El-Rufai
Barrister Francis Kozah is the state Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State. In this interview with AMOS TAUNA, he critically looks into the steps taken so far by the El-Rufai-led administration in the state in repositioning the state in order to make it great again.
How will you compare the leadership of El-Rufai and what the state went through under PDP 16 years rule in the state?
I want to appreciate the electorate of Kaduna State for standing firmly in spite of all challenges and voting El-Rufai as the governor of the state. During the campaign, the party made it clear to the people that El-Rufai had a very clear agenda of what he wants the state to look like in the next four years. Now that he has been given the mandate, he has started putting up structures upon which he is going to fulfill his campaign promises to the people. I know that as a party leader in the state, El-Rufai administration is very determined and has positive intention for the people of the state.
In the educational sector, the governor has made it very clear that he wants to revive our schools and upgrade them to modern learning status, so that the public schools can compete favorably with either private or any school in any part of the world. He has taken steps to recover lands that were conscripted by people and he is also ensuring that furniture is provided in all public schools in the state. He has given a marching order to all local government areas to embark on massive rehabilitation of primary schools while feeding programme for all primary schools in the state will soon take off as a way of encouraging all children to be enrolled for primary education in the state. In addition to the free education, each primary school pupil will be given three pairs of uniforms and books as a way of making our education in primary school attractive.
In the health sector, he is also interested in bringing our health facilities to modern standards and it will interest you to know that the governor has already brought a dialysis machine to Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, Kaduna and many people are benefiting from that machine. The governor is interested in rehabilitating all hospitals in the state by bringing them to standards with modern equipment installed in them, so that anybody can easily get assistance from these medical facilities. The governor has very clear plans for the state and l strongly believe that in the next two years of his administration, Nigerians will begin to see and indigenes of the state will also begin to reap the dividends of democracy that has eluded them for years. With these laudable programmes by the present administration in the state, the people will not regret voting for El-Rufai and APC.
Comparing APC regime in the state with that of the PDP in the past sixteen years in the state, it is unfortunate that every facility and infrastructure collapsed during the PDP era in the state. Go round and see all these things that we are talking about and you will be convinced that the emergence of APC was timely, just to rescue the state from total collapse. El-Rufai is very determined to revamp all these structures we are talking about. I am assuring the people of the state that in the next two years, the state will definitely be turned around for good.
Most APC members are complaining that after voting the party into power, they are not been carried along in terms of appointment and that different people who are not politicians have been given appointments. Why is it so?
It is true that party members are complaining that where you work is where you eat. The point must be made very clear that not everybody that worked for the party to come into power must be given an appointment; the appointments are very limited and ongoing. The few appointments that have been made were to help the takeoff of the administration and l believe in the long run, most people will be given appointments, but at the same time, people should not be very much interested in been given appointments but what they should be interested in is the dividends of democracy that this government is poised to bring about by providing all the necessary infrastructures required of any modern state. It is better to have all the necessary facilities than to be given appointment where there is nothing on ground for the people to enjoy. I am convinced that in time to come; many APC people will be given appointments because the governor is not insensitive or ungrateful to what people did for him and the party.
The governor recently embarked on demolition of structures as a way to reclaim lands that were forcefully taken by some people in schools and health institutions; though a good idea, but the people are complaining about the approach. How do you view the exercise and its implementation?
What the government is doing is to reclaim public lands back from those who encroached into them and government is very sensitive to its social responsibility as before it embarked on the exercise, it gave notice to all those involved to leave or their property will be demolished. And at the expiration of the notice, the recovery took place. What people should consider first is the general interest of the children of the masses who have been deprived of comfortable learning. In the hospital, it is the same thing as no new facilities could be built to enhance health sector in the state because of a few individuals that have taken over such lands. If the interest of the generality of the people is going to be protected, then we should sacrifice the interest of the few. I strongly commend the El-Rufai administration for being bold enough to call spade a spade by hitting the nail on the head without fear or favour. The past administrations in the state have run away from taking firm decisions that are in the interest of the generality of the people but here is a man who believes in what is right and has gone ahead to do it. To me, it is a decision in the right direction that will be good lessons to some people not do such things in future.
APC government in Kaduna State is about three months old, what is your perception of the administration?
In the past three months or so, every right thinking Nigerian will agree with the present administration in the state that El-Rufai has god intention for the state through his giant strides with very good intention for the general good of the people. Is it the educational sector? Health, agriculture, name it, you will discover that there is a total turnaround of all spheres of life. I tell you, in the next two years, the people of the state are in for a very good time with what the present administration has in store for them. At the end of it all, l don’t think anybody in the state will regret voting for the APC.
There is a general outcry in the state that the people are suffering, especially with regard to late payment of workers’ salaries due to verification. Could this be the type of change the people have been yearning for?
You see, when things have gone bad and you want to correct, people are bound to suffer. People should make sacrifices for the good of tomorrow. What El-Rufai is doing is to sanitize the public sector and we all know the endemic corruption that is in the public service by creating fake primary schools that do not exist and collecting millions of naira every month for nothing. We are aware of how civil servants have inflicted pay rolls in ministries and extra-ministerial departments and many others; and don’t forget, it will take time for the state government to normalize these things. I want to appeal to the state civil servants not to see this as punitive, but to see it as a process of purging and the process is just for a while; the end result will be good for them because if all the ghost workers are fished out, more vacancies will be created and our young men and women roaming the streets will be absolved into the civil service while others will have access to promotion and many other good things coming their way.
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