Dr. Nasir Aminu’s article “Irrational and inconsistent, the results of El-Rufai’s policies in Kaduna”, published in Sahara Reporters and several other online platforms, undoubtedly gained traction, largely because he lectures in Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom. But like it’s often stated, the hood doesn’t make the monk. Unfortunately, Aminu, hoodwinked hisreaders with the fact that being a lecturer in the United Kingdom, he must be well informed and should be taken serious. And once Dr. Aminu entrapped his innocent readers, who had hope in him, he continuously misinformed them, by dishing them half-truths and utter falsehoods.
The opening paragraph of Dr. Aminu’s poorly written diatribe “The neo-liberal policies designed to collect taxes from the entire residents to raise internally generated revenues are (meant to push) people into hardship and creating inherent social issues in the state”, gives him away as an academic fraud, and as the real irrational and inconsistent person.
How can Aminu, a resident in UK, the capital of capitalism, where income and inheritance are heavily taxed, in good conscience rant about “neo-liberal policies designed to collect taxes from the entire residents to raise internally generated revenues”? How does he expect the Kaduna state government to fund projects, especially in the light of dwindling resources, due to declining demand for fossil fuels and its implication on revenue for the various governments. As a scholar, Aminu ought to know, that in Nigeria only public servants pay taxes, because they are taxed at source. And that while most Nigerians complain to the high heavens about lack of infrastructure, they don’t pay tax.
For the benefit of Aminu, Kaduna state government has not and does not intend to introduce new taxes. In fact, during the Covid-19 pandemic, it gave tax waivers to enable businesses employ more workers and get back on their feet. The game changer is the effective collection of taxes and the criminalisation of cash collection.
The position of Aminu on tax payment is definitely the height of deceit. And his faulty premise makes the entire article irredeemable. Nothing can be built on a faulty foundation.
Throughout the article, it was difficult to fathom what Aminu intended to convey to his readers, especially as his thoughts were all jumbled up and so never fully articulated, leaving the reader to hazard guesses. He said, “As of now, el-Rufai is leaving a legacy in Kaduna state, which will be used as criteria to judge his government. His inconsistent policies directly affect many institutions and sectors in the state, creating all kinds of socio-economic consequences. So it is a lot more difficult to defend the Kaduna state government’s policies when el-Rufai is its best role model”.
Clearly, his readers must have been lost, making sense of the El-Rufai’s policies that Dr. Aminu has bones with, because of his failure to address the specific policies nor disclose the institutions and sectors, which these policies adversely affected. He, nevertheless, went ahead to declare the unnamed policies as inconsistent with magisterial authority. There is no doubt that Aminu was on a hatchet job.
Is the culprit the Kaduna State Development Plan 2016-2021 or the revised 2021-2025 Plan from which El-Rufai’s sectoral policies flowed? El-Rufai’s economic and social policies were strictly guided by these plans and are the foundation on which the annual budget towards delivering on the outcomes specified by the Plan were built. If Aminu was a serious academic, these plans ought to have been the focus of his surgical intervention. But because Aminu didn’t write to contribute to the advancement of governance, he continuously made wild and unsubstantiated statements, like a market woman at Giwa grains market. He didn’t elevate the conversation.
Contrary to the postulations of Aminu, Kaduna state policies under Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai have been consistently consistent, but when necessary they have been subjected to review. It’s the reason he is the toast of development agencies and other state governments, who constantly send teams to look at how Kaduna state is running.
Again, as in the entire article, Aminu seemed in a hurry to deliver several knock out punches on El-Rufai, but didn’t give a hoot whether the punches were solid enough for the intended damage. “So, it is a lot more difficult to defend the Kaduna state government’s policies when el-Rufai is its best role model”, he said. What on earth did the “erudite lecturer” mean to say? Did he mean to say; that it’s a lot much more easier to attack El-Rufai, on whose table the buck stops. This lack of connection has to do with hate, as Aminu clearly has an axe to grind with El-Rufai. But this embarrassing error is just a tip of the iceberg.
Typical of Aminu, he willfully refused to be specific in his several wild and unsubstantiated statements, by refusing to provide dates of the statistics he relied on. Just as he bluntly refused to attempt a comparison of the state of Kaduna state from 1999-2014, before El-Rufai took over and from 2015 to date, the period El-Rufai has been in charge, because that would have given his readers a more holistic picture. The reason Aminu conveniently refused to refer to the ugly past, where the annual budgets hardly delivered service to the people, was because his objective wasn’t to make El-Rufai look good.
Aminu said: ”The state’s socio-economic position is alarming, with high poverty and unemployment rates. According to the United Nation’s Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, 44% of the population in Kaduna are in extreme poverty. For every 100 people living in Kaduna, 44 people do not have access to health, education and essential living resources like water, housing, and food. The state has a combined rate of 73% for unemployment and underemployment, ranking second in Nigeria behind Imo state. That means only 27 people are fully employed out of every 100 living in the state”.
Though Aminu grudgingly acknowledged that “Nigeria’s double-dip economic recession has contributed to making the country maintain its poverty capital status for the second successive year”, he went on to insist that “the (Kaduna) state is also wrestling with el-Rufai’s bad economic policies”, again without stating the specific economic policy that has adversely affected businesses. Thankfully, the business community and Kaduna state citizens, the ultimate beneficiaries of El-Rufai’s policies, like the establishment of the Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency (KADIPA), a one-stop agency that has eased doing business in Kaduna state, will vehemently disagree with Dr. Nasir Aminu.
KADIPA has eliminated bottlenecks, that usually made investing in Kaduna state difficult. It handles issues ranging from permits to land applications for investors.
By 2015 when El-Rufai assumed office the public service was dysfunctional, lacking in capacity to deliver service to the people, the industries, especially the textile sector which hitherto provided employment for thousands of people, had collapsed. Not even the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) was functioning. The education and health sectors weren’t in any better shape.
For El-Rufai, the challenge was daunting but not insurmountable, because he came adequately prepared for the task. El-Rufai, in a methodical manner, went about addressing the various challenges. And very critical was job creation, considering that Kaduna state has a younger population. To El-Rufai’s credit, today, the industrial landscape can boast of more than 89 new industries and an investment of over $3 billion. Soon, the $1.5 billion steel plant at Gujeni, that will employ over 3,000 workers directly, will be be commissioned.
The African Natural Resources and Mines, Dangote Peugeot Assembly Plant, Olams Feeds, Tomato Jos, etc that have invested multi billion dollars in Kaduna state did because of the progressive policies of El- Rufai and the unflinching trust in him.
Essentially, El-Rufai’s Putting the People First Agenda is about the welfare of the people; functional education sector, which led to the unprecedented disengagement of over 21,000 incompetent teachers, massive rehabilitation of schools, with the provision of water and toilets, access to healthcare, with the rehabilitation of 255 primary healthcare facilities, jobs for the teeming youths, improved infrastructure, etc.
I must acknowledge that despite the efforts by the El-Rufai administration to make the state a business and food basket, a state where all citizens will have access to quality healthcare and education, where all citizens will live and move freely without fear of harm, a transparent and accountable government, with a highly motivated and efficient civil service, a lot still needs to be done to get the state where it should be. That it’s not is traceable to the rot from the inaction of the previous administrations, a factor that Dr. Aminu bluntly refused to acknowledge. Or the fact that no government has been known to achieve hundred percent of its development plan’s expected outcomes, due to political and socio-economic challenges.
It’s befuddling that Aminu would deride the urban renewal projects as amounting to nothing. Again, he dishonestly refused to acknowledge that no investor will invest in an environment with poor infrastructure. Is Aminu aware of Nigeria’s huge infrastructure deficit that has made her unattractive to investors? He said: “Some would argue that the el-Rufai government has built roads and bridges. However, rural areas’ infrastructural investment and community development are unbalanced. The government mainly invests in five local governments out of the 23. The current data shows that building a bridge and roads is not attracting investments. The neo-liberal policies designed to collect taxes from the entire residents to raise internally generated revenues put people into hardship and creating inherent social issues in the state”.
Aminu merely echoed the opposition talking points without any effort at sieving the propaganda from the facts and tragically displaying his appalling ignorance.
“Of course, the state has fiscal sustainability challenges, which is why the state no longer reveals its investment funding sources. Gone are the days when roadside billboards show the figures, dates, and duration of contractors’ contracts in Kaduna. Neither does the Kaduna state government publish the information publicly. For example, the information on the cost and source of funds for the roads this government is building is unavailable. These are public funds, and transparency shows that public infrastructure procurement follows value-for-money standards and practices,” he stated.
Since Aminu appears to have lost touch with recent developments in policies, I will like to refer him to the Audited Report of Kaduna State, where he can find the income and expenditure of Kaduna state. Only a lazy academic like Dr. Aminu would complain about the non-availability of records of the state’s financial position. Again, for his information, over 500 laws have been reviewed since this administration came into office.
Though Aminu clearly likes peddling falsehoods, and being utterly irresponsible with facts, I have a duty to educate him and to let his readers see him for what he is – an academic charlatan.
In 2018, Kaduna state disengaged 21,870 grossly incompetent teachers who flunked the competency test and replaced them with 25,000 new teachers. In 2021, another batch of 2,192 incompetent teachers were disengaged, because they failed. Again, contrary to the rumour by Aminu, the continuous competency test after every five years was clearly stated in their employment letter. Aminu was economical with the truth when he said, “He then employed 15,897 more but still found a way to explain the sacking of 4,562 of those he employed, all within a year”. What an uncharitable cut?
El-Rufai will always be guilty in the court of Aminu, who, in all fairness, can pass for a supporter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which like him is reckless with facts.
Between Dr. Aminu and El-Rufai, in my opinion, if there is someone whose economics is rusty, that person is Dr. Nasir Aminu. Though not an economist, El-Rufai can hold his head high and point to several key interventions – the Contributory Pension Scheme, the sale of government properties, which were a farsighted policies.
Musa writes from Kaduna.
