Northerners against restructuring are selfish – El-Rufai

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has condemned fellow northerners opposed to restructuring, saying that they are doing so for selfish purpose.

He pointed out that there was a difference between the position of Northern Elders Forum against restructuring and northerners as a region.

The governor argued that there are over a 100 million northerners whose interests were at stake and stressed that whatever advantages an individual was getting for might not apply directly to the entire North.

“We have the highest number of out-of-school children. We have the highest poverty rate. We have the lowest JAMB cut-off rate. So, what are the advantages in the North in the current situation?

“As the governor of Kaduna State, I have had to look at these issues and try to see how I can get the people of my state up on the ladder. I think you need to differentiate the knowledge from a few and the voice of the silent majority,” he said.

El-Rufai, however, regretted that certain people present restructuring in a derogatory way in a manner that portrays all the northerners as backward people.

He said, “The way some people present restructuring is so insulting and derogatory. We should have an honest conversation on what is working and what is not. We don’t have anything to benefit making derogatory remarks against a particular group of people because of restructuring.

“If there are northern leaders today by virtual of the fact that I am a governor, I must be there. So, who are these northerners against restructuring? Who are they? Who are they speaking for?

“So, let us have a very honest, unemotional conversation without looking down on people or insulting them or framing them” he noted.

El-Rufai, who is also chairman of the APC Restructuring Committee, said the draft bill produced and submitted by his committee in January 2018 was stepped down for fear of politicisation ahead of 2019 general elections.

But he was quick to add that some interested members of the ruling party were making frantic efforts to get the draft bill presented to the National Assembly for consideration before the end of the tenure of the present administration.

The governor said the committee made some recommendations and a draft bill available for onward transmission to the National Assembly, which every lawmaker could take up and sponsor as a private bill.

He said, “We do not need executive bill to start action on the draft bill submitted by the committee.”

He insisted the position of the party and the President to see the draft bill passed into law, adding that consideration of the bill would soon take off.

On insecurity in the southern Kaduna, the governor said the violence in northern Kaduna was more devastating than the insecurity in southern Kaduna as perceived by the public.

He, however, did not give details concerning the real causes of the violence, promising that he would make himself available only if a separate session would be arranged to discuss the issue.

El-Rufai argued that population could only be controlled through the education of the girl-child.

He said, “There is a lot of debate on that because countries that have tried to curtail demographic growth like China have now reversed themselves. Singapore even pays you to have children.

“The current thinking in the developing economics is that population growth is not bad if you can ensure that population growth rate is faster and the population is educated and healthy.”