the paperwork, it is not really the memos approving them or asking questions that strain a leader, it is the stream of visitors.

    “I do not want to contribute to the President’s problem by coming here every day. I am in touch with him,’’ he added.

    The governor, therefore, appealed to Nigerians to show more understanding and love to the president by allowing him to rest and also concentrate more on his private and official engagements, saying that “visitors stress leaders’’.

    “Let me appeal to all of us that love the President to please allow him some space so that he will recover.

    “We need him and the country needs him, it is in our interest for the stability of the country, we should just let him be.

    “It is absolutely necessary lets us leave him to do his work in the privacy of his room or his office without strings of visitors. Visitors stress leaders.’’

    El-Rufa’i also described his relationship with Buhari as cordial, saying that the relationship had never been strained in anyway.

    He, however, acknowledged that there were people within the presidency “that like me and there are those who don’t and it is normal.

    “My relationship with the President has never been strained in anyway. I met with him last
    night,

    “I did not talk about things like that but our relationship with him is like that of father and son and it is privilege for me.’’

    Meanwhile, Chief Imam of the State House Mosque, Sheik Abdulwaheed Sulaiman, has called on Muslims and Christians to unite as brothers and sisters given the common Abrahamic origin of their religions.

  • El-Rufai to Reps: I don’t share public funds like you

    El-Rufai to Reps: I don’t share public funds like you

    KADUNA State Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai yesterday fired back at the House of Representatives and its Speaker Yakubu Dogara over the National Assembly budget controversy.

    “I don’t share public funds like you,” the governor told the lawmakers.

    He was responding to Tuesday’s attack on him by Speaker Dogara, who published his pay slips. Besides, the Green Chamber, which accused the governor of distracting the National Assembly and advised him to face Kaduna’s problems.

    The House accused El-Rufai of publishing what it called  security budget as his security vote, challenging him to publish his personal security vote like the Speaker’s salary’s pay slip.

    All efforts to reach the House spokesman, Abdulrasak Namdas, for reaction to the governor’s statement were unsuccessful as he did not pick his calls.

    Namdas’ deputy, Jonathan Gaza and the Speaker’ Special Adviser on Media & Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan, could not also be reached.

    The text messages sent  to them were also not replied.

    El-Rufai drew the ire of the lawmakers by challenging them to make their budget public. He told his challengers that there was nothing like security votes.

    Faulting the legislators ‘unnecessary distraction’s response to a simple request for a transparent National Assembly budget, El-Rufai picked holes in Dogara’s pay slip.

    In a statement by his spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, El-Rufai said: “The figures in the pay slips presented for the Honorable Speaker are in stark contrast to the declaration by The Economist regarding the earnings of NASS members. One of the claims cannot be right.”

    Insisting that he has no security vote, the governor said: “The Kaduna State Government has presented details of its security budget. What was presented represents the only security vote for the entire government. As the figures show, there is no security vote for the Governor of Kaduna State.

    “This may be a shock to those used to the notion of security votes as barely disguised slush funds, but we do not operate such a system in Kaduna.

    “Our budgets specify what is voted as assistance to security agencies, and its expenditure is properly recorded and accounted for. These are not monies given to or spent by the governor.

    “If the leaders of the NASS have security votes allocated to or personally collected by them, they might wish to disclose such.

    “Our security spending does not operate like the NASS system of sharing public funds in such an opaque fashion that even NASS members do not know how their entire budget is broken down or what the leadership gets as its ‘running costs’.

    “The House of Representatives has responded with predictable tetchiness to a simple and clear demand that details of the National Assembly budget be made public. “It is inconceivable that an important institution, vested by the Constitution with representation, lawmaking and oversight powers, has for at least seven years ignored the imperative to set an example of transparency, despite being severally urged to do so.

    “Despite the rush to personal attacks on a matter of public policy, we cannot allow the enthronement of the republic of distraction. It is important that everyone who is interested in protecting and advancing democratic discourse should stay focused on the issue.

    “It is strange that persons entrusted with high office will justify their abdication of the responsibility to be transparent in such cavalier fashion. We don’t believe that most of our esteemed legislators will construe a demand for transparency as aimed at undermining the National Assembly.

    “However, notwithstanding the intemperate response of the spokesman of the House of Representatives, the demand that the NASS budget be made public will not go away. It is not personal, and there is a strong civic constituency that is demanding it. The sooner all of us in public life recognized that the game has changed, and that segments of civil society and indeed everyday citizens of Nigeria, are much more aware, astute and advanced than the state of our politics, the better for our democratic health.”

  • El-Rufai praises NB on contribution to economy

    El-Rufai praises NB on contribution to economy

    Kaduna State Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai has praised Nigerian Breweries Plc for its role in the economic development of the state. The company, he said, remained the biggest tax payer in the state.

    The governor, who was at NB Plc’s stand at the just-concluded Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit (KadInvest 2.0), said the firm plays a big role in the state, as far as investment and “economic growth are concerned”.

    The governor was accompanied by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun; Kano State Governor, Alh. Umar Ganduje and his Zamfara State counterpart and Chairman of the Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum, Alh. Abdullazeez Abubakar Yari, as well as the Deputy Governor of Jigawa State, Barrister Ibrahim Hassan.

    El-Rufai maintained that NB Plc was a shining example in corporate Nigeria and a strategic partner for development in the state given its huge investments and social intervention programmes in Kaduna.

    Earlier, while welcoming the governor and his entourage to the stand, the Corporate Affairs Adviser of NB Plc, Mr. Kufre Ekanem, said Kaduna State was a friendly environment for investment and has been home to Nigerian Breweries since 1964 when its first brewery was built in Kakuri.

    Ekanem thanked the Kaduna State Government for its support over the years stressing that the company will continue to be a partner for growth and development in the state in line with its commitment to supporting the development aspirations of its host governments and communities.