- Allegedly Inherited $587m, N85bn Debt From El-Rufai’s Govt
- Gov Sani has deflected- El-Rufai Son
- Accuses Gov Sani of inflating contract and Being Forex speculator.
Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani allegedly unveiled a shocking information at a town hall meeting on Saturday to give account of his stewardship that he remained resolute in steering Kaduna to the path of progress using the available lean resources.
The grieving governor lamented that the enormous debt has eaten deep into the state’s federal allocation. The governor inherited a huge debt burden of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the immediate past administration of Nasir El-Rufai.
In attendance at the meeting were traditional rulers and religious leaders, politicians, members of the Organised Labour, civil society organisations, youths and women groups. Also present include a former governor of Kaduna State, Ramalan Yero; a former Chief of Defence Staff, General Martin-Luther Agwai; members of the Kaduna State Executive Council, as well as members of the House of Assembly led by the Speaker, Yusuf Liman.
Governor Sani, accompanied by his deputy, Hadiza Balarabe, acquainted the audience with the state’s revenue profile and the debt left behind by his predecessor.
The governor also touched on the key priority areas of his government, including security, housing, education, healthcare and support for micro, small and medium enterprises.
The Commissioner of Finance, Shizzer Bada, made a presentation on what the state gets from the federal allocation and what is being deducted from it to service the huge debt left by the past administration.
While his Budget and Planning counterpart, Muktar Ahmed, touched on the number of contractual liabilities whereby contractors engaged by the former government abandoned projects after collecting money.
Notwithstanding the huge debt burden he inherited, coupled with the number of contractual liabilities, Governor Sani assured the people that he would keep his eyes on the ball in steering the state towards the part of progress and sustainable development.
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A son of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has attacked his father’s successor, Uba Sani, over his complaint about the loans burden he inheritted from Mr El-Rufai.
In an apparent reaction to Mr Sani’s remark, the son of the former governor, Bashir El-Rufai, in a tweet on X said the governor was only trying to cover his administration’s incompetence.
Mr El-Rufai claimed that the governor had “deflected” from his responsibilities and abandoned his duty as governor.
“These guys have realised that they are wholly incompetent and the only way to mask the nonsense is to deflect. From a Governor who is always sleeping in Abuja to a litany of incompetent aides who were only rewarded for foolish political reasons,” he said.
The younger El-Rufai wrote: “These guys have realised that they are wholly incompetent and the only way to mask the nonsense is to deflect. From a Governor that is always sleeping in Abuja to a litany of incompetent aides that were only rewarded for foolish political reasons.”
On the debt profile of the State, he responded: “FYI: He was the Senator from Kaduna who lobbied & approved the loans.”
It will be recalled that Governor Sani was Kaduna Central Senator in the 9th Senate before his emergence as the state governor in the 2023 elections.
Bashir further tweeted, “One would think that from all the FAAC allocations these unserious clowns have changed to dollars, debt would be the least of their problems.
“The current administration in Kaduna is building a banquet hall for 7BN naira and is lamenting about debt left by the previous administration.”
