Governor Nasir El-Rufai recently went down memory lane in recalling a joke in which the “people of Kaduna see those from Kano as their slaves”.
The governor said this while explaining what transpired between his former Chief of Staff and the former Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi.
During the last economic summit held in Kaduna, the immediate past Chief of Staff of the governor, Muhammed Sani Abdullahi, had addressed Sanusi as a former emir and Sanusi warned him not to try such again.
Shortly after this, he was redeployed to the Ministry of Budget and Planning Commission as Commissioner.
Many, particularly on social media, had attributed his redeployment to the encounter with Sanusi.
But during his media chat, El-Rufai clarified that the removal of the Chief of staff had nothing to do with his statement about Sanusi as speculated.
El-Rufai said those who linked the joke to his cabinet reshuffle do not know how government works.
He also said Mohammed Sani’s appointment as Chief of Staff drew attention to him and placed him under pressure because people thought he was brought to government house for a reason.
”I heard so many people saying on social media saying that it’s wrong to make the changes by taken this here and there. They even said I moved him to another ministry because my friend was not happy he addressed him as former Emir, all this is nonsense.
“The joke between him and Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi was a historical joke between Zaria and Kano people. As you know, we see Kano people as our slaves.
“So those who think that the joke between a leader and his servant is what led to one to be removed don’t know the enormity of the problems we are working to address in the state.
“But whatever you do or the government does there are those who will still talk so we are not bothered. I want to assure the people of Kaduna State that we only carried out the reshuffling to strengthen our government to complete it work,” he said.
El-Rufai added that in the past people in the state accused him of not having a Godfather to tell him what to do.
“The elites too in the state complained that I don’t listen to advice. So I’m surprised to hear that it’s my friend that will now tell me what to do or not to do. My friendship with Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi is not a secret ,everybody knows what he does in the state.”
“He is the Pro-Chancellor of our State University because he is a professional in that aspect. Secondly, he is the Deputy Chairman of KADIPA. These are the two areas he is assisting us with advice, and again everybody knows Muhammadu Sanusi is a qualified economist and so I only seek his advice on this aspect.
“But not on how I run my government or who will work with me I don’t seek advice from anybody outside my colleagues in the government and we usually sit together to discuss.
“Like the latest reshuffling we did, we sat with the Deputy Governor, myself and Muhamad Sani Abdullahi himself and the Secretary to the State Government, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, to agree on what to do.
“So, we deliberated on who to take back there to the ministry and we couldn’t find anybody better than for him to return to the Budget ministry.
“And if Muhammad Sani Abdullahi is not interested, he would have said so. We discussed these among ourselves. People are only commenting on issues without knowing how government works,” he said. (Daily Trust)
