General Muhammadu Buhari this afternoon in Kaduna declared total support for Mallam Nasir El-Rufai's governorship ambition in Kaduna state in 2015 elections.
Speaking at the El-Rufai's public declaration, Buhari, who addressed the audience said the people of the state needs El-Rufai to rescue the state from bad leadership and decay,.
Buhari said "I am here to ask deliberately for your support for El-Rufai, he is the right man to fix Kaduna right. He is courageous and has what it takes to perform. He is the solution to your problems; you need sincere and competent leaders like him."
El-Rufai in his address said, "I consulted widely with people –from traditional rulers, respected elders and public officials that can speak out, as well as ordinary people who have no voice but rely on someone to speak for them. My purpose was to listen to the people and understand what they wanted from the state government and how the government and the people can work together to develop our state.
"To say that I was shocked by the level of neglect is an understatement.
Our road networks have fallen into disrepair; our schools have no basic teaching and learning tools; our teachers are not motivated; our hospitals and clinics lack essential resources to mitigate the challenges of healthcare and our civil servants are not being sufficiently motivated.
Poverty has become worse; unemployment has become more pervasive; agricultural productivity has declined; internally generated revenues are too low to even pay salaries. The picture is indeed very bleak."
Below is his full speech:
Kaduna Will Be Great Again
Speech delivered by Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai on November 3rd, 2014 at his Formal Declaration to Run for Governor of Kaduna State
Protocols:
My Dear People of Kaduna State,
Over the last few months, I have traversed all the 23 local government areas in Kaduna State and visited tens of communities. Some of the places I visited were so remote, isolated and cut off from government that it would have been difficult to believe that they were part of Kaduna State.
I consulted widely with people –from traditional rulers, respected elders and public officials that can speak out, as well as ordinary people who have no voice but rely on someone to speak for them. My purpose was to listen to the people and understand what they wanted from the state government and how the government and the people can work together to develop our state.
To say that I was shocked by the level of neglect is an understatement. Our road networks have fallen into disrepair; our schools have no basic teaching and learning tools; our teachers are not motivated; our hospitals and clinics lack essential resources to mitigate the challenges of healthcare and our civil servants are not being sufficiently motivated. Poverty has become worse; unemployment has become more pervasive; agricultural productivity has declined; internally generated revenues are too low to even pay salaries. The picture is indeed very bleak.
Kaduna State, which used to be known for its industries, now barely has flourishing or profitable factories.. Even basic sanitation is absent because Kaduna and most of our local government area headquarters are being overtaken by garbage.
What I saw in the course of my visits and consultations and what both leading politicians and the people told me further reaffirmed my commitment to the decision I made to devote the rest of my life to public service as a way of giving back to the community; to working with my brothers and sisters across Kaduna State and beyond to uplift our state; to building a united state; driving out poverty and making Kaduna the first among equals in Nigeria.
Ladies and gentleman, we must move Kaduna State from a state where people live in mutual suspicion; where few people feel safe or secure and where nothing gets done. It is disheartening that Kaduna State which used to be a melting pot of religions, cultures and industry has become a battlefield of ethnic and religious divisions due to incessant conflicts, denial of opportunities and relentless narrowing of the space for political freedom and expression. We now have a state where a small self-centered clique controls the state's resources while the generality of Kaduna people are excluded from political and economic opportunities.
Today, our state is littered with uncompleted projects, discarded plans and broken promises.
But we are too good for that; the people of Kaduna state are too educated, too talented and too crucial to Nigeria to remain under the current state of poor leadership and lack of direction. We need to come together, overcome the politics of division and harness our energies around a cause that would lift us out of the quagmire of political division and economic inertia.
As we are today, who can tell me what has been done with the hundreds of billions of naira that Kaduna State has received from the federation account in the last seven years or so? What old projects have been completed? What new ones have been initiated? What plans are in place for the future? Indeed, do we even have a future in Kaduna State under the current administration?
Evidently, the answer is NO!
Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot deny that the stagnation in Kaduna State at present is mainly because the goodwill of the people and our resources are being mismanaged.
However, we will not, and must not allow the incompetence of the current PDP government to drag us down. The reign of underdevelopment and incompetence must be ended immediately. Kaduna State is more important than one small clique that seeks to hold us to ransom and stunt our prospects. We must rise to the challenge, come together and take our destiny in our hands.
That means we must first make conscious efforts by ourselves. My dear people of Kaduna State, what can we do to improve our circumstances? Can we continue to watch nonchalantly as a few individuals destroy our state and mortgage the future of our children?
The people of Kaduna state have the power to bring about meaningful change. We have the power to free our state from corruption, greed, nepotism and incompetence. That power is guaranteed in your right to vote. And that power must be used judiciously to throw out the gross incompetence being demonstrated by those in authority today. That power is what we must use in 2015 to elect leaders that have the desire and will to move Kaduna State to the path of unity, peace, progress and prosperity.
Today, I stand before you to offer a hand of brotherhood and partnership in the mission to make Kaduna State great again. Let's work together, man, woman, child, old and young; in the journey to knock down ethnic and religious divisions. I ask you to join me to chase out poverty forever; I ask you to join to build our state and make Kaduna great again.
The question is, what does Nasir El-Rufai have to offer Kaduna State?
As I told my brothers in FadanKagoma a few weeks ago, my vision for Kaduna State is to provide true public service with fairness, equity and justice, and on responsive and sensitive leadership to take the state to another level. I am deeply committed to the peace, development and unity of Kaduna State, and our APC administration will show equal concern for the interest of every person that is resident in our state.
Kaduna state is dear to me. I was educated in this state, from primary school to university. After graduation, I practiced my profession here in Kaduna for 15 years before I accepted responsibility to serve in the public sector. I appreciate our problems and together with our party leaders at ward, local government and state levels, we will run a responsible and participatory government.
Ladies and gentlemen, whether you are a Muslim or Christian; whether you are Hausa, Adara, Fulani, Bajju, Atyap, Ggagyi, Jaba or any of the numerous ethnic groups in the mini-Nigeria that is Kaduna State, I urge every one of our nearly eight million people to join me in the mission to make Kaduna State first among equals.
One thing that I promise to bring to the office of the Governor of Kaduna State is experience, both from the private and public sectors. In all my different engagements in the public and private sectors, I have always successfully carried out any task assigned to me. When I was given the task of restoring order to the chaos that was creeping into Abuja, not many people gave me the chance of succeeding, yet with the support of committed civil servants and political appointees, we did. Our record in Abuja shows teamwork can lead to phenomenal results.
In Abuja we constructed needed infrastructure, promoted transparency and due process. More than 27,000 Nigerians became landowners without having to bribe or lobby any official. All they did was to have complied with the land-application process. Many more - over 30,000 Nigerians - were able to buy homes by similarly complying with the rules for the purchase of government houses in Abuja.
We all can agree that Kaduna State must change for the better. If we really want change in the state, we must recognize agents of change and appreciate their vision, mission and courage to deliver. I urge you all to look at the current disorder in Kaduna State, and ask yourselves: Who has the courage, capacity and competence to clean up the mess?
I believe the APC can and will deliver that change. I am confident that our APC Kaduna Team represented here, and backed by our ideological leader, General MuhammaduBuhari, can provide the leadership to lift Kaduna State out of the debt, despair and despondency that the ruling party has thrown us into.
We will not shy away from taking difficult decisions as long as the people of Kaduna State agree that it is for the good of all. For us in Kaduna State therefore, 2015 will be a defining moment. For those worrying about the demolitions that took place in Abuja, let me assure our people that Kaduna and Abuja are completely different in history, growth and priorities. We did what needed to be done in Abuja to make it a true national capital. In contrast, what Kaduna needs are better schools, health facilities and productive farms in an atmosphere of improved peace and security. That will be the focus of APC's efforts not the scaremongering of impending demolitions!
We shall foster an environment of security of lives and property by tackling the roots of intolerance and communal violence. We shall make a priority of Transparent Governance and Improved Service Delivery by reenergizing and empowering the public service. We shall rebuild and expand water supply, rural electrification, and roads infrastructure. Our government will invest in our people by improving capacity and delivery in Health, Education and Social Welfare. We shall energetically promote Agriculture and Food Security, while implementing Land Reform as a basis for wealth creation and capital formation.
The APC Kaduna Team will implement reforms that will create a transparent and responsible local government system, that is properly funded, autonomous and technically-strengthened to be responsive and capable of delivering services at the grassroots. We are poised to take advantage of our state's proximity to Abuja by developing new towns in locations neighboring the federal capital territory.
We are at a crossroads of risks and opportunities in our nation and our state. The choice we make in 2015 will determine whether our nation succeeds or fails. We believe that we can make Kaduna great again. I ask for your support so that we can make it happen together. We conclude with a prayer.
We pray that God chooses for Nigeria the leadership that will bring peace, prosperity and progress to our nation. We believe that General Muhammadu Buhari is that leader. We pray that God chooses for Kaduna State a governor that will usher in peace, prosperity and development in our state. We believe our team is the best placed to do this. However, the Almighty God knows best, and in the event that another aspirant for governorship is better, we pray that He chooses him or her. All our team cares about is peaceful coexistence and progress in Kaduna State. So help us God!
Thank you for honoring us with your presence. God Bless you.
