The governor-elect of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has enumerated the problems which he said destroyed the state in the past years, while adding that his administration is poised to avoid same by the time it takes over the rein of power in less than six weeks from now.
El-Rufai said this on Wednesday while receiving a delegation of Yoruba Community Council of Kaduna State which membership consisted of all Yoruba groups, Christians and Muslims .On this occasion, the delegation visited the governor-elect along with members of League of Yoruba Imams in the state.
The governor-elect who collected his certificate of return from the INEC office earlier in the day further noted that most of the links that had kept the people of the state together across ethnic and religious lines had been destroyed over the years and they needed to be rebuilt.
“One of the problems that I think befell Kaduna and destroyed it is this dichotomy between indigenes and settlers. Then religion was injected into it,” El-Rufai said. “When I was growing up here in Kawo (northern section of the Kaduna metropolis) we used to look forward to Christmas because of our neighbour who was from Calabar. We would go to her house and eat rice.
“But today you cannot find anybody from Cross Rivers State in Kawo because he doesn’t feel safe there. Our city has been divided across the river (River Kaduna that cuts the metropolis into two). It is not right.”
The former FCT minister however noted that he was determined to do something concrete about this and set an example for the rest of the country. “We have to do something about it,” he said to the delegation of the League of Yoruba Imams. “We have to re-establish trust among our people, and we are determined to do that. One of the first things we will do when we get to government is to redesign all government forms so that no one will ask you your religion or your ethnicity.
“We have already announced it, and we are committed to it, that anyone that lives, works in Kaduna State is a citizen of the state and he has equal rights. So no one will discriminate against your children on the grounds that you are non-indigenes. That’s not how to build a country. Every Nigerian that lives in Kaduna is a citizen of the state and his children will enjoy free education and scholarships like everyone else. We are committed to this; we believe in this because we want to show that it is possible to build a Nigerian nation. These division, asking people to say their state of origin or local government of origin, has only served to ensure we don’t build a country. We want Kaduna to be the example of how Nigeria should be,” he said.
While responding to questions in the course of an interview, the head of the delegation and the Public Relations Officer of the Yoruba Community Council, Alhaji Yunus Alao Muibi, said a delegation of the League of Imams came to visit the governor-elect in order to felicitate with him on his victory at the last election and also to offer the assurance that he had the support of the Yoruba community in Kaduna State.
