By Ben Rogers:
According to former France President, Charles De Gualle, Great men are made out of difficult situations.
This can be likened to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai who from the onset of his Administration in Kaduna State in May 2015, was convinced that nothing great would ever be achieved without determination and Commitment , hence his slogan, to Make Kaduna Great Again.
A man of tremendous vision and zeal to serve his people, Governor El-Rufai has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he perceives leadership only as a privilege and opportunity to contribute to the common good of the people, but for the few elites cum politicians who want the ‘business as usual’.
Since he stepped into Kashim Ibrahim House, the seat of power, El-Rufai has demonstrated by comments and actions that he is an adherent of servant leadership ideology and a believer in the supremacy of the people as a cardinal objective of democracy.
To him, the people are his bosses, while him, their servant.
Little wonder, the welfare of the entire citizens is of his paramount interest, hence the abolition of non-indigeneship syndrome on his assumption of office.
The Governor remain focused and determined to lead not only by example, but also the dictates of his religious faith, which stresses the virtues of honesty, truthfulness, forthrightness and fear of God.
Armed with the said virtues and in the spirit of democracy, El-Rufai successfully liberated Kaduna from the clutches of of the few elites cum politicians who felt that without them nothing moved.
Despite their unproductive and thankless obstacles to a developmental loan that would have been sourced for economic and infrastructural growth of Kaduna State, Gov. El-rufa’i has been able to superlatively record remarkable feats in all sectors and ushered in a new lease of life in the State.
This piece is neither aimed at blowing the trumpet of the governor, nor does it try to bring the chronicle of all his achievements within the three and half years as it may appear voluminous. Nevertheless, it attempts to call Spade, a Spade by enumerating some of the unprecedented achievements which have earned Kaduna State, a Pacesetter.
The El-rufa’i Administration on assumption of office, met dilapidated primary and secondary schools, primary health care Structures and empty hospitals across the State which have now become a thing of the past.
El-rufa’i Administration also introduced fiscal discipline into the management and control of public finance as well as zero based budgeting against the previous system of incremental budgeting that kept ballooning the size on paper.
Kaduna was the first State to implement Treasury Single Account in Nigeria, sweeping 25 Billion Naira from 270 State government accounts in commercial banks to the apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, downsized the State cabinet and also launched a sustainable infrastructural development plan.
Under the El- Rufai Administration, Kaduna became the first sub-national in the world to join the Open Government Partnership, OGP in order to promote transparency and participatory democracy.
A part from various empowerment programmes and establishment of agencies to create employment opportunities, the Administration revigourated the highly redundant workforce as well as the State Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Also, the completion of the 150m litres per day Water Treatment Plant in Zaria which had been begging for attention before the assumption of office of Administration should be applauded.
From the foregoing therefore, El- Rufai can be truly said to remain the personification of courage and resilience, regardless of the immense pressure from thankless critics of his administration and the high demand amidst meager resources which would have ordinarily overwhelmed a lesser man or less tenacious personality.
He has demonstrated over and over again that he is not one of those leaders that can be cajoled or intimidated into looting or using public funds to patronising or satisfying the selfish interests of the so called “Elites” at the expense of the masses.
Therefore, the earlier statement that great men are made out of difficult situation, justifies the re-election bid of Governor Nasir El-Rufai in 2019 to complete restoring the lost glory of Kaduna for posterity.
