GOVERNOR NASIR AHMAD EL-RUFA’I: THE MAN THAT HATES THE POOR!
GOVERNOR NASIR AHMAD EL-RUFA’I: THE MAN THAT HATES THE POOR!
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
May 31, 2016.
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“WALLAHI! WANNAN GWAMNAN BA TALAKA A ZUCIYAR SHI, BAYA KAUNAR TALAKA, WALLAHI”-Anonymous. The above quotation means: “This Governor does not have the masses at his heart, he doesn’t like the masses” .The above statement remains me of a book a read which was written by Paulo Freire- called “pedagogy” of the “oppressed”. Paulo alluded in the book that the extent of manipulation by “oppressors” will make the “oppressed “to look at their “oppressors” as their “Heroes” and their “liberators” as their “enemies”. However, there are many “propagandists” who are out to “confuse” the masses through what Paulo Freire called “false generosity “so as to “spoil” the governor’s name, for reasons best known to them.
In the light of the above I want to as: who is truly the “enemy” of the “poor” between somebody that says the children of the poor must stop hawking “Groundnut” or “Kola nut” on the streets and attend truly free and compulsory education declared by the governor with free daily “meal” and free school “uniforms “and someone who says no! No! The children of the poor must continue to “hawk” on the streets? The governor said the children of the poor who are supposed to be either in “Islamiyya” schools or “primary” schools, but are sent for Hawking on the “excuses” that their parents have no money to pay for their school fees can now lean free of charge with even free daily meal. So many children of the poor got sexually abuse by immoral people during the course of hawking on street.
Education is a “vehicle” for “social mobility”, with due respect to our leaders past, none of them his father was known in the country before he became president, exception, of course, late president Yar’adua whose father was a minister for Lagos affairs ,but with education all our leaders past became what they were. The benefit of education that had “lifted” the child of a poor “fisherman “to become a president.
From 1999 today no governor had fed the children of the poor with Eggs, Fish, Orange, Yoghurt, Biscuit, Rice, Beans and Yam etc., in Kaduna state. How can a governor who spends N300million every week in feeding 1.5mllion children of the poor be the enemy of the poor? How can a governor who makes the parents of 1.5million pupils save about N15million daily from “break money”, assuming every parent gives his child N10 daily? Many parents in the past had borrowed money to give their children break money. From 1999, I have never known a governor that gave free school uniforms to the children of the poor in Kaduna state. The free school uniform programme had provided 11,100 jobs to tailors.
Who goes to public hospitals in Kaduna state? Of course, the poor people! “Governor Nasir El-Rufa’I of Kaduna State has ordered the closure of Sir Kasim Ibrahim Government House clinic in Kaduna with its medical personnel redeployed to general hospitals in the state, as part of efforts to boost the health care system in the state. There are not enough doctors in the public health system in Kaduna state; therefore it is not prudent to assign doctors, nurses and others medical staff to serve Government House alone. It is clearly more beneficial to the wider society if the services of these medical personnel were made available to the public in a general hospital. It is better that everyone working in the Government House uses the same health facilities as the general public. Medical personnel from the Government House Clinic have been redeployed to public hospitals in the state. All drugs and medical equipment in the Government House Clinic have also been evacuated and are being put to use at the Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital from now on, all Government House staff requiring medical services will proceed to the nearest public hospital to the Government House like other citizens of the state. It is expected that the management of the public hospitals will make good use of the medical personnel, drugs and equipments donated to them” (Blueprint Newspapers: April 18, 2016:p.5).
Governor El-Rufa’I has provided N180, 000 subsidies for kidney patients in Kaduna state. Before now the patients of kidney failure would have to pay about N200, 000 to have a check on dialysis machine. The governor purchased and installed eight (8) dialysis machines worth N30million and distributed them to the state hospitals. Patients can now have the treatment at N20, 000 instead of N200, 000. Yet they say he does like the poor!
Who goes to public schools? Only the children of the poor go to the public schools! Governor El-Rufa’I has stopped the sale of forms to students seeking admission to public schools. The governor had engaged 85,000 poor men and women for school feeding programme. Kaduna State government will engage 27,000 poor women from across the state for planting of economic tree; such as: MORINGA, SHEA BUTTER, CASHEW and NEEM etc. The government of Kaduna state has approved the establish of a “shelter belt” from Ikara to Birnin Gwari for planting of economic trees. The women will be in charge of planting trees, nurturing them to earn a stipend of N7, 000 each. The essence is to encourage greening; the greener the environment the healthier the environment. The government aims at planting over tree million trees between now and next year.
The government had shared subsidized cars on loan to the children of the poor people for transportation business in Kaduna state. About 6,700 Poor men, women, and youth were employed for Waste Collection in the state, yet they say he hates the poor. Another thing he did is Kaduna Start up Entrepreneurship Programme (KADSTEP) which trained 300 youths in entrepreneurship skills. The first set of KADSTEP graduated with 15 out of them already securing N48million in Bank of Industry (BOI) funding. The next set of 500 trainees has commenced training.
Gangstarism ( Yan-shara) mostly done by the children of the poor in Kaduna state has largely been curtailed by this governor through employment 6,700 for waste colletion;2,300 additional teachers and 2,555 for KASTELEA. The governor has recovered 59,000 livestock of the poor Fulani people which include cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys from rustlers. Yet they say he does like “TALAKA”!
For the first time in many years, the governor allocated 62% of the year 2016 for “capital project”, which is for the provision of good healthcare, schools, roads, bridges and housing etc. The previous administration used to allocate 85% for “recurrent expenditures” which is for the few “Civil Servants” and political appointees.
May God save our state!