•El-Rufai, Yero squabble
By Luka Binniyat
The dust from the decisive victory of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai over the incumbent governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Mukthar Yero in the recent governorship elections may have settled. But not so with the rumours about alleged debts to be left behind by the outgoing regime.
Given the rough tackles the victorious All Progressives Congress, APC governorship candidate in Kaduna State Mallam Nasir El Rufai exchanged with his vanquished incumbent, Mukhtar Yero, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, no one really expected an uneventful transition.
Malam Nasir el-Rufa’i and Mukhtar Ramalan Yero
With the two less than two weeks formally exchanging baton, the two men are mired in controversy over the amount of debt allegedly being left behind by the outgoing administration.
The current row between the two is centred over claims by El Rufai that the Yero government is indebted to the tune of between N90 to N100 billion.
Speaking over the weekend in Kaduna, during a reception organised for him by the Kaduna Peoples Association, El Rufai said: “When people call to congratulate me or come to congratulate me and General Buhari, I always tell them, thank you, but what we need is your sympathy and prayers.
“This is because, myself and Buhari are taking over bankrupt governments; it is so bad that the Jonathan administration is finding it difficult to pay salaries. In fact, they had to obtain loan to pay salaries.
“In the case of Kaduna State, the Yero government has incurred debts to the tune of over N90bn and this may get to N100bn before May 29”, he said.
The deputy governor of Kaduna State, Ambassador Nuhu Bajoga, however, debunked the allegation in strong terms, saying the government of Yero was not owing a kobo.
“N100 billion? How can we borrow N100 billion,” the deputy governor said when confronted on the issue by Vanguard.
“Well, we are handing over everything. The incoming government is coming to tell us how much we have borrowed. Look, the total amount that Kaduna State receives from the Federation account, as at now is just about N4 billion.
“Ok, four multiply by twelve, is that not less than N50 billion? How can you go and borrow N100 billion?
“Who will give you that lend that kind of money? When he knows that you cannot earn N100 billion? Nobody will ever give you that kind of money, based on your earnings. The good thing is that these talks about borrowing will come to light now.
“The books are with them (incoming government). They will tell us what we have borrowed and what we have not borrowed. The last borrowing under the Yakowa government was N20 billion. And we have paid that. On our own, we borrowed N7 billion from the banks, and we have already paid that.
“We wanted to borrow another N8 billion, but it did not materialize up till now as I am talking to you. There are some borrowings that are tied to some projects. And then there are counter-part borrowing. This you can see in SUBEB. (State Universal Basic Education Board). It is because of the SUBEB arrangement that you are seeing projects all over our campuses and schools. We had a counterpart funding of about N1.7 billion or thereabout because the total project in N3.4 billion. I thank God that the books are now wide open. They can go to the press and say what is their findings.
“But one thing I can assure you is there have been borrowings long before we came to government. If anyone is talking about such borrowings, then it is not from this government. To my own knowledge, these are what we borrowed as a government and we have long paid back”, he said.
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