Choose Competent Hands Or Fail, el-Rufai Warns Uba Sani

Immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has advised his successor, Governor Uba Sani to choose competent and capable hands to deliver his agenda for the people or he should prepare for failure.

In his remarks during the swearing-in of Senator Uba Sani as governor and Dr Hadiza Balarabe as deputy governor held at Murtala Square, Kaduna, El-Rufai thanked the people of the state for electing him twice to serve as their governor.

El-Rufai said, “My brother and friend, I commiserate with you. You have a huge task ahead but I am confident you will be luckier in the next eight years than I have been in the last eight years. Remember, you cannot do this job alone.

“Your team, if competent and capable, will focus on delivering results and little else. If you are unlucky enough to choose people you like that have no capacity, they will resort to blaming every other person for failures than the real culprit, which is the team itself. Be careful to watch out for this.”

El-Rufai said, “We are leaving behind a net cash balance in our Treasury Single Account of about N5bn after deductions for the payment of salaries, pensions and dues to the Local Government Councils, and $2.05 million in our domiciliary account as of yesterday 28th May, 2023.”

The former governor noted: “We governed under very difficult fiscal circumstances, surviving two recessions, collapses of crude oil prices, the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. We therefore had to borrow extensively to spend our way out of recession and pursue our ambition to make Kaduna great again.

“As at the last financial year, Kaduna State has the following liabilities: Domestic debt: N64.54 billion, Other contingent liabilities: N16.06 billion, foreign debts: $577.32 million.

“We have spent N818.9 billion as capital expenditure between 2015 and 2022 in the prosecution of our first and second state development plans, attracting nearly $5 billion in foreign and domestic investments that created jobs, improved our tax receipts and laid a solid foundation for the future.”