A former governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai has accused the administration of Governor Uba Sani of reversing the gains of the state internally generated revenue.
In an interview with Freedom Radio Kaduna at the weekend, Mr El-Rufai said before the left office in May 2023, the state was generating N6 to N7 billion in IGR monthly.
He, however, said the current administration is only able to generate half of the amount.
Mr El-Rufai, who recently dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, for the Social Democratic Party, SDP, attributed the decline to the massive corruption and alleged incompetence of Mr Sani’s administration.
“It’s obvious that those using debts as an excuse for non-performance don’t have the skills, knowledge and technical wherewithal to manage the state affairs.
“Those who are complaining of inability to pay salary due to huge debt exhibit clear incompetence.
“Well, we started repaying those debts before the end of my administration. Some of the policies we introduced had ensured our internally generated revenue doubled by almost five times.
“Our IGR alone is enough to repay the debts. I heard him [Uba Sani] complaining that every month N4 billion is deducted from the state allocation to service the debts incurred by my administration, making him unable to pay salary.
“In the last month of our administration, we generated about N6 to N7 billion in IGR, which is almost double what was deducted for the loans incurred,” Mr El-Rufai said.
According to him, his administration attracted a lot of investors through his policies and projects.
“They are supposed to sit and look inward on how to generate revenue. That’s the kind of thing to look into.
“My administration attracted investors, and that increased money accrued to the state.
“When we obtain those loans, of course we knew we are going to repay. And it was in the public. And before any bank would borrow you money, they would have to check your creditworthiness.
“And they were so sure we would be able to pay, and that’s why they lent us the amount.
“But when you come to power unprepared and begin to do things haphazardly, that’s the result you get.
“The person who was in charge of collecting revenue and doing excellent jobs was sacked unjustly.
“And they brought someone who doesn’t know the job, and the revenue declined to N2 billion from N6 to N7 billion.
“Before we left, we introduced policies that made it impossible to loot, but now public funds are being looted without consequences.
“The projects we executed with the loans are very visible, even for the blind to see,” Mr El-Rufai added.
