TheCable

Nasir el-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna state, says he replicated the social programmes implemented by Rauf Aregbesola as the Osun helmsman.

Aregbesola was governor of Osun state from 2010-2018.

Speaking on Saturday during a virtual colloquium to mark Aregbesola’s 63rd birthday anniversary, the Kaduna governor said the programmes struck him and helped him connect with Aregbesola.

Commending the impact of Aregbesola’s programmes in Osun, El-Rufai said he was moved to replicate the programmes in Kaduna when he was elected governor.

“He did many innovative things to create prosperity in Osun and the results are clear.

“By the time I got elected as governor, I sent a team to Osun state to look at some of these policies and adjust them for implementation in Kaduna.

“I like copying whatever works, whatever succeeds because I don’t think you need to reinvent the wheel or be too proud.

“If something works, I am shameless in copying it and I sent a team to Rauf, they spent some time with him and we started the school feeding programme. We also introduced these tablets the way he did. We copied Rauf.”

El-Rufai, however, blamed the drop in crude oil prices for the disruption in the programme implementation in Osun.

“He could not stop the programmes so he kept borrowing to fund them hoping that something would happen with oil prices. The legacy of domestic debt that he left behind is as a result of funding social programmes to reduce poverty and inequality which have been very successful but were disrupted.”

Other panelists that participated in the colloquium were Abubakar Bagudu, Kebbi state governor; Yemi Kale, the statistician general of the federation; Yemi Cardoso, the chairman of Citibank; Bismarck Rewane, CEO, Financial Derivatives Company; Hajara Adeola, Lotus Capital CEO; and Joe Abah, DAI country director.