2019: Why el-Rufai Must Go

BY SIMON REEF MUSA
The recent interview granted to the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) by Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai in which he claimed the issue of mass killings in Nigeria is too insignificant to attract serious concern amounts to gross insensitivity on the part of political leadership. It reveals not only the innate deficits in the governor, but also a clear demonstration of ignorance of what government must do to stem the tide of bloodshed in Nigeria.
The interview, which is coming on the trail of the inconclusive council poll in the state, opens a window on the mindset of el-Rufai who is noted for his gaffes and headstrong disposition on issues. No doubt, the performance profile of the el-Rufai government has been woeful, if not destructive. From Zaria to Sanga; and from Birnin Gwari to Kauru, the despair and frustration of the people are too obvious to be ignored. Three years of the el-Rufai administration has become an agonising exercise of not only impoverishing the people, but also subjecting them to unprecedented disenchantment in the chequered history of the State.
Not minding the role of government as the chief promoter of citizen’s welfare and defender of lives and property, el-Rufai has sacked no fewer than 36,000 public sector workers. Similarly, over 4,000 monarchs have been unturbaned and sent into royal oblivion. Consultants have taken over the civil service. Armed banditry in Birnin Gwari area has continued to cause incessant loss of lives on a weekly, if not daily basis. Murderous herdsmen have reduced communities to ruins with many slaughtered in the southern part of the State.
Under el-Rufai, education is in reverse gear as the administration is yet to rescue the sector from the confusion it plunged it into, following the sacking of about 22,000 teachers from the system. Even after recruiting 15,000 to replace the sacked teachers, the administration discovered to its chagrin that it only succeeded in replacing one-eyed teachers with the blind, as a number of the newly recruited were incapable of writing acceptance letters. In the governor’s words, the newly recruited teachers had tried to “game the system”.
More worrisome is the fact that the school feeding programme has become drain pipe. A whopping sum of N10 billion was allegedly spent in eight months, while Kano state government, with a population almost twice that of Kaduna, spent N4 billion for a year. After a careful assessment of the school feeding programme in the state, not a few are of the opinion that it is a fraudulent exercise intended to fleece the state treasury. A government that renders parents unemployed, but later resort to feeding their children/wards in schools cannot be competent to govern the people.
Providing scholarship to indigent students has been scrapped by the Kaduna state government. The current administration recently announced that it was working out an arrangement with some banks to provide loans to poor students for their fees. The students are expected to repay the loan after their studies. Which bank will provide loans to students when the prospects for the repayment are not there due to the high rate of unemployment in the polity? There has been no time in the history of Kaduna State that the youths have been subjected to such a blistering bleak future than now.
As if the el-Rufai administration has come to punish the people and enslave our unborn generations, it tried to force down our throats $350 million World Bank loan. It took the timely intervention of the Senate to save the State from an additional debt burden. With elections approaching, the social media has become active in showcasing the achievements of a government we all know has done far less than we expected of it. Power point presentation has become the tool to confuse simpletons and promise of appointments is being used to recruit new cheerleaders.
Ahead of next year’s general polls, the threatening clouds are hovering over the nation’s skies. While political gladiators are quick to remind us that they are battle ready for 2019, these power men have forgotten that before now, four years ago, they were in the trenches plotting the electoral downfall of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That they succeeded was not because they worked hard for it, they succeeded because of the willingness of the then government in power to play by the rules.
Going by the unfolding events, uprooting the tenant at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House will take more than the capacity of a single party to achieve. Defeating the men in power, who are not willing to play by the rules, will require more than the resilience of parties acting independent of one another. We need a grand rainbow coalition that is opposed to el-Rufai’s government in all its ramifications. Having reduced the State into an oasis of personal fiefdom, the administration has created over 17,000 wards with a promise of a monthly N10, 000 each for the battle ahead. The Kaduna State House of Assembly that should checkmate the State government has become more of a pawn used against the people’s interest. If we must retrieve our state from those who seek to enslave us with computer power-point presentation, then we need bridges of political collaboration. In the unity of our resolve, no force can withstand the people’s power.
As politicians engage in behind-the-scene negotiations, nocturnal sessions and maneuverings to drive away this wild cat of a government, it is important to emphasize more on issues that unite than divide the people. Kaduna state is bleeding from acute absence of governance. Agents of violence and murderers have seized the space and made life uncomfortable for us all. And because those in power have refused to tackle the problems headlong, we seemed destined to stay longer in this Plato’s cave of disillusionment.
Certainly, this is no time to ask what political party or affiliation you belong to; it’s time to forge a unified political movement that will resoundingly banish el-Rufai from the corridors of power. The tears of sufferings brought by the present government under the former BPE czar must terminate on May 29, 2019. With the Kaduna APC House broken irretrievably in the State, the task of unseating the incumbent has already taken a firm foundation. All that is needed is for all parties to come together and ensure we save our state from an impending doom of a successful re-election bid. Let the PDP, SDP, APGA, ADP, PRP, Labour, among others, join forces with all the anti-el-Rufai’s factions in the APC and go for a resounding victory.
We should not allow retrogressive partisanship to rob us of an opportunity to remove the yoke of el-Rufai’s undemocratic leadership from the State. If we succumb to agents of disunity that shall soon be unleashed on us, we may not survive the fire next time. Let us be wise and not resort to eating faeces because we are hungry. This is no time for party affiliation; it is time to embark on a rescue mission. This is no time to entertain ethnic and religious talks; it is time to salvage our state from forces ripping us apart. For once, let the politicians bury their personal differences, greed for power and join forces on a united platform to end our descent into chaos.
As the forces opposed to el-Rufai begin earnest efforts to defeat the present government in 2019, we must not be oblivious of the opponents’ strategies to be deployed to elongate our sufferings. Kaduna citizens should avoid being trapped in ethnic and religious matters that our enemies have deployed against us for so long a time. In the present circumstance, we are faced with a wild cat that committed to destroying the chicken. Let us be united in chasing away the wild cat in order to save the chicken.
Let us not delude ourselves, if el-Rufai does not go in 2019, the suspended demolition exercise will resume. Despite desperate efforts at portraying him as a democrat, el-Rufai will continue to denigrate and reduce his opponents into political nothingness. The World Bank will just by the side to resuscitate the rejected $350 million loan request if he scales through to 2019 polls. Consultants will continue to render the state civil servants irrelevant in running the public sector. Education sector will continue to be in tatters. The rule of one man assisted by inner kitchen members will continue to leave indelible footprints of cronyism. As we approach 2019, we must all strive for the emergence of anyone but el-Rufai. God save us from the turmoil and anguish of yet another el-Rufa’s tenure.