A rights activist, Senator Shehu Sani, represents Kaduna Central in the upper legislative chamber. Comrade Sani in this interview with Tribune Newspaper Slams Nasir El-rufai Leadership Style
Looking at your state, Kaduna, it seems you are picking issues with Governor Nasir el-Rufaiand people will say it’s too early. What’s the situation between the two of you?
I’m not picking any issues with him, but fundamentally, we differ. We are from the same party and he is the governor and I am a Senator. He is a technocrat, while I’m an activist and a revolutionary.
So, my power base is the common people – the masses who constitute my strength. They are the people I have lived with and fought for over the years. The way the governor is running the affairs of government in Kaduna State is the one which, if care is not taken, we will all sink. He has to take consideration of the fact that he met people that were impoverished, that were muscled, harassed and demoralised by the government of the PDP. So, first of all, they don’t need harsh policies that will further impoverish and alienate them. We need to carry them along, taking cognisance of the situation which we find them in.
I fundamentally differ with him on that issue. For that reason, he has decided on his own not to even appoint people who identify with me in anyway and who are also seen to be from my camp. He is running the state in such a way that he will end up ruining all of us, which I will not be part of.
He has taken some steps which have only attracted anger from the general public against him. But I can say it very well that Kaduna is a place I have I lived all my life and since I came out of prison in 1998, I have never been out of Kaduna for more than two weeks and I’ve never been appointed to any public office which I will live in Abuja and not know what is happening in Kaduna.
So, I can tell you that within Kaduna North, Kaduna South and metropolis of Kaduna, there is hardly any street that I don’t know anybody. When I speak against the governor, I have also spoken against the President and military dictators.
I have also been speaking against injustices in the last 30 years and I went to prison in the struggle and for my views. I have seen terror in my life. So, I don’t find it any difficult for me to bring the governor back when he is going out of order.
You don’t see this as ruffling feathers within the APC in the state?
If he has an idea which differs from mine, certainly we all have different views and because he’s a governor, I’m also a Senator.
He is not bigger than me, neither am I bigger than him. That is why when people are done with being governors, they want to be Senators and and when Senators are done, they want to be governors. You don’t hear of governors wanting to be members of House of Representatives. So, you can see what it is.
He is the one who has initiated a step that simply moves against me by disenfranchising my people from even participating in the affairs of governance in Kaduna. So, as far as I’m concerned, whether el-Rufai is a governor or whatever he is, anything which he does that does not tally with what is supposed to be done, I will certainly tell him.
