Leke Baiyewu, Abuja

The lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator Shehu Sani, has asked Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, to shelve his presidential ambition, saying many of those who claim to be loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari are opportunists.

Sani, in a statement on Wednesday, said while El-Rufai accused Buhari of running a failed government through a memo, the governor “has failed also woefully.”

The lawmaker said, “He (El-Rufai) thinks President Muhammadu Buhari failed but he never invited PMB to even commission a completed toilet in his state. Under El-Rufai, Kaduna has become a hub of kidnappers and a sanctuary for herdsmen.

“The very governor who once condemned the National Assembly for lack of transparency has proven to be worse. El-Rufai wants to be seen as an apostle of Buhari’s change but he is actually the Judas of change.

“It is hypocritical to promise Nigerians change and end up only ‘putting change in our pockets.’ There’s nothing progressive about many people who claim to be Buharists; they are reactionaries and career opportunists who can fit into any government in power.

“I call on El-Rufai to suspend his presidential or vice presidential ambitions and concentrate on proper governance of the state.”

Sani recalled that an online news portal, SaharaReporters had reported about the alleged “systemic nepotism, opacity and complete absence of transparency” in the governance of Kaduna, saying that the report is factual about the reality of the situation in the state.

He alleged, “Journalists in Kaduna State are under siege; blackmailed, arrested, pocketed or threatened with arrest and, as such, could not have written such a story. El-Rufai jails journalists like Pinochet or Stalin. El-Rufai is a man with a mouth for criticism but without a stomach for criticism. In his two years in office, he has jailed not less than seven journalists in Kaduna, of which many are in court.

“Kaduna State is run like a personal ‘family and friends estate’ without any meaningful physical achievement other than sponsored media propaganda. El-Rufai has no money to pay traditional rulers he recently sacked but has money to dispense as contracts to family, friends and political cronies.

“El-Rufai has enough money to pay herdsmen but no money to pay district heads. Kaduna is today littered with abandoned drainages to the point that the rainy season has turned Kaduna into a ‘coastal state with creeks.’ He is auctioning over 2,000 government houses he inherited but he has yet to build a hut.”

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