Gov. Nasir El Rufai has promised to leave Kaduna state after handing over power to his successor on May 29, 2023, so as not to interfere with the incoming administration.
On Monday in Kaduna, the governor spoke at a Town-Hall meeting organised by the central senatorial zone.
He expressed confidence that Sen Uba Sani will succeed him, but stated that he will have no say in how the next All Progressives Congress (APC) government is run.
El Rufai stated that if the next governor has a pure heart, God will guide him, and that Senator Uba Sani is a good man who will make an excellent governor.
He described Sen Uba Sani as a worthy successor who will take Kaduna state to greater heights when voted as governor.
He said that he has known the senator for over 20 years and he has proved his mettle politically.
El Rufai advised the people of Kaduna state not to inundate him with requests for notes to Uba Sani, to be given appointments or contracts when he becomes governor.
Speaking at the event, Senator Uba Sani said he has been a student of Malam Nasir El Rufai’s School of Governance and Policy in the last 20 years and he has acquired several ‘’degrees’’ as a result.
‘’In this school, there were some people who entered before me, people like the Secretary to the State Government, Malam Balarabe Abbas Lawal, who is my senior. However, the school has no graduation date. So, we are still learning,’’ he said.
The senator who promised to continue with the policies and programmes of the El Rufai administration, praised the governor for re-engineering governance in Kaduna state.
‘’Before the coming of this administration, government’s resources were being shared amongst a few elites, after payment of salaries. So, there was nothing left for development, in spite of the huge resources that Kaduna state was receiving as federal allocation.
‘’But Nasir El Rufai changed that narrative by improving education, revamping healthcare and building infrastructure that is benefitting the good people of Kaduna state, instead of a few people’’ he added.
The APC gubernatorial candidate said that the result of the massive investment in education has started bearing fruits because Kaduna state in the fourth state in the country whose students scored five credits, including English and Mathematics, in the Senior Secondary School examinations.
Uba Sani who said that government can not shoulder the funding of education alone, called on wealthy individuals to sponsors promising but indigent students to tertiary schools.
Reports say that Uba Sani recently gave scholarships to 280 students in Kaduna state tertiary schools to enable them continue with their studies.
The senator also said that Gov. El Rufai has empowered traders, by instituting a mortgage arrangement whereby they will pay in installments towards owning their shops.
He recalled that shops were allocated to top government officials and party chieftains in the past, as a way of patronage, who in turn sublet them to traders at exorbitant prices.