El-Rufai’s claims in Kaduna are unfortunate, argues ADAMSON SHEHU
In the world of politics, legacy matters. For some, it’s a silent testimony of selfless service. For others, it becomes a desperate attempt to cling to relevance long after the applause has faded. This aptly describes the recent outburst by former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who tried to appropriate the achievements of his successor, Governor Uba Sani, as his own. In a television interview that has since gone viral for all the wrong reasons, El-Rufai claimed that the projects recently inaugurated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Kaduna State were conceptualised and executed during his tenure.
It was a predictable, albeit disgraceful, attempt to rewrite history, divert credit, and reinsert himself into the national political discourse after months of relative silence and growing irrelevance. But the facts: cold, stubborn, and irrefutable, tell a different story. And they expose el-Rufai not as a visionary former leader, but as a drowning man, grasping at straws in an ocean of fading influence. Three major projects were commissioned by President Tinubu during his recent visit to Kaduna: The Institutes of Vocational Training and Skills Development in Rigachikun, Soba, and Samaru Kataf; The Bola Ahmed Tinubu Specialist Hospital, and the launch of 100 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses. These are not continuation projects. They were not part of a long, drawn-out master plan carried over from el-Rufai’s days in office.