My Dear People of Kaduna State,
Over the last few months, I have traversed all the 23 local
government areas in Kaduna State and visited tens of communities. Some of the
places I visited were so remote, isolated and cut off from government that it
would have been difficult to believe that they were part of Kaduna State.
I consulted widely with people – from traditional rulers,
respected elders and public officials that can speak out, as well as ordinary
people who have no voice but rely on someone to speak for them. My purpose was
to listen to the people and understand what they wanted from the state
government and how the government and the people can work together to develop
our state.
To say that I was shocked by the level of neglect is an
understatement. Our road networks have fallen into disrepair; our schools have
no basic teaching and learning tools; our teachers are not motivated; our
hospitals and clinics lack essential resources to mitigate the challenges of
healthcare and our civil servants are not being sufficiently motivated.
Poverty has become worse; unemployment has become more
pervasive; agricultural productivity has declined; internally generated
revenues are too low to even pay salaries. The picture is indeed very bleak.
Kaduna State, which used to be known for its industries, now
barely has flourishing or profitable factories.. Even basic sanitation is
absent because Kaduna and most of our local government area headquarters are
being overtaken by garbage.
What I saw in the course of my visits and consultations and
what both leading politicians and the people told me further reaffirmed my
commitment to the decision I made to devote the rest of my life to public
service as a way of giving back to the community; to working with my brothers
and sisters across Kaduna State and beyond to uplift our state; to building a
united state; driving out poverty and making Kaduna the first among equals in
Nigeria.
Ladies and gentleman, we must move Kaduna State from a state
where people live in mutual suspicion; where few people feel safe or secure and
where nothing gets done. It is disheartening that Kaduna State which used to be
a melting pot of religions, cultures and industry has become a battlefield of
ethnic and religious divisions due to incessant conflicts, denial of
opportunities and relentless narrowing of the space for political freedom and
expression.
We now have a state where a small self-centered clique
controls the state’s resources while the generality of Kaduna people are
excluded from political and economic opportunities.
Today, our state is littered with uncompleted projects,
discarded plans and broken promises.
But we are too good for that; the people of Kaduna state are
too educated, too talented and too crucial to Nigeria to remain under the
current state of poor leadership and lack of direction. We need to come
together, overcome the politics of division and harness our energies around a
cause that would lift us out of the quagmire of political division and economic
inertia.
As we are today, who can tell me what has been done with the
hundreds of billions of naira that Kaduna State has received from the federation
account in the last seven years or so?
What old projects have been completed? What new ones have
been initiated? What plans are in place for the future? Indeed, do we even have
a future in Kaduna State under the current administration?
Evidently, the answer is NO!
Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot deny that the stagnation in
Kaduna State at present is mainly because the goodwill of the people and our resources
are being mismanaged.
However, we will not, and must not allow the incompetence of
the current PDP government to drag us down. The reign of underdevelopment and
incompetence must be ended immediately. Kaduna State is more important than one
small clique that seeks to hold us to ransom and stunt our prospects. We must
rise to the challenge, come together and take our destiny in our hands.
That means we must first make conscious efforts by
ourselves. My dear people of Kaduna State, what can we do to improve our
circumstances? Can we continue to watch nonchalantly as a few individuals
destroy our state and mortgage the future of our children?
The people of Kaduna state have the power to bring about
meaningful change. We have the power to free our state from corruption, greed,
nepotism and incompetence. That power is guaranteed in your right to vote. And
that power must be used judiciously to throw out the gross incompetence being
demonstrated by those in authority today. That power is what we must use in
2015 to elect leaders that have the desire and will to move Kaduna State to the
path of unity, peace, progress and prosperity.
Today, I stand before you to offer a hand of brotherhood and
partnership in the mission to make Kaduna State great again. Let’s work
together, man, woman, child, old and young; in the journey to knock down ethnic
and religious divisions. I ask you to join me to chase out poverty forever; I
ask you to join to build our state and make Kaduna great again.
The question is, what does Nasir El-Rufai and our APC team
have to offer Kaduna State?
As I told my brothers in Fadan Kagoma a few weeks ago, my
vision for Kaduna State is to provide true public service with fairness, equity
and justice, and on responsive and sensitive leadership to take the state to
another level.
I am deeply committed to the peace, development and unity of
Kaduna State, and our APC administration will show equal concern for the
interest of every person that is resident in our state.
Kaduna state is dear to me. I was educated in this state,
from primary school to university.
After graduation, I practiced my profession
here in Kaduna for 15 years before I accepted responsibility to serve in the
public sector. I appreciate our problems and together with our party leaders at
ward, local government and state levels, we will run a responsible and
participatory government.
Ladies and gentlemen, whether you are a Muslim or Christian;
whether you are Hausa, Adara, Fulani, Bajju, Atyap, Ggagyi, Jaba or any of the
numerous ethnic groups in the mini-Nigeria that is Kaduna State, I urge every
one of our nearly eight million people to join me in the mission to make Kaduna
State first among equals.
One thing that I promise to bring to the office of the
Governor of Kaduna State is experience, both from the private and public
sectors. In all my different engagements in the public and private sectors, I
have always successfully carried out any task assigned to me.
When I was given the task of restoring order to the chaos
that was creeping into Abuja, not many people gave me the chance of succeeding,
yet with the support of committed civil servants and political appointees, we
did. Our record in Abuja shows teamwork can lead to phenomenal results.
In Abuja we constructed needed infrastructure, promoted
transparency and due process. More than 27,000 Nigerians became landowners
without having to bribe or lobby any official. All they did was to have
complied with the land-application process. Many more – over 30,000 Nigerians –
were able to buy homes by similarly complying with the rules for the purchase
of government houses in Abuja.
We all can agree that Kaduna State must change for the
better. If we really want change in the state, we must recognize agents of
change and appreciate their vision, mission and courage to deliver. I urge you
all to look at the current disorder in Kaduna State, and ask yourselves: Who
has the courage, capacity and competence to clean up the mess?
I believe the APC can and will deliver that change. I am
confident that our APC Kaduna Team represented here, and backed by our
ideological leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, can provide the leadership to
lift Kaduna State out of the debt, despair and despondency that the ruling
party has thrown us into.
We will not shy away from taking difficult decisions as long
as the people of Kaduna State agree that it is for the good of all. For us in
Kaduna State therefore, 2015 will be a defining moment. For those worrying
about the demolitions that took place in Abuja, let me assure our people that
Kaduna and Abuja are completely different in history, growth and priorities.
We did what needed to be done in Abuja to make it a true
national capital. In contrast, what Kaduna needs are better schools, health
facilities and productive farms in an atmosphere of improved peace and
security. That will be the focus of APC’s efforts not the scaremongering of
impending demolitions!
We shall foster an environment of security of lives and
property by tackling the roots of intolerance and communal violence. We shall
make a priority of Transparent Governance and Improved Service Delivery by reenergizing
and empowering the public service. We shall rebuild and expand water supply,
rural electrification, and roads infrastructure.
Our government will invest in our people by improving
capacity and delivery in Health, Education and Social Welfare. We shall
energetically promote Agriculture and Food Security, while implementing Land
Reform as a basis for wealth creation and capital formation.
The APC Kaduna Team will implement reforms that will create
a transparent and responsible local government system, that is properly funded,
autonomous and technically-strengthened to be responsive and capable of
delivering services at the grassroots. We are poised to take advantage of our
state’s proximity to Abuja by developing new towns in locations neighboring the
federal capital territory.
We are at a crossroads of risks and opportunities in our
nation and our state. The choice we make in 2015 will determine whether our
nation succeeds or fails. We believe that we can make Kaduna great again. I ask
for your support so that we can make it happen together.
We conclude with a prayer.
We pray that God chooses for Nigeria the leadership that
will bring peace, prosperity and progress to our nation. We believe that
General Muhammadu Buhari is that leader. We pray that God chooses for Kaduna
State a governor that will usher in peace, prosperity and development in our
state. We believe our team is the best placed to do this. All our team cares
about is peaceful coexistence and progress in Kaduna State. So help us God!
Thank you for honoring us with your presence. God Bless you.
Nasir El-Rufai,
Kaduna, November 3, 2014
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