EL RUFAI AND THE GHOST OF THE REJECTED $350 MILLION LOAN
The Oasis Reporters
July 28, 2018
These are very difficult if not terrible times for the dictatorship of Malam Nasiru El Rufai in Kaduna State since the National Assembly acting on the call by the helpless denizens of Kaduna State to not approve the dubious World Bank loan of $350 million which the desperate dictatorship was almost certain to have obtained. The Malam and the hordes of economic urchins, vampires and or vultures had all sharpened their knives or cutlases waiting to start drawing from the loan if finally approved but the people of Kaduna State through their representatives in the Red Chamber asphyxiated the approval the lower chamber had earlier approved after collecting their cut upfront.
Since then the dictatorship has had its tail firmly tugged between its hind legs. It has since then been No Longer At Ease for the dictator and the gang. Since then, there has been weeping and gnashing of teeth in Sir Kashim Ibrahim House with almost everybody either living or working in there wearing long and contorted faces.
The people of Kaduna advised against the loan on good grounds. El Rufai’s is a government that has never been prudent in the management of the collective patrimony of the Kaduna State people. Recall that in just under a year, the dictatorship claimed it had spent about N 10 billion naira in a dubious schools feeding programme which was so terribly managed that it had to be horribly abandoned because if was sheer madness to continue with it when the schools themselves were and many are in a state of complete disrepair.
In yet another confused step, the dictatorship came up with an ill thought out competency test administered to all Primary school teachers and in the process, put over 21,000 of the teachers who allegedly failed the test out of work thus leaving classrooms with pupils but without teachers.
The equally dubious plan to recruit more competent teachers has come to nought further compounding the terrible situation in the State’s education sector.
The regime proceeded from here to completely mess up an otherwise functional and vibrant State Civil Service sending many experienced hands to early retirement without the decency to pay them their well deserved benefits. Up till now, not a single civil servant is sure of keeping his or her job and subsequently growing a career. This character has gone on in his megalomania to auction off virtually all landed property which governments in the past built and which have been the pride of the State.
This is a man who became governor having campaigned on the pledge of Making Kaduna Great Again. An important question remains unanswered to date. Where is the money which accrued from the auction?
When people wait this long for answers which are not forthcoming, they can draw their own conclusions, this you cannot deny them. My conclusion in this regard is that the money has been deployed to satisfy the dictatorship’s megalomania. A new government sure to come in after the 2019 general elections will find out how our resources were appropriated or misappropriated when the arduous task of recovering and rebuilding our Kaduna State starts.
This post is essentially about the unapproved $350 million loan and the aftermath. Prior to hitting the final nail on the casket of the loan, the dictatorship along with its many vuvuzelas had been busy flaunting themselves around all the available spaces as if taking a foreign loan was such a great achievement. When the news of the rejection became public knowledge, the dictatorship was so shell shocked that a stillness resembling what you experience on a visit to a cemetery.
It took months for them to regain consciousness and after that, a deluge of media propaganda against real and imagined enemies followed.
For immediate attacks and slander were the 3 distinguished Senators representing our State in the National Assembly. Senators, Shehu Sani who then appeared to be fighting a cause for the masses of this State and perhaps the nation, Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi and Danjuma Laah all of who the dictatorship took to the cleaners insulting and maligning their character.
Written by Col. Gora Dauda
R- APC Chairman in Kaduna State.
