Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai took several shots at a National leader of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Bola Tinubu as he advised Lagosians on how they can end godfatherism in the state.
El-Rufai who spoke in Lagos on Sunday during an event organised by the Bridge Club tagged: ‘An Evening with His Excellency Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State’, which held in Lagos gave the advice on “godfatherism” can end in the state.
The Kaduna state governor when asked a question on godfatherism, went into graphic details on how it can be achieved.
“Let me tell you something, sir; you know Kaduna State used to be like that. There were three or four politicians in Kaduna that you could not become anything unless you had them on your side.
“Those were the godfathers of Kaduna politics and you had to carry them along and you know, the three words, ‘carry them along’ mean paying them regularly. But we chose a different path and the long and short of it now is that after this election in 2019, we have retired all of them; we had to.
“Here in Lagos, you have over six million registered voters; only about a million voted (in 2019 general election); five million did not vote. If I want to run for Governor of Lagos, I will start now.
“I will commission a study to know why those five million registered voters did not vote; where do they go on election day? Then I will start visiting them for the next four years. I will try and get just two million of them to come and vote for me; I will defeat any godfather. The key is to go to the people. The card readers and the biometric registers have given us the tools to connect directly with the people.
“I assure you if you do that for the next four years, connecting with the people; the tin godfather, you will retire him or her permanently. But it is hard work; it requires three to four years of hard work. So, if you want to run in 2023, you should start now. Many of the godfathers are either on paper or in the mind of people in politics. They are defeatable.”
He also decried the number of misfit politicians with questionable qualifications in leadership positions in the country.
“In most of the developed worlds, the best and the brightest are in politics and public service. I urge you to google the profiles of the captains of the USA, UK, Japan, China, and Singapore over the last 10 years and compare their education and experience profile with ours; you will understand why we are where we are.
“In Nigeria, we have people that never went to school in our National Assembly. We have people with questionable qualifications as state governors. We will go nowhere as long as our best and brightest people that sit in rooms like this are not in politics or public service.”
It is the Lion that breaks his leg that invited a dog to put him up for a fight