No crisis in Kaduna APC : Uba Sani

Uba Sani

Uba Sani, Political Adviser to Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, in this interview explains the current crisis in the state chapter of the APC but waves off any likelihood that it may affect the unity of the party in the state. Excerpts:

As political adviser, how do you think the government and party in Kaduna State can resolve the current crisis rocking the state chapter of the party?
What crisis are you talking about? Because a few persons who are opposed to good governance in Kaduna State are kicking does not in any way indicate that there is crisis in the party. They are only exploiting their access to the media to seek to manipulate people. They have already failed because more than 99 per cent of APC members in Kaduna State remain solidly behind the programmes and policies of our beloved Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai.
I really do not like dignifying these people by responding to them. I prefer to talk about the profound things Governor El Rufai has done in the last six months to bring the state back from the brink. Considering that the governor inherited a near-empty treasury and, given also the nation’s dwindling economic fortunes, the governor and his equally hard-working deputy, Mr. Bala Barnabas Bantex, have since taken 50 per cent cuts in their salaries and allowances while commissioners and aides of the governor and his deputy have also taken massive cuts in their salaries and allowances. Indeed by June 2015, just one month after taking office, the El-Rufai administration had slashed overheads by a whopping 60 per cent.
In the bid to plug leakages in the system, the new government in Kaduna State has also among other things, prohibited the collection of cash revenues by Ministries, Departments and Agencies and has promptly adopted the Treasury Single Account (TSA). This is the kind of conversation we should be having. Lets stop massaging the ego of undeserving persons please.
Some members of the APC in Kaduna have accused the governor of hijacking the party. What is your take?
That is a mischievous and frivolous claim. How can you hijack what you have? The APC in Kaduna State remains one big happy family under our very hardworking and intensely innovative governor. Members and the entire leadership of the party have severally reiterated their confidence in the governor and have endorsed all his policies and programmes. Let me clarify that Malam Nasir el-Rufai is not the governor of only members of APC in Kaduna State. He is the governor of all the people of our great state irrespective of political, ethnic, tribal, social and economic persuasions and aspirations. 
Since his assumption of office in May this year, Malam el-Rufai has been working round the clock to fix a state that he met in a shocking and embarrassing state of utter decay. On assumption of office, the governor was confronted with a people and a state desperately yearning for change and renewal. The consensus among the citizenry is that failure by whatever guise could never be an option. Mercifully, six months down the road, the trust and confidence reposed in Malam Nasir el-Rufai by millions of voters in Kaduna State are beginning to bear juicy fruits even much earlier than expected. El-Rufai’s programmes and policies are essentially anchored on the commitments outlined in the Restoration Programme, the manifesto platform on which the Kaduna State APC campaigned. He is implementing what he promised the people of Kaduna State that APC government would do for the state if elected into office. Permit me to add that Governor El-Rufai consults with members and leadership of the APC before key decisions are taken. Even more so, the governor has instituted a policy, a culture of bringing government closer to the people with a view to having the citizenry participate fully in the formulation of crucial policies and taking decisions on how they should be governed.
In Kaduna State today, a few elite no longer sit in cozy offices or hotel rooms to determine the fate of millions of other people. Governor El-Rufai has introduced monthly town hall meetings across the state. At these town hall meetings, the governor and members of his team account to the people and bring them in to speed up programmes and policies of the government and then take feedback from them. The feedbacks and other inputs from the citizenry at these town hall meetings have been shaping the policies and programmes of the administration. So, the people claiming that he has hijacked the party are just a very few selfish and self-seeking persons who want the status quo of looting and thievery to continue at the detriment of the overall wellbeing of the state and the citizenry.
Would you say there are invisible hands engineering the emerging problems in the party?
There are no invisible hands or legs anywhere. I have already told you that these few persons are well known to Kaduna people. They are people who want a return to the very debilitating status quo that profited only a few indigenes of Kaduna State at the detriment of the teeming populace. Change has come to Kaduna and more than 99 per cent of the people are firmly with the governor and his administration.
The aggrieved members of your party have called on its national headquarters to conduct elections into vacant positions in its state chapter. How do you react to this call?
Vacant positions in Kaduna APC are not an isolated case. Many states are having the same issue. I do not know why they are making unnecessary noise about it. After the elections, many APC leaders were appointed into various positions in virtually every state. The constitution of the party is clear, only the national headquarters can conduct mini-convention/congress to fill the vacant positions. We are waiting for the national headquarters to fix the date. We can’t do anything about it because it affects virtually every state. So, why the unnecessary noise?
Will all these not affect the growth and development aspiration of government of El-Rufai in Kaduna State?
There is no crisis in the party. Certainly there is no division in the party.
The aggrieved party members have also spoken against the programmes and projects of Malam el-Rufai as anti-masses, how would you react?
No well-meaning member of the APC or any other party for that matter has faulted fundamentally, any of the programmes and policies of the El-Rufai administration. Which of the programmes or project initiated by the administration is anti masses?
You will recall that while campaigning, El-Rufai promised to make six things his priority, namely: education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, security, youth and women empowerment. Our people voted him into office based on this campaign promise. So, when he assumed office we believed education, which is the bedrock of any society, should be given full attention. The governor decided to first of all create an enabling environment for our secondary school students in the state. To get a full picture of the situation, we went round all the secondary schools and even some primary schools too. We realized that the first thing we needed to do was to give them a very conducive environment for learning.
If you visit most secondary schools in Kaduna State today you will see private houses almost attached to school dormitories and some people also built their houses right inside school premises. In our days, we excelled in these same public schools because we had conducive learning environment. These anomalies happen only in the public schools. They don’t happen in private schools, and we are therefore determined to clear this mess. Taking these things into consideration, the governor promised that he was going to provide all the right facilities and create the right and conducive environment in our public schools to give the children of the poor a sense of belonging. The governor’s idea is to provide equal opportunities for the children of the poor to excel in life by having qualitative education in Kaduna State. It is very important that you note that long before the governor took the decision to demolish those houses within the premises of Alhudahuda College in Zaria, some of the ex-students of that school led by people like Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed had actually gone to the media and complained about the massive encroachment on the school premises. The same thing happened with Rimi College, Government College etc. The people of Kaduna State have complained severally in the past but none of the past governors had the political will to do the right thing, to save the children of the poor in those public schools. It was so because none of them took education as their priority.

 Credits:DAILY TRUST



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