Mounting Rage Over el-Rufai’s Footprints

In an unprecedented manner, the Kaduna State House of Assembly (KSHA) ad-hoc committee released its report that raised suspicion that the administration of former governor Mallam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai siphoned N234 billion. The governor, through his spokesperson, Muyiwa Adekeye, quickly debunked the report, dismissing the report as politically motivated. Former Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Salihu Lukman, and some former commissioners that served in the immediate past government of the state have also denounced the report that is presently threatening to damage the integrity reputation of the former administration.

 Time to worry

The report by the state lawmakers is not an indictment, but a clear attempt that suggests that the el-Rufai government was engaged in carrying out premeditated heists that threw the state into a debt hole that may take decades to be repaid. Unless proven otherwise or contradicted by additional evidence, the ad-hoc committee report provides enough grounds for relevant agencies of government, particularly the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to wade into the matter with the view of identifying culpable person(s) and relevant agencies.

After reading the committee’s 175-page report, I was dumbfounded at the lamentation by el-Rufai on the crippling $234 million foreign loans obtained by governments before his. I found it an irrational decision by the state government in obtaining a whooping sum of $500 million, bringing the total foreign debt to $758 million dollars. Sadly, when el-Rufai was exiting power in May 2023, he left behind N94.919 billion in local debt and N99 billion in contractual debt profile. For a state that enjoyed a revenue inflow of N1.4 trillion in IGR, Loans, FAAC allocations, among others, from May 2015 – May 2023, Kaduna ought not to have been thrown into financial insolvency.  More bothersome is the claim that the foreign loans were not deployed to what they were meant for, just as the committee found alleged that some contractual sums were outrageously increased to levels deemed unsustainable and almost ridiculous.

 Underhand deals?

For the $170 million loan sourced from the African Development Bank for Bus Transport Scheme, according to the report, there was nothing to indicate that the loan was used for such purpose. To determine what went wrong with the loan, the need to undertake a forensic auditing of the el-Rufai administration is unavoidable.  How could the contractual cost for Zaria Waterworks be increased by nearly N9 billion, and still not working even after completion, remains a mystery?

If the committee alleged that N30 billion was stolen with the collaboration of the Ministry of Finance and Kaduna Internal Revenue Services, then, there is every cause to be apprehensive over the manner the former FCT Minister governed the state. For el-Rufai, who prides himself as a man of integrity, the report by the lawmakers has thrown mud over his toga of integrity. One of his top aides, Jimmy Lawal, who is accused of having supervised most of the contracts, appeared before the committee, making it clear that the former governor should be held accountable for what transpired.

Yes, the signature of el-Rufai may not be traced to any of the contracts under dispute, but should be held liable to any form of misdeed in the event such contracts turned out to be conduit pipes in defrauding the state. Indictment of the el-Rufai years in government appears too early now, but the report has opened up on the concealed financial deals that wrecked the economy and threw Kaduna state into an endless pit of local and foreign debts.

When on March 30, 2024, Governor Uba Sani declared in a town hall meeting that his administration was suffering from a huge debt profile, thus making it a herculean task to run the government, many were not shocked. Attempts to deny the report by former officials of the government amounts to dancing lame before the real dance begins. What I expect of the pro-el-Rufai group is to get their records straight, knowing full well that the months ahead may be challenging in justifying millions of dollars and billions of naira borrowed from foreign financial institutions and local banks.

 What to do now

For a government to be democratic, it must subject itself to public scrutiny and be accountable. Beyond the raging storm over the report by opposing camps in the matter, both the ICPC and EFCC should wade into the matter. What is essential now is for relevant agencies of government mandated with investigation of alleged financial malfeasance to commence forensic auditing to determine the veracity of the KDHA committee’s report that has portrayed the past administration as a festival of corruption.

It’s unacceptable for a governor, who decried the foreign debt burden of Kaduna State, to increase the debt burden by over 200 percent, thus rendering the state as a perpetual debtor to local and global financial institutions.  As it is now, the state lawmakers should not be content at just releasing the report; they should formally report to relevant anti-graft agencies for further investigation.

Attempts by groups to ensure the report is not swept under the carpet should be encouraged. In pushing for the full probe of the el-Rufai government, caution must be exercised to ensure these demands are not inclined to ethnic or religious divide. The current gale over the alleged misadventures of the immediate government of Kaduna State should not be seen as a politically motivated, but a deliberate and honest attempt by the representatives of the people to interrogate how humongous foreign and local loans meant for the development disappeared to only-God-knows-where.