I’m Not Bothered About Second Term In Office – El-Rufai
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state has said that he’s not bothered about second term in office, stressing that posterity will judge him on his ongoing efforts to transform the state.
Speaking in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, El-Rufai also described the emergence and attainment of power of the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2015 as a ”miracle” .
He said the emergence of the APC and its clinching on to power in less than four years of its formation was a miracle and that the party would repeat the same feat in any election.
The governor spoke while delivering the maiden public lecture of the Al –Hikmah University Ilorin,titled,”Governing Justly:Perspectives From Near&Far With Lessons From Nigeria”
The governor said at 58, hes not looking for any job, saying that cancelling what he’s doing in Kaduna today will be politically costly for any administration that comes after his to do, because of their nature.
He added that he’s not bothered about agitation for a second term in office,hence he’s taking well grounded decisions that would stand the test of time.
El-Rufai also boasted that there was no threat to the success of the party ahead of the 2019 general elections in the state and beyond because according to him the party has no formidable opposition that could stop it.
The governor said, many people that voted for the APC in 2015 voted for the party ‘‘because they were tired of the PDP .Many people voted not really for APC but against PDP ‘’, he said.
The governor labelled those agitating within the party as ‘‘rascals, trouble makers and noise makers’’ who only wanted the party to continue in the PDP ways of sharing money.
‘‘The APC has no opposition, the opposition we have is no opposition because the opposition is within the APC, there are many unhappy people, we also have many rascals, trouble makers and noise makers.
‘‘They are simply disgruntled because they are used to the PDP ways of doing things, every month give me money, Paris club is here where is my money..They will remain in opposition until you have a way to alienate them’’, he said.
The governor blamed the elites for the challenges confronting Nigerians because of what he described as craze for ‘‘elites’ entitlements and selfish interest. The Nigerian elite is corrupt, selfish, self centred and largely divided, like I said there is need for consensus of the Nigerian elite’’, the governor said.
He said Nigerians should hold the elites responsible for the underdevelopment and lack of progress in many states of the federation and urged ‘‘citizens to put pressure’’ on state and local government to deliver on good governance rather than looking up to the centre for everything.
Governor Rufai also tasked the youths to be involved in the ongoing political process in order to ultimately take over political power from the current leadership if they are serious about it.
He said this became imperative because no election can be won on twitter, Facebook or any social media adding that the elders currently in power will not handover power to the youths for the sake of it,”they have to work for it”he stressed.
On the recent religious crises that broke out in the state ,the governor said 15 persons have lost their lives to the crisis while 45 were injured . He traced the genesis of the crises to the case of a Christian girl who was dating a Muslim guy and wanted to convert to Islam because he wanted to marry him, a development which he said sparked of the crisis.
