You have had two Town Hall Meetings in Zone One and Two, what would you say are the gains of these?

As stated earlier, this is the first of its kind in this state. We have achieved a lot because the exercise gives us the opportunity to consult with the people of Kaduna State before we embark on some of the activities that affect the people directly and this has really worked for the government. The beauty of the whole thing is that the governor takes out time to explain his plans to the people and he will ask them to say their minds but the people have always told him to continue with what he is doing. After the Zone One Town Hall meeting, the governor said there was need for us to critically look into the issues of encroachment of Rimi College, Government College and others in Kaduna. That was after the Alhudahuda demolition.

The governor called those concerned in the demolition exercise to wait so as to attend to some of the complaints he received. Some said they have Certificates of Occupancy issued to them by the same Kaduna State government about 15 years ago. The governor agreed to look into this case carefully and if the state government truly approved the plans and they have their C of O before they started development, then the government will compensate them. He said whether the previous government was wrong or right in approving it, the fact that they have their correct papers, we have no choice but to compensate them. But where people built without documentation he was categorically clear that there will be no compensation.
All these happened due the complaints, and that means that Kaduna State has a listening governor. The essence of this demolition is because the governor is determined to move the state forward.

The anti-corruption war is taking the center stage at the national level, are we expecting a replica of that in the state soon?

Governor Nasir El-Rufai has not come to Kaduna to fight anybody or witch-hunt anybody. His primary goal of coming here is to move the state forward. Look, when we came in we discovered that Kaduna has been taken backwards many, many years. I can tell you that this state has not witnessed any development over a decade now. Things are more or less stagnant in the state. This can be confirmed by comparing the newly-created states that have overtaken Kaduna in terms of development. You media men know very well that there are some states that were created recently but if you visit those areas you will see the level of their development cannot be compared to that of Kaduna. So far, what has occupied the governor’s mind since he assumed office is how he can move the state forward and he is so determined about doing it. He has said, times without number, that he met an almost empty treasury and a lot of debts that ran into billions of Naira but he cannot continue to lament on that for the rest of his tenure; rather he is looking for the solutions.

So, the first step was to block all the leakages and cut cost of governance. When we came into pay salaries and overhead costs we discovered from the records we met that there was always a deficit of N100 million every month. That is minus capital projects. That means if the state wants to initiate anything, she has to borrow money to do that, because there is no money. Therefore, when we came in we discovered that a lot of money was being wasted unnecessarily. The governor swung into action to block all the unnecessary wastages and today, we have saved N1.2 Billion in two months. The governor started from himself and the deputy governor by cutting their salaries to 50 per cent and that was extended to all other overhead costs around the governor and government agencies in the state. Today those wastages have been addressed; we don’t pay salaries with deficit in Kaduna state any more.

You were once the spokesman of President Olusegun Obasanjo and here you are now the Special Adviser on Politics to Governor Nasir El-Rufai. What really happened, is it a promotion or demotion?

You see I was among the few people of Kaduna state that persuaded Malam Nasir El-Rufai to contest for the governorship of the state because I believe there is nobody, and I can say it here without any fear of contradiction, in Kaduna today that is more qualified and competent to move the state forward like El-Rufai. That was the reason why some of us begged him to come out. When he made up his mind to contest, we also felt it was a blessing to Kaduna State. Some of us knew what he did in Abuja as a minister. If he can do as much as he did in Abuja, then Kaduna will be one of the best states in the country. I say this because I am one of those that knew him very closely. He is a selfless person who is determined and his present call is to make Kaduna great again. In the present Kaduna state nobody has the pedigree of Nasir El-Rufai and nobody is as competent as him. So for me, I can work in any capacity as long as we have a competent personality like him at the helm of affairs. The bottom-line is not about my position but my belief in his ability to deliver. Working with him is something that I believe in, and it is my fervent prayer that history and posterity will judge all of us kindly.