…Says his ambition was to be an SA
Kaduna State governor, Nasir Ahmed el-Rufa’i, has disclosed that President Buhari forced him to be governor, saying his ambition was to be Special Assistant, (SA) .
The governor stated this as a guest during the Special Weekly Briefing coordinated by the Presidential Communications Team, on Thursday.
While briefing the Press on the current status of internal security and economic strides in Kaduna State, el-Rufa’i provided further updates on key collaborations between the Federal Government and the State Governments in the North-West to tackle the menace of banditry and terrorism in the region.
He also responded to questions by State House Correspondents on insecurity, zoning as announced by the All Progressives Congress(APC), and why he is concerned about who will take over from him in 2023.
Responding to a question on succession and continuity, specifically whether he has somebody, or someone, who would ensure the good things he has done for the State remain as he winds down his tenure, he said, “I wish there was an answer to that question. I wish there is a silver bullet. My hope is that the voters in Kaduna will first appreciate the difference between our eight years and the previous 16 years and vote for the APC again.
“The second thing is my hope is that one of the members of our current team, someone that has been part of this last seven years and knows the method, okay; because everything that we’ve done, we fought through; we debated every issue before implementing them. But if an outsider comes, it is very easy to see and persuade that outsider to take a different course.
“If the people of Kaduna State vote back that other party, those thugs that we sacked will come back as teachers. There is nothing I can do about that. But I hope that, as we saw in 2019, the people of Kaduna are smart enough, they have seen the difference between the two parties and governance styles and they will make the right decision. On our part, as a party, my hope is that our members will vote for someone from within our team to continue to build where we let off, correct some of our errors and go forward.
He further said, “I’m more worried about succession in Kaduna than I am about the next President of Nigeria. I have some preferences for who will succeed me. Of course, I’ve worked with people for 7, 8 years; some of them I’ve worked with for 20 years, I know them very well, I can guarantee that they will do this, they will do that. But at the end of the day, it’s up to the people of Kaduna State, if they buy my arguments.
“I’m unlikely to come out and anoint one person; I will keep my team in the room and try to get them to agree to a successor. If they are able to agree, then it’s easy to go out and announce that: ‘this is our man, this is the person that was part of everything and he’s likely to continue to build on where we are, so support him’.
“But you know how politics is; everybody thinks he can win. So, it is not likely that you can convince people to agree on this and I will not force anyone. So, watch how the selection process goes, but it’s a major issue. However, what can we do about it? You just do your best and leave the rest to God”, he stated.
