The Kaduna state governor Nasir el-Rufai has vowed to continue writing memos to President Muhammadu Buhari whenever the need arises
El-Rufai said it is an obligation for him to give the Nigerian leader an honest advice in the interest of the nation
– He also said he will never stop giving President Buhari an honest advise whenever the need to do so arises
The governor also said he would not want to speculate on who could have leaked his memo to the president to the media
The Kaduna state governor Nasir el-Rufai has vowed to continue writing memos to President Muhammadu Buhari whenever the need arises.
El-Rufai said it is an obligation for him to give the Nigerian leader an honest advice in the interest of the nation.
The governor in an interview with Daily Trust said: “I will never stop giving our leader an honest advice in the interest of his success and the country.”
“Anything I see something wrong I will do a memo to him, and if they leak it after seven months, it is alright. I will not relent,” el-Rufai said.
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In the past week, the media was agog over a leaked memo from the governor to President Buhari.
El-Rufai in his memo told the president that Nigerians were not happy with the administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by President Buhari.
He also said that the president has surrounded himself with bunch of “clueless” and inexperienced people like the chief of staff to the president Abba Kyari and the secretary to the government of the federation Babachir Lawal.
Although, the leaked memo caused a rouse in the polity, the Kaduna state governor denied having a hand in leaking the 30-page memo to the press.
He said: “As I said, I have written several memos to the president. This is the first one that has leaked. I can state categorically that I did not leak it. If I did I would say so.”
“I wrote the memo, it’s my own, I could make it public if I chose to, but I did not. It was a private communication and I can’t understand the motives of those that leaked it. I don’t know who leaked it. But who knows? In these days of Wikileaks, even if it is in your computer it can be hacked and taken out,” el-Rufai added.
The governor also said he would not want to speculate on who could have leaked his memo to the president to the media.
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He however, added that he saw a situation raving the country and felt it was necessary for the president to be advised by someone from the lower cadre.
“I have always felt that my duty to him as my political leader is to pick up what he doesn’t hear, because as a lower level person, I get to hear more about what is going on. And if I see things going wrong, I have a duty to go to him and say, ‘This is what I’ve heard, the facts I have established and my advice on the way forward.’” the governor said.
On the need for his memo, el-Rufai said he wrote President Buhari because he felt like some things were not going on as planned.
The governor noted that the present administration was drifting from the letters of the APC’s manifesto in the 2015 elections campaign.
“I wrote this memo because I felt very strongly at that time that many things were not working as planned. I was part of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Strategic Planning Committee.
“I am one of the authors of the APC manifesto; I was part of the 34 people that signed the Independent National Electoral Committee (INEC) document to register the party.
“So I consider the APC one of my children. I know the dreams we had and the very high expectations our people had in Buhari’s government. And I am close enough to the president to know what he is committed to in terms of social justice and progress. I see that people that have been trusted to drive this agenda are not doing it,” el-Rufai said.
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While stating that his memo was never written in bad faith, el-Rufai added that there are evidence that his memo is already yielding fruits as some issues mentioned in it are already being tackled by the president.
“One of the issues that concerned me in September when I wrote the memo is the slow pace of budget implementation, seeming lack of coordination between monetary and fiscal policies and the absence of a comprehensive economic programme.
“A few things we could have done to solve our exchange rate problem to boost our foreign reserve are all in the memo.
Since then, the federal government has done the five-year economic recovery and growth plan, which is one of the things I recommended. People need to see the plan for getting out of recession so that if they have to make sacrifices, at least they should know why they are making it. That has been done.
The governor also said that since his memo was done to the president, the budget implementation has been significantly improved.
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He said: “The minister of state for petroleum has gone to India and is talking to China about oil to raise billions of dollars to boost our reserves. So, some of the economic issues have already been implemented.”
Many of the political issues I identified and recommended to the president are being implemented too, but the president said, ‘Let’s wait until after the Edo and Ondo elections. Let’s focus on winning these elections.’
“You have seen the improvement in the exchange rate, you’ve seen the support the federal government has given states to clear arrears and reflate the economy. All these are things that we discussed and I put in the memo. Those that want to give the memo a colouration are not looking at the message but the messenger. But it is alright, I am used to that,” el-Rufai said.
You can watch this ZENITHBLOG.com video of Nigerian lamenting the administration of the APC below:
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