By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Former Deputy National Chairman (North-West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has spoken ot the need to mend fences between former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai and his successor and incumbent, Uba Sani.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Kaduna at the weekend, Governor Sani had raised the alarm that he inherited a huge debt of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the administration of el-Rufai.
Because of this huge burden, he noted, N7 billion was being deducted from the N10 billion due the state from Federal Allocation, leaving only N3 billion.
The governor said faced with such reality, the state has been finding it difficult to honour its monthly salary obligation of N5.2 billion to its workers.
However, Lukman said while acknowledging very challenging reality, ‘’it is important that this issue is not reduced to the politics of blame game and loud noise-making with praise singers on both sides defending their benefactors.’’
He said in a statement, ‘’In the first place, the issue of the huge debt burden of Kaduna State is public secret. It is a matter that is very well known to His Excellency Uba Sani.
‘’Although there could new insight that he must have encountered after taking over as Governor, I want to believe that he came well prepared and ready to deal with the challenges and move Kaduna State forward from where Mallam Nasir left it.’’
According to him, ‘’Part of the objective of the town hall could as well be to mobilise the people of Kaduna State to support the initiatives of Kaduna State government under the leadership of Mallam Uba Sani.
‘’Unfortunately, as it is, the report seems to be sensationalised, suggesting the reality of strong disagreement and breakdown of relationship between Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Mallam Uba Sani, which could as well be the case.
‘’I make this point cautiously having practically lost contact with both Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Mallam Uba Sani since my resignation as National Vice Chairman (North-West) in July 2023.
‘’I was only privileged to meet Mallam Uba once and thereafter couldn’t speak with him in any form. I only encountered Mallam Nasir once during the birthday reception of Chief Bisi Akande at the Presidential Villa, and we only greeted and moved on.
‘’This notwithstanding, I can’t claim ignorance about some of the dynamics playing out in Kaduna State.
‘’I am aware of the growing animosity between Mallam Nasir and Mallam Uba, or at least I hear some of it from sources close to both of them. However, given the reality that I am not close to both Mallam Nasir and Mallam Uba, I opted to keep my distance and not meddle into a dispute between two very close friends.
‘’My expectation was that they will resolve the matter. Sadly, this doesn’t appear to be the case. I think, people close to Mallam Nasir and Mallam Uba are also not helping matters.’’
Lukman added, ‘’Perhaps, in making this intervention, I need to clarify that even before my resignation from the leadership of APC, my relationship with both Mallam Nasir and Mallam Uba is that of mutual respect, which did not translate into a strong political relationship back in Kaduna State.
‘’Having expressed my disagreement with Mallam Nasir back in 2014 to the extent of aspiring against his ambition to contest for governor, I was never recognised as a stakeholder in the APC in Kaduna State.
‘’Perhaps, the only exception was when I became the National Vice Chairman (North-West). The dynamics that made that possible had to do with my role in many of the campaigns to reform the APC at the national level, which pitched me against some party leaders and governors, and my subsequent resignation as the Director-General of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF).
‘’During those campaigns, I will say I am lucky to be on the same side with Mallam Nasir.
It is to the credit of Mallam Nasir that he was able to see beyond our differences and in March 2022 nominated me to contest for the position of National Vice Chairman (North-West). I make this clarification largely in response to many of the views held by many party leaders that Mallam Nasir is my sponsor.
‘’While it is true that especially with reference to reforming the party at national level, we seem to agree, when it comes to issues back in Kaduna State, we have strong disagreement. In fact, if the truth is to be told, most of the problems of the party at the national level are also committed by the party in Kaduna, if not worse, under the leadership of Mallam Nasir.
‘’The hard truth also is that Mallam Uba was one of his strongest collaborators in Kaduna State.
‘’The reality was that everything Mallam Nasir did during his eight (8) year tenure was endorsed and supported by Mallam Uba. Certainly, the decision of Mallam Nasir to anoint Mallam Uba as his successor must have been informed by the consideration of their strong personal relationship.
‘’That shortly after taking over, the two friends are falling apart is most unfortunate and only reminds one about what played out between Alh. Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi and Arc. Namadi Sambo between 2007 and 2010.
‘’These were very close friends and business partners, on account of which Alh. Makarfi anoint Arc. Sambo emerged as his successor in 2007. Till today, the relationship between the two is still very bad.
Across the country, similar reality is replicated virtually across all the states in the country. All the challenges that create worsened relationships between predecessors and successors highlight either the complete absence or very weak party structures in the determination of successors.
‘’Across all parties in Nigeria, serving governors exercise monopoly in producing their successors. This is one area that highlights the complete failure of APC as an envisioned progressive party.
‘’And as it is, beyond Kaduna State, there are similar dynamics playing out in many APC states, and at best, the party leadership at the national level is simply behaving as a distant observer. Check what is going on in Benue, Ebonyi and Cross River. This shouldn’t be the case.
Ideally, party leaders at both the state and national level should have the capacity to intervene to resolve the challenge. At the minimum, they should be able to intervene to strengthen the capacity of state governments to manage challenges of governance, which is the main highlight of Mallam Uba’s presentation at the town hall meeting.
‘’Certainly, Mallam Uba’s submission would have come with some indications of how the state government intends to resolve the challenge of huge debt burden.
‘’ Somehow, the media reports have not emphasised that. Consequently, and predictably, supporters of Mallam Nasir have started responding and if care is not taken the matter will be reduced to public debate between supporters of Mallam Nasir and supporters of Mallam Uba, and in the circumstance the whole issue of what needs to be done to address the problem of Kaduna State huge debt will be left unattended to.
‘’Without any excuse, all of us in APC in Kaduna must take responsibility for the bad situation facing the State. In taking responsibility, we must appeal to Mallam Uba Sani to take every necessary step to undertake inventory of the debt of the state and how it was utilised. Part of what is needed now very urgently is to assess whether there are cases of diversion, which if established should be recovered.’’
