By Chukwudi Ogbu
IN virtually all states, Nasir El-rufai is one of the vibrant governor Nigeria has now.
He championed the restructuring committee set up by Muhammadu Buhari. He always takes a hold move. A different angle. No wonder Muhammadu Buhari holds him with a highly fragile frame of care.
He has paid his dues. Kaduna should be lucky to have him.
He introduced electronic voting in the Local Government Election even while he knows he was endangering his political party. He could have lost the wards. But he was courageous to take that move. There was no case of election maneuver. Maybe he truly wants a good democracy. Maybe most governors should try that in their states.
Senator Shehu Sani on the other has become an enemy to the state. He holds of different faction of the APC in Kaduna state. He held a different Secretariat. El-rufai knew that a house divided amongst itself cannot stand. He destroyed the building. He bulldozed it himself.
Shehu Sani was always too quick to stare the hornets nest. He has suddenly became an activist. He now says things the he could not barely say while he was in the better half. He has changed course. He his learning how to be rude from Dino Malaye his colleague in the senate.
We all know that the senator representing Kaduna Central is aggrieved with the state governor. He sometimes think he should have been governor. And that El-Rufai obtained favour in the eyes of Buhari. But he should not let his personal grievances and opinions to become a danger to the growth of the people of Kaduna. Kaduna has always been a commercial city. El-rufai tries to increase more on it. He wants to make Kaduna a small city of Dubai.
El-rufai requested for a loan from the World Bank to invest in his state for the betterment of his people. The bank has agreed to come to their aid. But Shehu Sani and all two other Kaduna state senators whom are now his ally, connived and teamed up to stop the loan from coming. Their reasons was that the money will not be spent on the so called project they applied. The governor has told the public to shave the beards of all three senators for working against him. Shehu Sani wrote a letter calling for need of a psychiatrist attention to the governor. These duo has been at loggerheads, but it should not to the detriment of the electorate. Shehu Sani said the governor wants to rubbish his image by framing him up with murder case. He says the governor’s utterances can be genocidal like the case of Rwanda and Kenya. They should keep their grievances aside and go for the loan.
But how can a governor take money from world Bank and not put it to judicious use? I mean not central bank! Shehu Sani can be dangerous.
The state commissioner says the IGRs in the state will not be able to fund the project. And that there is need for such loan. I can understand they don’t have too many revenue like the South. But Shehu Sani should have known that this money was meant for the well being of his people. Shehu Sani has showed extreme pomposity and an egocentric nature.
El-rufai has the capacity for good governance. He wants the best for his people. Shehu Sani should know that by now. But he his too blinded by self recognition.
El-rufai knew lack of standard education will set his state backwards. He organised a school test for about 22,000 staff. They could not meet up to the pass mark. But how can you give what you don’t have? They were sacked. And the educational sector has turned a new leaf.
But which governor will not want his state to be on every school competition in the country? El-rufai is unique. But creepy.
El-rufai had sometime banned street begging. He says he wants the city cleaned. He empowered most of them. That’s what a good governor should do. Sani became the voice of the beggar. He mobilised them to oppose it. He says the governor is too self centered to eradicate street begging.
El-rufai can be creepy. But he wants the best for his state.
Chukwudi Ogbu is a guest writer
