Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, says he does not want the status of a godfather in the State.
El-Rufai spoke on Monday at a capacity-enhancement workshop for senior government officials organised by the Borno State Government.
The former governor said he has only visited Kaduna five times since he left office in May 2023.
“I don’t want to be a godfather and that’s why I don’t interfere in what is happening in Kaduna, I want him (the governor) to learn and get the job by himself.”
“The leader should get good people to get the job done. Only God can do everything by himself, no matter how good you are as a leader, you can be as effective as people around you and that’s why the saying that no country gets better than the quality of his civil service.”
Recall, two weeks ago, his successor, Uba Sani, stated the administration of El-Rufai left Kaduna in huge debt.
The governor at a town hall meeting in Kaduna on March 30, 2024, said his administration inherited a huge debt burden of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the administration of El-Rufai.
Governor Sani stated that the state is now paying back almost triple what was borrowed by the previous administration due to a rise in the exchange rate in the country.
While giving more details, the governor said that the huge debt burden was eating deep into the state’s federal allocation. He further stated that N7bn out of the N10bn federal allocation for the state in March was deducted for the state’s debt service.
El-Rufai has not made any public comment on the issues raised by his successor, Sani.
The claim by the governor had left a cold war between El-Rufai and the governor leading to division among the members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna.
