Yellow card for el-Rufa’i (1)

Th e good people of Kaduna State are very much frustrated over glaring failure to actualize their hopes and wishes. An atmosphere of disappointment has currently permeated the state invoking an eerie feeling of letdown. It was that of sadness and frustration because things government is not performing satisfactorily according to peoples’ expectations because their aspirations have hopelessly been faded away. Th ey contended that Malam Nasir el-Rufa’i, the governor they had enthusiastically elected was a colossal disappointment, having earlier fervently prayed that he would eventually be a veritable source of their success.

He had previously exhibited characteristics that suggested his undisguised capabilities to help actualize their dream and bring relief to their varied predicaments, but alas, he had woefully disappointed them, leaving then in anguish and untold miseries. Th ere is a deep seated belief that Governor Nasir and his government had turned out to be dormant and inactive several months after take-off , sliding into unbelievable state of comatose to the extent of inability to perform their basic obligations to the people they had callously forsaken.

Th at was why an ideological coalition of diff erent stakeholders in Kaduna State, Kaduna Restoration Group, considered it imperative to caution Malam Nasir in a lengthy, but bitter correspondence which they titled ‘Th e Growing Trend of Civilian Dictatorship in Kaduna State.’ It is true that under the complacent watch of Governor el-Rufa’i, the state he chaperons was fast sliding into political abyss, portending great danger to the entire people of the state whose livelihood and welfare are steadily being endangered.

Th ere have been so many incidences of autocratic actions almost on daily basis perpetrated by the governor or the irrepressible agents of his government. Th e Group’s grouse was that the good people of Kaduna State have painfully realized that Nasiru’s government had been advertising its democratic credentials and celebrating its achievements overtly, but covertly what was obviously realistic was that the so-called achievements were fi ctitious and non-existent. It soon dawned on all and sundry that the government was extensively populated with core loyalists of the governor with materialistic and mercantilist disposition, imported into the state to massage his ego and to displace qualifi ed state indigenes that can do the job better.

Sadly, Nasiru’s government has pathetically failed to unveil any agenda concerned with practical results, but was preoccupied with theories and principles. From its badly managed school feeding programme which gulped a whopping ten billion dollars in just eight months, according to the governor’s implausible and incredible estimates, to the theatrical commissioning of the so-called Zaria Treatment Plant, it could be seen that Nasir elRufa’i is a prankster who believes in reaping where he did not sow.

Th e school feeding programme was a classic example of how not to undertake a public-oriented exercise that will uplift expectations only to dash them heartlessly. Similarly, phase one of the three-phase Zaria Water Treatment Plant was successfully completed by the PDP administration, and its Governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero had earlier fl agged off the commencement of the second phase and provided enough materials for its execution. Governor el-Rufa’i had only succeeded in hoodwinking the people of Zaria by replicating the commissioning ceremony of the new treatment plant in May this year. What had actually disproven his claim was the fact that till today no drop of water had reached any home after the deceptive commissioning jamboree.

Th at had really shown that no further action was carried out by his government on the water plant from where the previous administration had left it. In fact stories of Governor Nasiru’s escapades are not dissimilar to brash adventures, showing recklessness and utter disregard for the rule of law. Th e mindless demolition exercises carried out in Zaria and Kaduna of the houses of hapless and unfortunate citizens left many pauperized and in reprehensible destitution. Most of the victims were among the hordes that tenaciously participated in the campaigns and electoral processes that installed Nasir as a governor without his stir. What an indiff erent breach of trust? Needless to say, Governor Nasir’s anti peoples’ policies are legion.

Th ey range from contract scams which violated and excluded fi nancial rules and regulations from their inception to unilateral awards, to the bastardization of Civil and unifi ed Local Government services and the employment of discredited consultants whose terms of engagement were not consistent with the bureaucratic norms while their services are not benefi cial to the people of the state. Th ese so-called consultants are not familiar with the state and are totally ignorant about the aspirations of its people. What they are only known for is their insatiable appetite for money which they stockpile any how without regard to due process. Th eir main function is to disallow the locals participate freely in economic activities while their main role is to arrange capital fl ight or helping to move resources out of the state which they bleed dry. Apart from the controversial sacking of traditional rulers which has been the last straw threatening to break the back of Nasir’s camel, his needless and expensive globe-trotting tendency is exerting unnecessary expenses to the public purse which could conveniently be used to uplift the status of the miserable people of Kaduna State. Now, with the yellow card given him by the Kaduna Restoration Group everybody is saying that serves him right.

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