Kaduna: Are things falling apart between the El-rufai’s and Gov. Uba Sani?

The son to the immediate ex-governor of kaduna state, Bashir Nasir El-rufai has decided to take the bull by its horn when he publicly slammed his father’s successor, Gov Uba Sani saying the governor is “always sleeping in Abuja” leaving behind the obligation of the state affairs unattended while trying to shift the blames of his failures to the past administration.

This is coming after Gov Sani’s claim regarding the debt he had inherited from his predecessor, Mal Nasir El-rufai, who is also his benefactor in his emergence as Senator and later Governor of Kaduna state.

Gov Sani was quoted to have accused his predecessor of leaving “huge debts” on Saturday in a town hall meeting. The Governor said:

“Despite the huge debt burden of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities sadly inherited from the previous administration, we remain resolute in steering Kaduna State towards progress and sustainable development,”

In his response on X (formerly Twitter) Bashir El-rufai wrote on Saturday afternoon:

“From a governor that is always sleeping in Abuja to a litany of incompetent aides that were only rewarded for foolish political reasons,”

“These guys have realised that they are wholly incompetent, and the only way to mask the nonsense is to deflect.”

Gov Sani said out of N10bn he receives as the state’s monthly allocation, N7bn is deducted to pay the huge debts he inherited from the past government. The governor lamented how difficult it is for the state to pay worker’s salaries and still service the state with only N3bn.

The matter has since become a national issue looking at the relationship the between the governor and his predecessor.

Recall that things went south between el-rufai and Sen. Shehu Sani when the comrade oppose the governor’s request to borrow money during their first tenure in 2015 which led to Shehu’s replacement with Mal Uba Sani in the second tenure as Senator representing Kaduna South.

While Gov Sani was in the senate between 2019-2023, he supported through legislation, the approval for his benefactor El-rufai to access foreign loans at the expense of the state. Bello El-rufai, Bashir’s younger brother was the Senior Aide to Sani throughout this time. BELLO is now a House of Reps member representing Kaduna North, in the Nigerian Parliament.

The same Uba Sani was later in 2023 adopted as the favorite candidate to replace his benefactor as Governor of Kaduna State. A contest he won with a slide votes against the PDP candidate, Isa Ashiru Kudan.

Now that the state is held hostage by the “huge” loan he agreed to be added into the state budget, the lake stand’s aloof as if it has nothing to do with the river.

Until this moment, Mal El-rufai snr has not yet responded to his successor’s claims. Of course, only time will tell if things are falling apart.