Kwari: Caught in Web of Sani/El-Rufai feud – The Nation Newspaper
The cordial relationship between Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani and his predecessor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has gone sour. As the crisis escalated, there have been fears over the fate of the deputy governor and other aides who hitherto served under El-Rufai. ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE gives an insight into the unfolding drama in the key Northwest state.
When Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani took over the mantle of leadership from Mallam Nosiru El-Rufa’i on May 29, last year, no one, not even their political opponents, would have thought that, the duo would fall apart a year afterwards, considering their long political and social alliance.
Years after they both served under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as Minister and Special Assistant, El-Rufai contested for governor on the platform of the then newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 and ended 16 years of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) rule in the state.
Like many other key allies of the El-Rufai, Uba Sani was appointed as his Political Adviser, a position he held until 2019 when his principal saw the need for him to replace Senator Shehu Sani in the upper chamber of the National Assembly. Shehu Sani, also of the ruling APC, had become a thorn in El-Rufai’s flesh, criticizing his policies and programmes. The 8th Assembly senator from Kaduna Central and his counterpart from Kaduna North, Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, worked against the former governor’s move to access a $350 million loan from the World Bank.
It was against that backdrop that the former governor used the state power to deny Hunkuyi and Shehu Sani the return tickets to the National Assembly. He then handpicked his close ally and Political Adviser, Malam Uba Sani and his Commissioner of Finance, Suleiman Abdu Kwari to replace Shehu Sani and Hunkuyi. The plan worked for El-Rufa’I, as the duo went straight for their main mission in the National Assembly; they lobbied their colleagues in the hallowed chamber and got a foreign loan for El-Rufai’s government.
The $350 million loan not only assisted El-Rufai in delivering his dream infrastructural facelift of Kaduna under his Urban Renewal Programme, where several roads, bridges, markets, malls, parks and a host of others were built, but it also pushed Senator Sani to the top on the El-Rufai’s list of possible and worthy successors.
Their relationship blossoms throughout the campaign period and even after the election. Sani’s appointment of some of the former governor’s aides was a confirmation of that. However, a few months down the line, rumours of crisis between them started spreading. It became confirmed when El-Rufai visited Kaduna on several occasions without meeting his successor.
El-Rufai came to Kaduna in December 2023 to commiserate with the people of Tudun Biri, the community affected by the erroneous military drone attack. But, unlike other dignitaries like Vice President Kashim Shettima, Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau, former Vice President Namadi Sambo and others, the former governor went straight to the affected village alongside his friend, the 16th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, without visiting the Government House or meeting Governor Sani. He also visited Zaria after the incident of Zaria Central Mosque collapse without seeing the governor.Related News
The former governor later attributed his refusal to meet with Uba Sani to his resolve not to interfere in the new government.
Speaking at a Capacity Enhancement Workshop for Senior Government Officials in Borno State, on May 8, 2024, El-Rufai said he had only visited Kaduna five times since he left office. He said: “I only visited Kaduna five times since I left office almost a year ago. I don’t want to be a godfather and that’s why I don’t interfere in what is happening in Kaduna; I want him (the governor) to learn and get the job by himself.”
El-Rufai’s defence was coming barely 40 days after Governor Sani at a town hall meeting in Kaduna on March 30, 2024, said his administration inherited a huge debt burden of $587 million, N85 billion, and N115billion contractual liabilities from the administration of El-Rufai. He also lamented that due to the rise in the exchange rate, the state was paying back almost triple what was borrowed by the previous administration.
He explained to the stakeholders that the huge debt burden was eating deep into the state’s federal allocation, as he said N7bn out of the N10bn federal allocation for the state in March was deducted to service the state’s debt, while the state was left with N3bn, an amount he said was not enough to pay salaries, as the state’s monthly salary bill stood at N5.2 billion.
Sami’s outburst without doubt caused some friction within the ruling party; it immediately divided the party into two camps. The incumbent governor’s camp however appears to hold the ace; aside from being in control of power, the camp is larger than the other. The El-Rufai’s camp parades majorly former commissioners and aides who are not just displaying loyalty to the former Governor, but are angry that they did not make it into the list of Uba Sani’s appointees.
Some of the El-Rufai camp members could not keep their cool; they criticized Governor Sani’s action. The governor’s camp too did not treat them with kid gloves. The APC Women Leader, Maryam Suleiman whose video went viral on social media, accusing Governor Sani of mismanagement and asking him to refrain from attributing his failures to El-Rufai, was immediately suspended by the party. The party said it took disciplinary action against Suleiman for ‘gross misconduct’.
In a related development, Aisha Galadima, another female member of the APC loyal to El-Rufai, was arrested by personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS), shortly after a Facebook post criticizing Sani’s comment against the former Governor.
Just when many were still doubting whether the governor’s lamentation was targeted at his predecessor or mere accountability exercise before the state’s stakeholders, Kaduna State House of Assembly under the leadership of Uba Sani’s die-hard god-son, Yusuf Liman Dahiru, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 constituted a 13-member committee to investigate how the $350 million World Bank loan obtained by the former administration was spent.
