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Tag: el-Rufai

  • We are ready for flight diversion to Kaduna – El-Rufai

    Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Friday declared the state’s commitment to smooth flight operations at the Kaduna International Airport, following proposed diversion of flights to the airport from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

    El-Rufai, who stated this when the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika visited him in Kaduna, commended the Federal Government for choosing Kaduna.

    The minister was in the state to access the readiness of the airport to receive influx of flight traffic when the Abuja airport is eventually shutdown.

    The governor stressed that the state has put machinery in motion for smooth flight operations at the airport.

    He said, “We are delighted for the choice of Kaduna International Airport by the Federal Government to divert traffic from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport as a result of the proposed repairs of its runway, to Kaduna airport.

    “We have put in motion processes and activities towards making federal government decision a success.

    “I want to assure all Nigerians and the international community, particularly stakeholders in the aviation industry that Kaduna State will rise up to the occasion.”

     

  • El-Rufai briefs Buhari on Southern Kaduna crisis

    El-Rufai briefs Buhari on Southern Kaduna crisis

    Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, on Thursday briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the crisis in the southern part of the state.

    There have been incessant clashes between the communities and suspected armed herdsmen in southern Kaduna where several people have been killed.

    The President urged the Governor to take steps to restore peace and tranquility in southern part of the state.

    Speaking with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, el-Rufai said curfew had been imposed on the troubled zone to forestall any eventuality.

    He said: “I came to brief the President about the situation in Southern Kaduna, what happened in the last few days and outlined to him the measures we have been taking as state government with the support of the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Police and the Department of State Security.

    “The President has given us support to stabilize the state and bring all those responsible for the violation of our laws to justice.

    “So, we have the full support of the President to move on and we are quite confident that things will return to normal very soon.

    “Well, we have curfew even on Christmas day but it is for 12 hours. People will be able to go out in the morning at 6:00 a.m. and be back at 6:00 p.m. It is because of the security situation.

    “I don’t think the state government should be blamed. Those responsible for the violence that broke out in those parts of the state should be held responsible for that. We have not imposed curfew in other parts of the state. We had to impose curfew here because of the situation that was caused by irresponsible behaviour by certain people.”

     

     

     

     

  • El-Rufai, security chiefs meet over Kaduna killings

    El-Rufai, security chiefs meet over Kaduna killings

    Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and security chiefs yesterday visited Kafanchan, Jema’a Local Government Area,to commiserate with the traditional rulers and victims of the destruction which followed Monday’s protest.
    The team visited the Emir of Jema’a, Alhaji Muhammadu Isah Muhammadu, Chief of Kagoro, Ufoi Bonet and Chief of Marwa, Tagwai Sambo. The governor appealed to aggrieved parties to sheath their sword and embrace peace.
    According to El-Rufai, there was no need for reprisal attacks since the government was working to put necessary security measures in place to protect lives and maintain law and order.
    “I and the Deputy Governor took the oath of office to protect lives and property of the citizens, and we are committed to ensuring this is achieved.
    “Traditional rulers should please talk to their subjects against taking vengeance each time there is a problem,” El-Rufai said.
    The governor, however, lauded Alhaji Muhammadu for stopping his subjects from fighting when crisis erupted during the rally, which according to him, left the government with no option than to impose a 24-hour curfew on Kafanchan.
    El-Rufai also enjoined the leaders, irrespective of background, to support the peace process, calm the people and remind them that the government is taking proactive measures to stop the killings and restore peace in Southern Kaduna.
    The governor further appealed: “Please if there is any suspicious movement or information about impending attacks, report immediately or send me a text message and we would take steps to contain it.”
    In their separate remarks, the Emir of Jema’a, Chief of Kagoro and Chief of Moroa lauded El-Rufai for his commitment and the government’s resolve to restore peace to Southern Kaduna.
    They assured the governor of their commitment to ensure peace reigns in their chiefdoms.

  • El-Rufai signs next year’s N214b budget into law

    El-Rufai signs next year’s N214b budget into law

    Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai yesterday signed the N214 billion 2017 budget into law.
    The budget proposes N83.46 billion for recurrent  expenditure and N131.45 billion for capital expenditure.
    During yesterday’signing at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, El-Rufai said the state received the Paris Club refund from the Federal Government.
    He said the money would be used to pay six years’ pension, gratuity and death benefits of retired and dead workers in the state.
    “I wish to inform our legislators that we shall be submitting a Supplementary Budget to enable us capture the debt refunds we have received from the Federal Government. Fifty five per cent of these funds belong to the state government, and the balance is for local governments.
    “We propose to apply 50 per cent of the funds to settling inherited arrears of gratuity and death benefits for state and local government workers. Some of these unpaid arrears date from 2010.
    “This budget retains pro-poor programmes, which we are committed to, including improving access to education, health care, infrastructure, jobs and security.
    “It puts the needs and interests of our people first. Education gets N44.84 billion; N10.49 billion for Health; N24.50 billion on Infrastructure and N8.1 billion for Water. Agriculture will get N4.58 billion.
    “These investments are meant to ensure that in 2017, we deliver the Zaria Water project, begin a school rebuilding and equipment programme; complete the refitting of 278 primary health centres and hospitals, and improve our investment profile and job-creation capacity with the establishment of an agro-industrial zone.
    “In addition, we will expand our programme to rebuild and maintain township roads and inaugurate the first phase of Kaduna mass transit scheme.
    ‘’An Emergency Nutrition Intervention Programme to reduce malnutrition and hunger among our poorest citizens and children will also be implemented,” El-Rufai said.

  • El-Rufai’s fiefdom

    El-Rufai’s fiefdom

    KADUNA State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, is probably Nigeria’s most controversial governor today, perhaps his state’s most controversial ever. Beside him, the ideological rigidity of Balarabe Musa, the state’s and Nigeria’s first impeached governor, was nothing but child’s play. Does Mallam el-Rufai think his penchant for controversies damage his reputation? Not at all. He revels in controversies. In fact, since he is incontrovertibly cocksure of everything, he thinks his combative and disputatious ways underline the high frequency at which his intellect operates and the high level at which he as a politician luxuriates, as well as reflect poorly on the abysmal level at which his opponents and traducers wallow. There is no disabusing his mind on these matters.
    The Kaduna electorate did not examine Mallam el-Rufai very well before voting him in. There is of course nothing wrong with voting a somnolent politician into office, nor for that matter a megalomaniac. But it is crucially important for the political culture and economic development of a state that the electorate must know the worldview of their elected representatives. Now that he is their governor, and will be in office for a little more than two years more, they will have to manage him as much as they can and try to either curb his needless pugnacity or coax him into some form of conciliation. Mallam el-Rufai will not change, and indeed can never change. On the three salient issues agitating the otherwise cosmopolitan state, a state the governor is attempting to transform into a fiefdom, he thinks he is indisputably right and his critics are incontrovertibly and lawlessly wrong.
    The three issues are his deafened ears to the Shiite crisis, as reflected in the notoriously redacted White Paper issued by his government last week; his malignant hatred for critics, as reflected in his animus against Shehu Sani, a Kaduna senator; and his mismanagement of the herdsmen/farmers clash which is transmuting through his clumsiness into ethnic and religious conflict. There are more issues manifesting even now, and there will be more before his controversial first term is over, for the governor is adept at turning a perfectly normal disagreement into a conflict of untold severity. Ignore his inability to sustain loyalty to a cause, to a mentor, and, contrary to what he says and thinks, even to the constitution. He is too anarchic and his mind a seething cauldron of misadventures to moderate his interactions with both the laws of the land, which he loves to quote out of context, and the people around him, whether his betters or his inferiors.
    First, then, the Shiite crisis. Left to Mallam el-Rufai, Kaduna State should be organised into a community of goose-stepping cadres who wake up every morning, file to the governor’s door, and pay obeisance before the day’s work. Unfortunately for him the Shiites, particularly the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), happen to be cut from the same cloth as he — difficult, imposing, intellectually arrogant, contemptuous of other people’s ways and beliefs, and intractable. But unlike the governor, the IMN lacks the state coercive tools to influence the general adoption of their way of life. Unlike him, they have neither the state apparatus to inflict violence on others even near the scale their traducers have accused them of nor the arrogance to suggest openly and repeatedly that they could never be wrong. Even if, as the governor suggests, the Shiites secretly promote or nurse the romantic idea of Iranian-type revolution, and the state had a responsibility to nip it in the bud, it is questionable whether the el-Rufai approach is the best.
    In any case, last December, hundreds of Shiites, some say nearly a thousand, were killed in what the state described as a clash between the IMN and soldiers. The cause and course of the clash, not to talk of the casualties estimated to be more than 347, have been well discussed in this place and elsewhere in the public domain. The most recent controversy, however, involves the White Paper recently published by the state. Put side-by-side with the fairly balanced report of the Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba-led judicial panel that looked into the Zaria disturbance, the White Paper is a poorly worded and arrogant piece of justification of brazen and horrendous crime. The judicial panel complained of lack of cooperation from the army to determine the scale of the slaughter. The White Paper ignored that lacuna and instead focused almost exclusively in damning the Shiites. Rather casually, it also suggested that the federal government could try to determine the culpability of soldiers in the massacre and take action. Among other things, the White Paper, quoting state burial law of 1991 and the Geneva Convention, also justified the hasty burial of victims in mass graves. This, in the 21st century.
    Mallam el-Rufai is governor of the state and leader of both the law-abiding and lawbreaking indigenes of Kaduna State. A fuller reading of the documents on the Shiite crisis shows that the governor simply has no conception of government as a ramifying social contract, nor even a fair understanding of the burden of statesmanship on his puny shoulders. He had made up his mind about the Shiites and what to believe, and so, he simply ignored most of the recommendations in the judicial panel’s report and instead bore down on the panel’s recommendations that were averse to the IMN. There is little anyone can do or say to compel Mallam el-Rufai to have a wiser and nuanced appreciation of the crisis and what needs to be done to deliver justice. He does not care, partly because his judgement is very poor, and he lacks even a modicum of wisdom to navigate the delicate, difficult and sometimes treacherous terrains of delivering fairness and equity to nonconformist citizens. He is obsessed with maintaining the powers of the state, but sustains that power crudely and archaically. For someone so messianic and so conceited, it is not surprising that he thinks he can get away with the injustice his government has perpetrated and justified against the massacred members of IMN.
    Mallam el-Rufai’s poor handling of the Shiite challenge is, however, not the beginning or the end of his attempt to create a fiefdom for himself. Even in the rather straightforward case of herdsmen/farmers clashes, the governor has behaved most incompetently and irresponsibly. He tries to give the impression of neutrality and fairness, but every step he takes or not take, and everything he says or not say, has implicated him as biased, parochial and full of ethnic hubris. There is no doubt whatsoever that he believes in Fulani exceptionalism, and has barely disguised his contempt for other groups. While responding to allegations of siding with Fulani herdsmen in their clash with farmers in Southern Kaduna and displaying nonchalance to the sufferings of minority ethnic groups, Mallam el-Rufai inadvertently disclosed that his government sought out the aggrieved herdsmen even outside the country’s borders and paid those among them who claimed to have suffered economic losses.
    Though the governor’s aides have struggled to deny that any payment was made to those who invaded and murdered aggrieved farmers in Southern Kaduna, they have not been successful. There is no other way to interpret the governor’s statement on the matter. Hear him: “… Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with their cattle. So many of these people were killed (during the 2011 elections crisis), cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge… We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people, trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic and so on, to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging you to stop killing. In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they had forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they had forgiven the death of human beings, but wanted compensation for cattle. We said no problem, some we paid. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger Republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they do every year with a message from me.”
    Not only does Mallam el-Rufai demonstrate his allegiance to a Fulani nation of his abstraction, he finds no difficulty at all in diminishing the place of the Nigerian constitution in his governorship, and scandalising the oath he took to protect the constitution. It is not surprising that by his attitude, statements and responses to the pains of the Southern Kaduna people, not to talk of Christians who distrust his intentions, he is not viewed as a neutral party in the conflicts raging in that part of his state. Again, the governor neither cares nor thinks he is wrong. He is always right — he of outsized ego and abrasive words. As his interminable quarrel with Senator Sani shows, Mallam el-Rufai does not demonstrate a good understanding of democratic principles, nor does he consider that as a governor, he needs to build consensus and bridges between peoples, and between his government and those living in the state, whether they voted for him or disliked him. It should alert him to possible dangers ahead that two of the state’s three senators object to the way he carries on — his intolerance and hubris especially. More people within and outside the state have also noted his unsuitability to the office he occupies, and it worries everyone but his fanatical supporters.
    Sadly, it is pointless to advise Mallam el-Rufai, and this column will not venture one. He listens only to his own counsel, especially when it concerns his ego and people of differing and probably competing backgrounds to his fond prejudices. He will always double down on his own private ideals within his limited worldview. He will fight his opponents in order to vanquish them; he will disrespect anyone but himself; and he will attempt to create a fiefdom where he, his stock and sectarian ideals reign supreme. Those he cannot disrespect or vanquish, he will treat with contempt. And if God Himself were to question his strange and offending ways and beliefs, he would ask for the code governing the relationship between God and man to be reworded for his own benefit and exemption.

  • El-Rufai’s strange gesture

    SIR: The myriad concerned citizens who have painfully followed the bloody events staged on the theatre of mindless slaughter that Kaduna State has steadily become over the years were hit with another sucker punch when the governor, Nasir Ahmad El – Rufai declared that he paid Fulani herdsmen money to stop their attacks on long-suffering indigenes of Kaduna state, especially the Christian-dominated area of southern Kaduna.

    To put it in proper perspective, the orgy of bloodletting which has convulsed Kaduna State for years now did not start with El Rufai. Years of bloody internecine crises between the predominantly Christian southern Kaduna area and the predominantly Muslim central and northern parts of the state have reduced one of   Nigeria‘s most iconic states to a valley flowing with blood. When the Islamic Movement of Nigeria blindly charged into a confrontation with men of the Nigerian Army obviously lacking in professional restraint and were mercilessly massacred in Zaria, Kaduna State added another trophy to its bulging cabinet of mindless slaughter.

    It was against this background that the recent revelation by El Rufai that he had ladled out undisclosed sums of money to criminal Fulani herdsmen to placate them and staunch their killings has drawn more than a little flak from Nigerians. From whence then, it must be asked, did El Rufai draw his‘ ingenious’ precedent of placating killer-Fulani herdsmen with money which seems in short supply in the Nigeria of today?

    The precedents are not far-flung. As Nigeria has struggled to grow into a stable democratic country after years of insidious and nauseating military incursions, it has had to grapple with discontent from different regions of the country by elements who protesting what they mostly arbitrarily pronounce ‘marginalisation’, pounce on the Nigerian state in order to force their voices into the national consciousness.

    Apart from the mindless carnage by the nauseating terrorist group, Boko Haram, the rampaging killings by criminal Fulani herdsmen simply takes the biscuit. From Agatu   in Benue State to Nibo in Enugu State and Southern Kaduna in Kaduna State, there is hardly any state in Nigeria that has not felt the blood-curdling crimes of these criminals posing as rearers of cattle. Many innocent citizens have been slaughtered and communities have been razed. The federal government‘s response to these chilling crimes has been anaemic at best. Controversial grazing reserves have been proposed but many have warned that it is destined to generate even more controversies. Probably, it was against this backdrop of administrative and security inertia that   El Rufai took the unprecedented step of   paying money to killers to placate them into stopping their killings. It is a shot in the dark which has no prayer and wish of halting the blood thirst of the menacing killers. It has also betrayed the fact that governments at all levels are at sea as to how to curb a security nightmare that is imprinted with ethnic and religious considerations.

    In a country that is richly imprinting into its historical archives a confounding eagerness to reward and placate those who have committed violent crimes against innocent Nigerians instead of summoning them to account, every passing day projects grotesquely, the failures of state institutions to act independently and patriotically. While the circus continues and scant Nigerian money is doled out to criminals who in saner and more serious climes should be cooling their heels in jail, ordinary Nigerians should watch and note with their hearts those who put them up for sale while professing they are putting them on the world map for surely the day of reckoning will break.

     

    • Kenechukwu Obiezu Esq,

    Abuja.

  • ‘Atiku made a poor attempt at rewriting history with his attacks on el-Rufai’

    ‘Atiku made a poor attempt at rewriting history with his attacks on el-Rufai’

    In this interview with some editors, Mallam Uba Sani, the Political Adviser to Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State explains why the disagreement between the governor and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has taken the centre stage in recent times. He also speaks about the security situation in the state and what the government is doing to curb the killings. Our Deputy Editor, Nation’s Capital, Yomi Odunuga, was there. Excerpts: 

    THE security situation in Kaduna State, particularly in the southern parts of the state is increasingly becoming a source of concern to residents. What is Governor Nasir el Rufai doing to redress this frightening security situation in the state?

    You really must first and foremost have a proper understanding of Kaduna State to enable you properly situate the incidents that have occurred in recent times in southern parts of the state. First, let me quickly clarify that Kaduna State is not at all burdened by insecurity and neither is the state in the throes of insecurity. Yes, we recently had challenges in a number of communities in the southern parts of the state but the situation is firmly under control. Perhaps the situation could have been worse but for the measures that have been meticulously put in place since Mallam Naisr el Rufai assumed office as the Governor of Kaduna State in May 2015. In fact, I have to be very sincere with you; the very unfortunate and extremely condemnable incidents that have occurred in the southern parts of the state were as a result of inherited problems that are steeped in the failure of successive past administrations in the state to decisively punish impunity and lawlessness. Like you may well know, like most other states in Nigeria, Kaduna State has its peculiarities. It may interest you to note that since 1980, Kaduna State has had 12 major ethnic and religious conflicts. Each time a crisis occurred, the state government would put in place a commission or panel of inquiries to find out what happened and to recommend how to avoid or stem recurrence. The shocking thing is that no sitting government in Kaduna has ever fully implemented the recommendations of any of these panels or commissions. Like Governor El Rufai observed during his tour of affected communities, the current situation is a direct fall-out of the failure of the previous administrations in the state to decisively tackle security problems when they occurred.

    What are some of these measures the State Government is taking to avoid recurrence of ethnic or religious conflagrations in particularly southern parts of Kaduna State?

    You see, persons fanning embers of discord in the southern parts of the state are always quick to create the impression that each time a crisis occurred, it was always as a result of either religious or ethnic disagreements. But over time, we have found out that this is hardly the truth in over 80 per cent of the cases. So, part of the preventive measures the El Rufai administration is putting in place is to make our people understand that as Nigerians, we have the right to live in any part of this country we chose to. Again, like the governor said when he visited the affected communities, we are all Nigerians and God knows why he made all of us to be Nigerians. It is also God, who created us all; that willed that we should belong to different faiths or religions. So, we are building structures that we believe will teach and instill the culture of tolerance and forgiveness of each other in our people. This is fundamental since it is at the heart of the matter. We may have ethnic, tribal or religious differences but we are all related; we are all brothers and sisters because God Almighty in his wisdom decided to bring all us together in this beautiful state called Kaduna.

    Like I mentioned earlier, a number of persons said to have been involved in killings during the recent crisis in southern Kaduna have been identified and the governor has asked the security agencies to prosecute them immediately. This is very important so as to deter others from toeing similar wicked path in the future. Deterrence is very important and you cannot achieve this if you don’t punish those known to have committed crimes as murder and arson. Then, equally important is the fact that the Kaduna State Government is providing enabling environment for all the security agencies in the state to function effectively. We are offering whatever assistance we can afford to them to function effectively and proactively in the entire state.

    Another burning issue is the face-off between your boss, Governor El Rufai and the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. What is your take on the accusations leveled on El Rufai by the former Vice President?

    I really do not have much to say about this since Mallam Nasir el Rufai has himself issued a reply to the claims of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. I totally agree with, and stand by the reply Governor El Rufai gave. And this is not just because I am currently his Political Adviser but also because I know the facts of the crisis that buffeted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, particularly in the last one year of his stay in office as the Vice President of Nigeria. I am familiar with the facts of that era because at the time, I was also serving in that government as the Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo. In any case, in recent times, it seems that attempting to pull down El Rufai at all costs has become the favorite sport of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, for reasons best known to him. But of course, as intelligent people, we can guess why Atiku Abubakar targets El Rufai regularly. I have carefully read through Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s interview, which of course has been widely reproduced on several social media platforms, I shudder at the very poor attempt by the former Vice President to re-write history. Mallam El Rufai’s records in all the public offices he has held are well known and properly documented. In virtually all instances, his rugged anti-corruption deportments have always placed him at arms way. The El Rufai we all know will not even bend the rules for himself. Be it at the Bureau of Public Enterprise where he served as the Director-General for four years or at the Federal Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory where he presided as the Minister for another four years and even now in Kaduna State where he currently serves as the popularly elected governor, Nasir el Rufai’s war against corruption and corrupt persons is legendary and properly documented. In the interview, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was curiously quoted as alleging that Mallam El-Rufai and others who incorporated Transcorp during his time as Vice President, offered him shares and he declined. He said he wrote them officially to say it was unethical of him to have accepted those offer. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s intention here is unmistakable: to tar the highly respected Mallam Nasir el Rufai with the corruption brush. Of course, he is beginning to find out that portraying Mallam El Rufai as corrupt is a hard sale. Mallam El Rufai has since personally responded to this unnecessary tirade by Atiku Abubakar; but in a country where people tend to forget things all too easily, I do not believe that it would amount to over flogging the matter to underscore again and again that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar told a huge white lie against Mallam Nasir el Rufai in his latest media outing. Records of the incorporation of Transcorp are at the Corporate Affairs Commission and other relevant agencies of government for any interested person to peruse. Mallam Nasir el Rufai was never ever a member of the incorporating or founding team of Transcorp. He has never ever owned any share in Transcorp. Can someone offer what he does not have or own? El Rufai could not have offered Atiku Abubakar shares in Transcorp because he never had any to offer. The former Vice President is well aware of the facts but it is very convenient for him to manipulate the public given our penchant to be gullible sometimes. He is very much aware that Mallam El Rufai does not have shares in Transcorp but he toed that line in the interview in order to achieve what he knows how to do best  putting others down to position himself rightly. The former Vice President has obviously kicked off his 2019 Presidential campaign and among other persons, Atiku Abubakar regards Mallam Nasir el Rufai as a rival of sorts.

    Alhaji Atiku Abubakar actually went beyond the Transcorp shares issue in the interview. He categorically claimed that Mallam Nasir el Rufai and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who was the Executive Chairman of EFCC at the time, were used by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to orchestrate unfounded corruption charges against him in order to prevent him from succeeding Obasanjo as President.

     Nothing can be farther from the truth. Like I mentioned to you earlier, I am very familiar with the circumstances that led up to the indictment of the former Vice President for corruption. The then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, whose reputation as an anti-corruption crusader remains unassailable and properly documented, ordered the inquisition that led to the indictment of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar only after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States of America had done a thorough investigation and discovered illegal movements of cash into Atiku Abubakar’s account in the United States of America and of course his less than salutary dealings with certain business men and interests in the United States of America.

    Yes, but the former Vice President has said that these claims and charges were trumped up by particularly the trio of President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mallam Nasir el Rufai who was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the former EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Do you fault this?

    How could Mallam Nasir el Rufai or former President Olusegun Obasanjo have contributed to whatever situation former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was going through? El Rufai did not ask the Justice Department or the FBI in the United States of America to investigate the former Vice President of Nigeria; El Rufai was never a staff of the EFCC and neither was he a staff of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Justice and so could not have been involved whatsoever in the investigation of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Why then does the former Vice President take so much pleasure in pointing fingers at Mallam Nasir el Rufai. Interestingly, the former Vice President also enjoys talking about how he galvanised both Nasir el Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu to public service prominence. Now that is another area that I must use the opportunity of this interview to clarify: former Vice President Atiku Abubakar did not appoint or influenced the appointment of Mallam Nasir el Rufai as the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) in 1999. Atiku Abubakar did not also influence the appointment of Mallam Nasir el Rufai as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory after President Olusegun Obasanjo won his election for a second term in office in 2003. In both instances, President Olusegun Obasanjo considered and appointed Nasir El Rufai to these positions purely on merit. So, let this blackmail end once and for all.

  • El-Rufai, Ngige lament growing cases of drug abuse among youths

    El-Rufai, Ngige lament growing cases of drug abuse among youths

    KADUNAStage governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige have raised an alarm over the growing rate of drug abuse among youths, who they say form over 65 percent of the nation’s workforce, saying such habit is gradually destroying the nation’s productive workforce.

    Speaking at a one-day workshop on substance abuse as a impediment to gainful employment, organised by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), El-Rufai expressed concern over the growing rate of drug and substance abuse among the youths and women in the northern part of the country, relevant agencies in the country must work together to effectively tackle the scourge. While saying that over 65 percent of those who engage in substance abuse are youths who constitute the national workforce and the future of the nation, the governor described substance abuse as a time bomb for the country.

    He said: “the abuse of drugs and other harmful substances, especially in northern Nigeria is a sorry tale. So now is the time to begin to seek realistic solutions to mitigate the destructive outcomes of substance abuse in Nigeria. “The socio-economic consequences of this trend leave us with no option than to strive to understand the dynamics of the substance abuse phenomenon, the impact on employment and the overall implications for our development as a nation. “This has become necessary when you consider the fact that over 65 percent of those involved in this social malaise are the youth who truly constitute our national workforce and indeed the future of our nation.

    “This ugly picture is a time bomb. We must understand that the army of young people who are hooked on drugs comes from the most active part of the population for whom we must provide employment opportunities.” Also speaking, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said it is a well known fact that quality youths provide the impetus to sustain the present and also serves as a guarantee to the future of the nation. He described substance abuse as the abnormal use of substances such as alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, Valium etc in quantities other than what is medically prescribed, adding that individuals who become dependent or addicted t such substances could suffer physical, psychiatric and social complications with resultant unbowed effects on themselves, families, their productivity and the nation.

    The Acting Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Kunle Obanya, said the aim of the workshop is to sensitize the general public especially the youths on the dangers of substance abuse and its negative implications on the affected persons in particular, the society and the economy at large. According to him, substance abuse in all ramification is an evil wind that blows no society and economy and good. There is JFK country that attains or achieves economic growth when large proportions of her population are into substance abuse.

  • El-Rufai faults CAN President on killings

    El-Rufai faults CAN President on killings

    Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has said the killings in Southern Kaduna by suspected herdsmen is pure criminality and has nothing to do with ethnicity and religion.
    Speaking to reporters, the governor faulted the statement by President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Supo Ayokunle, who described the attacks as “religious cleansing”.
    El-Rufai said: “The same Fulani are killing their kinsmen in hundreds in Zamfara State. It has nothing to do with religion or ethnicity. It is pure banditry.’’
    According to the governor, the perpetrators were criminals, adding that “their ethnicity and religion do not matter”.
    El-Rufai pleaded with leaders to be mindful of their utterances and to stop encouraging the people to resort to self-help.
    ‘’Let’s fight the problem. Let’s not bring sentiments, sensationalism and division into it,” he added.
    The governor said his administration set up a committee, led by Gen Martin Luther Agwai (rtd), to investigate the killings.
    He said the committee found out the killings were spill over from the 2011 post-election violence, where Fulani from Cameroun and Niger Republic were killed in Southern Kaduna while returning to their countries.
    ‘’They organised themselves and came back for revenge. A lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna and Plateau State was from outside Nigeria.”
    El-Rufai said the late Governor Patrick Yakowa sent peace emissaries to some Fulani communities in neighbouring countries ‘’but after his death, the whole thing stopped”.
    He added that his administration continued from where Yakowa stopped, by sending people to explain to the Fulani that ‘’there is a new governor, who is interested in the peace deal”.
    According to the governor, most communities forgave the killing of their relatives after hearing this explanation.
    ‘’There were one or two that asked for monetary compensation for their cattle. We paid,’’ he added.
    The governor said there was peace when these steps were taken ‘’but what is happening now, I don’t want to restrict it to Southern Kaduna, is a case of pure banditry”.
    According to the governor, these renewed killings had nothing to do with the fall- outs of post-election violence.
    ’It was a small problem that started in Ninte, Godogodo, that could have been handled better by the Fulani and community leaders,’’ he said.
    El-Rufai added that the killings in Kaura were triggered by youths, who attacked a police station and killed a Fulani who reported his brother to the police for suspected criminal activities.
    Appealing for restraint, he said: “I am very sad over the loss of life because the burden is on me. I am supposed to defend everyone. We regret the loss of life and property.”

  • El-Rufai engages international mediator for peace in Kaduna South

    Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has engaged the services of a Canadian organisation to restore peace among people of Kaduna South senatorial zone of Kaduna State.

    The international organisation known as Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD), which has its base in Jos, the Plateau State capital, was unveiled by Gov El-Rufai last Saturday while launching the peace building project at Samaru Kataf, Zango Kataf Local government of Kaduna State.

    The zone, comprising  29 ethnic nationalities from five local governments, were engulfed in violent conflict leading to loss of lives and properties.

    But the people resolved to halt the conflict and embrace peace, which prompted the state government to set up a peace building mechanism to bring lasting peace to the zone.

    In a speech at the event, Gov El-Rufai commended the people of Southern Kaduna for resolving to live in peace with one another and encouraged them not to allow a repeat of the conflict in the zone, saying, “No investor will come to the zone with violent conflict.

    The governor said, “29 ethnic groups have presented a public apology indicating how the zone has suffered from the effects of violence in the past decades and of recent, of which all hands must be on deck to allow peace to reign.”

    The governor who unveiled a “Public Apology Billboards,” launched a peace awareness message tagged: “The Kafanchan Peace Declaration,” and also released a dove as a symbol of peace at the ceremony.

    He maintained that the state is to establish a “Peace Commission” that will aid in handling early signs and symptoms of conflicts before they escalate to violence.

    El Rufai thanked the mediating organisation, “Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) for investing in the state to regain her rightful place in the country and the global community as a whole.

    The President, Plateau State Council of Chiefs, who doubles as the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, appealed to Southern Kaduna people to learn from Plateau State, some of whose communities have been dislodged by the effects of the violence of over a decade.

    The Senior Adviser and Lead Mediator of Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) in Africa, Alice Nderitu from Nairobi Kenya, said the organisation has spent about 2 years carrying out consultations, reconciliations among other things that led to the historic occasion in the zone. She said 32 humanitarian dialogue chairmen were constituted by their organisation for the reconciliation processes in all the 5 LGAs of the Senatorial zone.