How PDP will make el-Rufai ‘accidental governor’!
According to a WikiLeaks cable just ahead of the 2007 presidential election, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, now a leading governorship candidate in Kaduna state had reportedly told the US Ambassador to Nigeria that the PDP vice presidential candidate, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was “clean and honest”. However, by 2013 el-Rufai had in a tweet dismissed Jonathan in […]
According to a WikiLeaks cable just ahead of the 2007 presidential election, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, now a leading governorship candidate in Kaduna state had reportedly told the US Ambassador to Nigeria that the PDP vice presidential candidate, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was “clean and honest”. However, by 2013 el-Rufai had in a tweet dismissed Jonathan in uncomplimentary terms, defining him as “lazy, docile and hopeless”. On the other end of the spectrum el-Rufai’s bosom friend, political soul mate and Obasanjo-era co-traveller, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, vociferously described his current principal, President Jonathan as a case of “chronic incompetence” and “ineptitude” on the back page of The Nation newspaper in a suggestive offering entitled “The Gutless Eunuch and Lion King” (January 17th 2014) . There, Fani-Kayode further opined that “Nigeria has become an abattoir of human flesh and blood under the tenure of President Jonathan and all those who support him must bury their heads in shame”.
Adding that “The question must be asked – does our president have any balls?” again posing a now all important question that “Is there a sinister plan to ensure that elections do not hold in some parts of the North East in 2015?” Fani-Kayode as Director of Media and Publicity of Jonathan’s presidential campaign and el-Rufai as the gubernatorial front runner in Kaduna have both engaged in a horrendous volte-face. One represents a clear and present danger to the PDP nationwide and the other proffering a quantum of opportunity for the APC in Kaduna State.
The chief beneficiary of Kaduna state’s political fractionalization since 1999 has been the PDP. How has that translated to the overall progress and development for the state? According to a Kaduna based think tank CPD (centre for Population and Development) as at 2012, 74 federal government institutions were located in Kaduna state: 21 in the Northern zone, 47 in the Central zone and 6 in the Southern zone; adding that “as at the end of 2014 there were 24 federal executive positions occupied by citizens of Kaduna State. The Northern zone had 12, Central zone 7 and the Southern zone 5. These figures are despite the fact that in 2011 the PDP harvested its largest haul of presidential votes from the Southern zone (616,121) which is more than what the Northern and Central zones put together polled at 204,107 and 369,951 respectively.
As far as the distribution of state development projects are concerned available data shows that “Northern and Central LGAs have taken 71% of all actual capital expenditure in the state. On the average, while each LGA received 2.42% of actual capital expenditure in the Southern zone, the average was 6.45% per LGA in the Northern zone”. How can el-Rufai navigate through the maze of PDP’s deliberate lopsidedness without harming his Northern zone primary constituency?
First he has to realize that the 8 LGAs of the Southern zone delivered more votes to the PDP presidential barn than the entire 12 LGAs of Bayelsa state (504,811) and the whole of Delta South (528,725) in 2011. Second, he has to skilfully convert the recent sack of the SURE-P chairman, General Martin Luther Agwai and that of the immediate past GMD of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Andrew Yabuku to political capital. The backdrop is simply through the figures of the current PDP led state government which show that between 2008 and 2013, Kaduna North and Kaduna South LGAs in the Central zone took 45.20% and 9.13% actual capital expenditure with Zaria LGA following with 8.55%, this means that only 3 LGAs took 63% of total capital expenditure of the state, while 20 LGAs received just 37%.
While the location of institutions and facilities, access to opportunities for development and appointments to positions at federal and state levels cannot be legislated for, el-Rufai should on assumption of office as governor send executive bills for Land and Grazing Reserves to be clearly demarcated and subsequently gazetted in the Southern zone and the repeal the edict on the takeover of missionary schools which is currently CAP.155, Laws of Kaduna State 1991.
Not doing so will be a continuation of the current PDP wishful thinking and a fundamental misunderstanding of the core problems of Kaduna state. Kaduna now needs one heck of a chief pilot with no political godfather breathing down his stubborn neck. Like the proverbial Phoenix the ashes of el-Rufai’s accidental public service is the exact fillip Kaduna needs as an exit strategy from being what can best be described as an “infrastructure nightmare”, when compared to neighbouring Kano, Katsina and even Plateau states.
The state according to the Debt Management Office is on a fiscal cliff-hanger. There are also equity challenges that reflect a huge reservoir of untapped or is it neglected goodwill which el-Rufai must to bring on board to the political mainstream – Northern zone minority Christians and Southern zone minority Muslims.
Yahaya-Joe wrote from Rock Road, Wussasa, Zaria, Kaduna State <[email protected]>;