Growing animosity between el-Rufai, Sani led to Kaduna debt outburst – Lukman

By Jude Opara

A former National Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has said the recent outburst of the Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani, that the huge debt left behind by his predecessor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, makes it difficult for the state to pay workers’ salaries was because of the growing animosity between the duo.
Lukman said without any excuse, APC members in Kaduna must take responsibility for the bad situation facing the State by appealing to Sani to take every necessary step to undertake inventory of the debt of the state and how it was utilised.
He added that part of what is needed now is to assess whether there are cases of diversion, which if established should be recovered.
Gov Sani had at a Town Hall meeting in Kaduna, on Saturday, March 30, 2024, Sani raised the alarm that he inherited a huge debt of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the El-Rufai administration.
He added that because of this huge burden, out of N10 billion due the State from federal allocation, N7 billion was deducted, which leaves only N3 billion, saying it made it difficult to honour its monthly salary obligation of N5.2 billion to its workers.
However, Lukman, in a statement issued Sunday titled “Kaduna State Political Theatrics”, pointed out that the outburst suggested a strong disagreement and breakdown of relationship between Sani and el-Rufai.
He said there was a need to caution young people jumping into the debate in a very disrespectful manner.
While acknowledging the challenging reality, Lukman stressed that it was important that the issue was not reduced to the politics of blame game and loud noise making with praise singers on both sides defending their benefactors.
The party chieftain was of the opinion that the issue of the huge debt burden of Kaduna State was a public secret, adding that it was a matter that was very known to Sani.
He stressed that although there could be new insight that he must have encountered after taking over as governor, saying he believed that he came well prepared and ready to deal with the challenges and move Kaduna State forward from where el-Rufai left it.