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Amid cold war between the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and the incumbent, Senator Uba Sani, the former Governor has said he does not want to be seen as a godfather in Kaduna.

El-Rufai disclosed that he has visited Kaduna only five times since he left office on May 29, 2023.

He made the disclosure at a Capacity-Enhancement Workshop for Senior Government Officials in Borno State, on Monday.

“I don’t want to be a godfather and that’s why I don’t interfere in what is happening in Kaduna, I want him (the governor) to learn and get the job by himself.”

“The leader should get good people to get the job done. Only God can do everything by himself, no matter how good you are as a leader, you can be as effective as people around you and that’s why the saying that no country get better than the quality of his civil service.”

This is the first time El-Rufai would speak publicly since two weeks ago when the seeming rift between him and his successor, Senator Uba Sani, started.

At a townhall meeting in Kaduna on March 30, 2024, Governor Sani had said his administration inherited a huge debt burden of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the administration of El-Rufai.

Governor Sani lamented that due to the rise in the exchange rate, the state is now paying back almost triple of what was borrowed by the previous administration.

Explaining that the huge debt burden was eating deep into the state’s federal allocation, he said N7bn out of the N10bn federal allocation for the state in March was deducted to service the state’s debt.

Governor Uba Sani further lamented that the state was left with N3bn, an amount he said was not enough to pay salaries, as the state’s monthly salary bill stood at N5.2 billion.

Although one of El-Rufai’s sons went after the governor, whom he accused of incompetence, the former governor refrained from public comment until now.