El-rufai and sincerity of campaign promises

By Yusuf Mohammed |

Since Mallam Naisir El-rufai was sworn in as the governor of Kaduna state, he has hit the ground running with some of his campaign promises.
In less than a month since El-rufai took over from Ramalan Yero, he has begun to deliver the dividends of good governance.
El-rufai’s emergence as governor has been met with high expectations due to his giant strides as minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja from 2003 to 2007.
It would be recalled that when he was the minister of the FCT, he demolished illegal structures belonging to the high, mighty and religious groups without looking backwards. The number of mosques and churches he brought down were too numerous.
It would also be recalled that he personally supervised demolition of the Senate president’s house, PDP chairman’s house, the house of the Inspector General of Police and houses of other prominent Nigerians.
Many view El-Rufai as an incorruptible public servant who can get difficult jobs done, especially after he ordered the demolition of houses belonging to powerful Nigerians.
The first thing he did as governor of Kaduna State was to reduce the number of commissioners in the state from 23 to 13.
He also scrapped the state Ministry of Information, Ministry of Lands, Survey and Country Planning and the Ministry of Rural and Community Development.
According to El-Rufai’s media aide, Samuel Aruwan, “El-Rufa’i has repeatedly stated that the Kaduna State Government must direct more of its resources to delivering public services and as such, the move requires a reduction in the proportion consumed by government.”
“Each ministry will henceforth have its own public relations unit attached to the office of its chief executive. The realignment of mandates has also resulted in the emergence of two new departments.”
“The erstwhile Ministry of Lands, Survey and Country Planning are being moved to the Governor’s Office as a department. Similarly, the former Ministry of Rural and Community Development becomes a department in the Deputy Governor’s Office.”
El-Rufai had also earlier split his salary and the deputy governor’s by 50% in a bid to reduce the cost of governance in the state.
Few days after his inauguration he also took a drastic step towards the growth of agriculture in the state by banning the allocation of fertilizers to traditional rulers and politicians in all local government areas of the state.

El-Rufai also directed that fertilizer stocks should be sold directly to local farmers from designated sales points across the state.
The governor made the statement through his special assistant on media, Samuel Aruwan, on June 6, Saturday, in Kaduna.
Hallmark learnt that El-Rufai gave the directive when he paid an unscheduled visit to the fertilizer warehouse of Kaduna state ministry of agriculture at Dankande village along Kaduna-Zaria expressway.
According to a report, “the governor made it clear that his administration will not condone to injustice and acts of discrimination to the disadvantage of the ordinary citizens. The governor directed the ministry of agriculture to make fertilizers available for sale in order to avoid the sort of scarcity that can introduce corruption into the distribution process. He said fertilizer procurement should not be made an ordeal for farmers, the statement read in part.
Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has also has approved the appointments of Mrs Balaraba Aliyu-Inuwa and Dr. Clement Woje to help drive the government’s rural and community development agenda. They will both work in the office of the Deputy Governor as Special Adviser and Director-General respectively. The new government recently announced that the former ministry of rural development will henceforth be a department in the deputy governor’s office.

Balaraba Aliyu-Inuwa was the Education Specialist and Deputy Programme Director for the Earth Institute, Columbia University on the Nigeria MDG Scale up Programme based in Abuja.

Kabiru Bala, from Kaduna North is of the view that Kaduna residents voted El-rufai because they believe that he would deliver the dividends of good governance.

He said, “We can all remember how he performed as the FCT minister. It was based on his antecedents that we voted him. Barely a month after his swearing in, he has hit the ground running.

However, political pundits are of the view that El-rufai’s overzealousness is not unconnected with his quest to become the President in 2019.

It is believed that President Muhammadu Buhari would be in office for one term and the North would put forward another candidate to take over from him.

Many view this as the reason why El-rufai is putting up a good performance in Kaduna.

Yahaya Ibrahim a political analyst told Hallmark that, “A good performance with the help of the media to showcase his works would boost his chances in 2019. As you can see any little thing he does, he publicizes. A few days ago he took his child to a public hospital and it was all over the social media.

He further stated that. “El-rufai is been groomed by some Northern elites to take over from Buhari so in order for him to be accepted easily by Nigerians, he has to turn Kaduna into a Dubai which is exactly what he is trying to do”.

However, the people of Kaduna would be the major beneficiaries irrespective of El-rufa’s motives.