A local government administrator, Dr Isa Mohammed Idris has observed that the reforms embarked on by the former governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai is the best for the state since 1999.
Idris was reacting to a recent newspaper and online report which criticized el-rufai’s handling of local government affairs.
He noted that the report was aimed at blackmailing and rubbishing his local government reforms carried out during his eight years as a governor.
Idris also a staff of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, in an interview in Kaduna on Sunday, said it was on record that no government in Kaduna state, since the return of democracy in 1999, has performed better in the administration of local government than the government of Malam Nasir El-Rufai.
For instance, he noted that this could be seen in the areas of discipline and supervision under the period under review, which he said accounted significantly for the transformation of the grassroots in the state.
According to the administrator, El-Rufai’s administration prioritized staff welfare and reforms to enable the local government to become a true catalyst of grassroots development and restore people’s trust in the system of local government to deliver a great feat lauded by both national and international organisations.
“The publication by a newspaper and social media was a consolidated attack by a number of mischief makers, aimed at rubbishing the former governor who, lately, has been a target of carefully orchestrated political vendetta within and outside government circles.
“Sadly, the present leadership of the state was alleged to have started interfering in the financial independence of local government, through the return of joint projects.
“My reaction to the falsehood was not to defend the former governor but to correct the misinformation maliciously peddled by some people to hoodwink gullible people.
“As a student of local government administration and a proponent of separation of power among the three tiers of government, there is no state government that restored the lost relevance of the local government system in Nigeria, than the government of Malam El-Rufai in Kaduna state.
“In 2015, former governor El-Rufai took the state by storm and began massive rehabilitation and reconstruction of broken-down public infrastructure, human capital development and governance reforms in our state.
“At the time he embarked on the reforms, local governments in Kaduna state were in very dire financial stress, that ensured 13 out of the 23 local government were unable to pay monthly staff salaries, not to talk of executing capital projects, with a dismal record of IGR for the state.
“El-Rufai’s government faced the problems confronting the state with vigour, eager to reverse the largely dysfunctional and wasteful government of the past. And within the eight years period, the administration built 443 km of township roads, 172km of rural feeder roads and over 60 km of solar street lights across the state, with massive school renovation, and reconstruction of health centres across the state.
“I would unapologetically state that the model of local government administration and disciplined supervision during El-Rufai government between May 2015 and May 2023, accounted significantly for the transformation of our grassroots in Kaduna state, and the former governor deserves commendations rather than consolidated blackmail,” he added.
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