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If you are of the impression that the Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, is much bothered by the face-off between his administration and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the sack of some workers in the state, you are missing the point. He is not, going by his antecedents. He is rather on familiar terrain. For El-Rufai, a man of brief size and height, controversy seems a second name. He courts it and revels in it, even at the cost of public good. Recall when he threatened international election observers of evacuation in body bags, if they ventured in to monitor the 2019 presidential election. Recall, also, when he alleged being asked to offer bribes by senators during his screening for ministerial appointment, during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, but when pressed to provide evidence for his claims, he chickened out. To him, everything is politics and politics is everything!
His latest encounter with organised labour over the sack of over 4,000 workers in the state may not be the last. It is, rather, in line with his penchant for seizing attention. NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had embarked on a five-day warning strike over the sack of their colleagues by the state government and demanded their recall. The government had on its own made explanations on why it disengaged the workers, claiming poor financial inflow. According to a release by the governor’s special adviser on media and communications, Muyiwa Adekeye, the finances of the state had been severely stretched by the high wage bill at a time the revenues from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) have not increased. It pointed out that what the government has been receiving from FAAC since the middle of 2020, like most other sub-nationals, can barely pay salaries and overheads: “In the last six months, personnel costs have accounted for between 84.97 per cent and 96.63 per cent of FAAC transfers received by Kaduna State government. In March 2021, Kaduna State had only N321m left after settling personnel costs.”
In response to the shortfall in the FAAC revenue accruing to the state, El-Rufai’s strategy was to sack workers. This is exactly the trend in many states. But Kaduna has no reasons to be in that odious basket. The state is enormously endowed in human and material resources. Its agricultural potential is huge. It is a melting point of economic and other engagements in the North. Kaduna was the capital of the defunct Northern Region and the seat of government from where the Premier, Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, provided people-oriented governance to the zone. Till date, it remains the pride of the North and every northerner of note. It has no reason whatsoever to base its economic wellbeing on the fluctuations of the FAAC monthly accruals. But that is where El-Rufai and his co-travellers have left the state, due to their lack of vision and imagination.
Kaduna under Governor El-Rufai is a reflection of Nigeria’s leadership failure. It is one that demonstrates the axiomatic misfortune of one living by the riverside and bathing with spittle. Sacrificing the workers to the shortfall in the state’s revenue amounts to being clever by half. What it means is that, in the days ahead, when technological advances are bound to diminish or displace the importance of oil and the revenue accruing from it, Kaduna, like other states, will go under. This is the summary of El-Rufai’s logic.
But there is no way he can be exonerated from the piteous state of Kaduna. His parochial tendencies and inclination at playing politics with critical issues in the state are at the root of the sorry state of affairs in Kaduna.
The southern senatorial part of the state has of late been a hotbed of banditry and other criminal activities. Some months back, when the crisis took a frightening dimension, over 45 lives were wasted. But rather than standing up to the tragedy of the moment, the governor embarked on a watery explanation that tended to make light of the situation. He casually explained the killings as being perpetrated by criminal elements who have been killing, kidnapping people and rustling cattle the entire North West. In his words, “the criminality of the bandits gets coated with ethnic and religious hues when it affects communities in the southern parts of the state, where it tends to exacerbate communal tensions and pitch people who have lived peacefully together against each other.”
El-Rufai knew that he was not stating the truth. His explanation simply begged the question. It failed to admit the pathetic issue of the inability and insincerity of his leadership to take decisive actions when the situation demanded such. The undisguised bigotry of the administration, especially in pandering to his Fulani kinsmen and members of his faith on state matters, accounts for why Kaduna under his watch is going down the ladder in development and inter-group relations.
The truth is that the governor had many opportunities of putting Kaduna on sound pedestal but fluffed the chances. His predecessor, Ahmed Makarfi, had, in managing the complexities of the state, introduced local government reform where chieftaincy institutions were created to accommodate the peculiarities of the various peoples and interests in the state. Despite the imperfections in the arrangement, it went a long way in according the various peoples of the state a sense of belonging. Collapsing the chiefdoms into emirates by the El-Rufai administration brought back old animosities and ended up alienating some sections of the state.
As if that was not enough, appointing a fellow Muslim, Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, as deputy in a complex, religion-sensitive society as Kaduna, is also part of the faulty steps by the governor. As it has turned out, appearing to be smart in picking her from the southern senatorial district has not been enough to ignore the religious factor in such sensitive setting. This is aside his comments and carriage that often portray him as governor of the Fulani section of the state and not the entire Kaduna residents.
So, the dwindling fortunes of Kaduna go beyond the narrow interpretation of the shortfalls in FAAC revenue. The governor needs to think deeper, work on his temperament and carriage. He is a big factor in the poor financial outlook of the state. The likes of El-Rufai lend weight to the fear by some on the dangers of the governors being entrusted with state police. His provincial proclivities are the main issues scaring investors from the state.
The solution, certainly does not lie in panicky measures as in sacking workers. Cutting cost and rationalization should commence from his office and personal earnings. Most importantly, he and his colleagues in other states, should begin to think of Nigeria without oil as the only way to run away from the embarrassing and scandalous resort of sacking workers at the slightest drop in FAAC revenue.
