We’re Taking Over Bankrupt Govts, Says El-Rufai

El-rufaiThe Kaduna State Governor-elect, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, says it will amount to day dreaming for anyone to believe that he will share public funds to individuals or groups in the state after May 29 when he must have been sworn in.

He vowed that his administration would not tolerate the sharing of public funds to anybody in the name of godfather or group, no matter how highly placed.

Rather than doing that, the former FCT minister said the state resources would be judiciously used for the development of the state and the people.

This was just as he lamented that the debt profile of the state would run into N100bn before the May 29 hand over date.

El-Rufai noted that as the administration of the Peoples Democratic Party ended in May, both at the federal and state levels, what both the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari and himself needed was prayers from Nigerians to succeed.

According to El-Rufai, Nigerians should stop congratulating him and the President-elect but should rather pity them and pray for them to succeed because of the “bankrupt economy” they would inherit.

He spoke at a reception organised in his honour by the Kaduna Peoples Association at the Arewa House, Kaduna yesterday.

The governor-elect, who told the gathering that the state, led by Ramalan Yero, had incurred N90bn debt, noted that before the May 29 hand over date, the debt might increase to N100bn.

Meanwhile, at a prayer session for them by the APC Yoruba Political Forum in Kaduna State at the weekend, the governor-elect said, “When people call to congratulate me or come to congratulate me and General Buhari, I always tell them, thank you, but what we need is your sympathy and prayers.

“This is because, myself and Buhari are taking over bankrupt governments; it is so bad that the Jonathan administration is finding it difficult to pay salaries. In fact, they had to obtain loan to pay salaries.

“In the case of Kaduna State, the Peoples Democratic Party’s government has incurred debt to the tune of over N90bn and this may get to N100bn before May 29. Therefore, what you have done is exactly what we need to succeed”.

El-Rufai urged other elected officers to strive hard to deliver the dividends of democracy to the electorates.

He warned that if they (elected officers) failed in the discharge of their duties to the people, they would be voted out like the PDP come 2019.

El-Rufai assured the people that in his administration, there would be no discrimination among indigenes or settlers while noting that the Yoruba community had lived peacefully with their hosts over the years in the state.