By Luka Binniyat

An eerie air of anxiety laced with high expectations hang over Kaduna State as Governor Nasir El Rufai, yesterday re-affirmed the sacking of all political appointees of the last government.

el-Rufai

El-Rufai had sternly warned in a statement signed on his behalf by the Secretary to Kaduna State Government (one of the only four political appointees so far) Balarabe Abbass Lawal, that the police should apprehend any of the affected persons who ventured into his former office and treated as “an authorised” person.

Therefore the huge number of vacant political jobs in the state, has stirred a flurry of lobbying, intrigues and in-fighting within and without periphery of the new ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

This has caused a lull in activities in all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, in the state. The development has also caused anxiety in the state over the character and quality of the new persons that will help El Rufai run the state in the next four years.

Most residents of Kaduna State, have expressed their faith in El Rufai to raise the state above the present situation. And El Rufai, has already captured the expectation in his slogan – “Lets Make Kaduna Great Again”.  Meanwhile, APC members from all the wards, Local Governments Areas, LGAs, including their officials from the three political zones of the state, have converged on Kaduna.

According to Vanguard sources, the tussle for political appointments under the new government is unprecedented. It is said that the original APC members are locked in battle with recent defectors over the sharing.  There are also non-APC members, who have stormed Kaduna with job proposals and consultancy services initiatives, all claiming close acquaintance with El Rufai, some dating to their childhood days. This group claims to have been part of the political process that saw El Rufai becoming governor even though they are not APC cards carrying members.

An APC youth, from Soba LGA, who claimed to have been a pioneer of the movement that brought up El Rufai, complained to Vanguard on condition of anonymity: “The problems with our party is that some of the decampees from PDP, secretly came with money and ploughed it into the El Rufai campaign when they saw his high chances of winning, while still working for the PDP”, he said.

Meanwhile, the MDAs visited by our correspondent in the state showed that work was dull, and many civil servants had not been reporting to work. The Permanent Secretaries are now running the Ministries while the LGAs are under the charge of their Directors of Personnel Management, DPMs.

A source close to El Rufai, however confided in Vanguard that El Rufai is already in quandary over the huge wage burden and the justified quest for appointments by hundreds of supporters who sacrificed very much to campaign for him.  Said the source: “El Rufai surely said in his speech after his swearing-in that he will be prudent in his spending. That is why he cut 50% of his salary and allowance with his Deputy (Arc. Barnabas Bala Bantex).

“He is inheriting a workforce of about 30,000 workers and a wage bill of N2.8 billion. Kaduna State now gets just about N3 billion from the Federation account. Now, he has no choice than to give more jobs by ways of a new cabinet, aides, new Heads of agencies, new LGAs chairmen and their aides and so on, all from those who work for him. And they are in their hundreds and most of them educated. That is the dilemma the man is facing now”, said the source.