April 7, (THEWILL)- There is definitely more than meets the eye in the lingering fight between Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State and his predecessor, Nasir el-Rufai.
While many may see it as purely local politics, political pundits believe that the ongoing crisis goes far deeper than the Saturday, March 30 revelation of an alleged financial recklessness on the part of the former Governor of Kaduna State.
But the disclosures by Governor Sani at a town hall meeting in Kaduna last Saturday was not only a way of taking his fight against el-Rufai to the public space but also a tie-back to a subtle manoeuvre ahead of the 2027 General Election, THEWILL has learnt.
According to close inside sources familiar with the development, the latest backlash is just one of the ways of checkmating el-Rufai’s usual tactics of presenting himself as an alternative candidate of the North and to further puncture his personal ambition ahead of the 2027 polls.
A source who craved anonymity told THEWILL that though there was nothing new in the new allegations against the former Kaduna governor, Gov. Sanni, who, infact received the blessings of el-Rufai for his governorship bid, might just be playing to the script written for him from Abuja by the forces against el-Rufai in Aso Villa.
”It’s all part of 2027 politics and a means to checkmate el-Rufai who has fallen apart from the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) having failed to get a ministerial position from Presiden Bola Tinubu,” the source told THEWILL.
“They all know that he’s no longer happy with the party and know what he can do in his bid to be relevant again in the next dispensation. That’s the reason they are using Gov. Sanni to dig up all sorts of allegations against him.
Confirming the no love-lost relationship between el-Rufai and the presidency, a close ally of the former governor told Saturday Vanguard that a legal battle is on the way as the embattled former governor is bent on clearing his name after he was labelled a ”security risk” not worthy of being trusted with a ministerial position.
“You think Mallam will allow this tag to abide on him? I can assure you that he is going to clear his name in court. El-Rufai is a man who has many contacts internationally and he is not one to allow his reputation to be smeared by the reason given by the Senate of being a security risk,” the source, who craved anonymity was quoted as saying.
THEWILL recalls that in his handover notes in May last year, el-Rufai had reportedly declared almost the same financials that Sani revealed except that the gaps in both revelations tend to show ‘something fishy.’
Sani claimed that his administration inherited a huge debt burden of $587 million, N85 billion and 115 contractual liabilities from the previous administration, making it difficult for him to pay workers’ salaries.
Lamenting that due to the rise in the exchange rate, Kaduna State is now paying back almost triple what was borrowed by the Nasir el-Rufai Administration in addition to the paltry N3 billion available to the state after N7 billion out of the N10 billion Federal Allocation due to the state had been deducted to service the debt. For a state with a monthly salary bill of N5.2 billion, the N3 billion was like a drop in the ocean.
The disparity raises issues of financial probity, no doubt, but coming almost a year after the handover notes, the Town Hall revelations look more than damning.
On this, opinion is divided. Some sources say there is a social context to what may be called a Governor Sani vs el-Rufai dispute. According to these sources, the former governor left behind some serious social-economic challenges in Kaduna State that his successor is trying hard to resolve; his tendency to take centre-stage in national discourse reawakens animosities that go beyond the present.
THE BEGINNING
As earlier reported by THEWILL, the first signs of disagreement between the duo manifested when the former governor’s chance of clinching a ministerial position was sacrificed on the altar of power play within the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), whose antagonistic big wigs flaunted lack of security clearance against him, whereas, as a matter of fact, the larger issue of 2027 and 2031 politics was at play.
According to a source within the party, el-Rufai is perceived within political circles as a smaller version of ex- President Muhammadu Buhari in terms of his capacity to commandeer allegiance across political and religious lines, particularly in the North. A national platform like the ministerial appointment, his political rivals feared, would help him to consolidate his position.
However, upon the failure of his nomination, el-Rufai suggested a replacement that a state government source said was to further boost his image rather than enhance the status of the state. Jafaru Ibrahim Sani, his nominee, was a commissioner in three ministries in Kaduna State, namely Local Government, Education and Environment, during his tenure as governor.
Apart from being a loyalist, Sani also comes from the same senatorial district, Zaria Local Government Area, as el-Rufai and the current governor of the state.
Governor Sani was said to have viewed this move as politically insensitive and immediately kicked against it. He was said to have prevailed on President Bola Tinubu to dishonour the replacement for the state’s ministerial slot.
In the first instance, according to THEWILL investigation, the governor was said to have considered his authority undermined by his predecessor when he was not allowed to make the nomination.
Secondly, the political implications further deepened the crisis of confidence in the state like previous miscalculations under el-Rufai’s governorship, which left the state more divided than he met it, not to talk of the insecurity and killings. The governor, sources claim, has been at his wits end trying to manage the social crisis in the state, particularly in the area of insecurity and restore the communal sense of belonging sundered by his predecessor’s policies.
ANOTHER LOOK
That the former Kaduna governor is interested in feathering his political nest is incontestable. A close source whom he confided in told this paper about his regrets of a missed opportunity in 2015 when the APC won the presidential poll and he would have occupied a strategic office that would have enabled him to command the social and economic heights of the country. Like many in the ranks of the new, but popular party then, he did not think the party stood the chance of defeating the governing PDP and so failed to make a plan for “that office whose occupation would have afforded him the position to shape the country according to his vision.”
So, when el-Rufai paid a visit to the national headquarters of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in Abuja on Thursday, a fortnight after a national newspaper reported that stalwarts from APC and PDP were thinking about a mega-party to contest the 2027 polls, the politically discerning started piecing things together. According to sources, “the aim, according to them, is to prop up a former governor from the north widely known for his radical views and disposition on national issues as presidential hopeful against President Tinubu and his deputy, Kashim Shettima, in case they decide to seek a second term in office in 2027.”
El-Rufai has since denied any political connection with his visit to the SDP office and slammed people like Dr Faruk Ahmed, Chairman of Asiwaju Support Group (North), who said el-Rufai’s visit to SDP was an open confirmation of the rumour that he was working clandestinely against APC and President Tinubu, “because President Tinubu did not make him a minister,” nor a former member of the APC Legacy Group, Ibrahim Modibbo, who said, “It’s not surprising that el-Rufai will visit the SDP National Secretariat for consultation about the future of his political career.”
According to el-Rufai’s spokesman, Muyiwa Adekeye, the former Kaduna governor has no plan to defect from the APC or work against the party in 2027, saying insinuations towards that are effects of “obsession with politics”.
Adekeye said el-Rufai only returned the Iftar visit by the SDP National Chairman, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, adding that there was nothing political in the meeting.
“I consider the most recent speculations about Malam Nasir el-Rufai as reflecting an unhealthy obsession with politics.
“People have personal histories and relationships that predate political affiliations. It cannot be a hallmark of civilisation to have friends from within only your political party. When people visit each other or mingle across party lines, it is because human relationships exist, distinct from the political or the partisan,” he said.
el-Rufai did not respond to phone calls seeking his reaction to this report.
LINGERING DOUBTS
Nonetheless, every move made by the former governor since he lost out in the ministerial nomination to those he lamented on his X platform as enemies “who will eat and drink with you as best friends, but go behind and stab you,” in reference to Bob Marley’s hit song, ‘Who The Cap Fits,’ will be under watch by his perceived enemies, said a source.
For a state governor, who has just gone through the agony over the abduction and eventual release of 300 school children through the intervention of President Tinubu with whom he remained in touch throughout the period of the rescue mission coordinated by the office of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the Town Hall meeting was a chance to put el-Rufai in his place, said a dependable government source.
“But then what the governor said was a fact. It may be hard to swallow and interpreted anyway. That is the part of administration the governor is duty bound to execute, at times without sentiment,” the source noted.
Amos Esele is the Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
