By Adesina Soyooye
Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, says there is no genocide going on in Southern Kaduna. He chided those making such claims, and dismissed them as mischief makers.
The Governor who spoke on a Channels Television program, Politics Today Sunday night, also stood by his earlier opinion penultimate week, that the Presidency should go to the South in 2023.
On Southern Kaduna, he said: “Why is it that when there are killings in Zamfara and Taraba, it is not genocide, but when there is a tribal misunderstanding in Southern Kaduna, it is genocide?.”
His statement is not likely to endear him to most people who are outraged by the incessant killings in Southern Kaduna, and who accuse him of turning a blind eye to the tragic situation.
But the Governor said he was neither moved nor perturbed by the thinking of, or assumption by such people, adding that his conscience was clear.
“I have done more than anybody to handle the Southern Kaduna crisis, but it is deep-rooted, and both sides to the crisis are to blame.”
He said a MOPOL Command has been established there, everything has been done, but he is of the opinion that only the people can make peace when they choose to.
“The warring tribes are the only ones who can make peace among themselves. It doesn’t matter what the Government or anybody does.”
He also chided those who he said ignorantly insist that Southern Kaduna is marginalized.
Far from that, he said, they occupy more government offices than any other group.
He revealed that the region makes up 28 per cent of Kaduna, but revealed: “When we came in, 65 % of the civil service population was from Southern Kaduna. Does that look like marginalization? The more they get, the more they shout.”
According to him, there are people making money out of the situation. “They take photographs and send abroad, shouting genocide, so as to get money from abroad.”
One the reasons, he is not liked, he revealed, is because he stopped the culture of giving such people money. “When we came, I stopped the culture of just giving them Government money. They don’t like me for stopping it”
Asked if he stood by what he was quoted as saying that he would not support a Nothern Presidential candidate in 2023, he denied saying that, but insisted that morally, his form opinion is that the Presidency should rotate to the South, after President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years. He said it makes for peace, and that it is a gentleman’s agreement that power should rotate from the North to the South. He pointed out that the PDP enshrined it in its constitution.
Penultimate week, Minister for Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, had said the APC, in 2014, agreed on Rotational Presidency.
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