By Adesina Soyooye
In comments that have shocked not a few people, Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Retired General Christopher Musa, has accused Malam Nasir El-Rufai, the embattled Kaduna State former Governor, of planning, deliberately, the killing of Southern Kaduna people.
The Minister, a former Chief of Defence Staff,
spoke on Channels Television Politics Today programme on Thursday where he fielded questions.
According to General Musa, under El-Rufai’s administration, Kaduna State was deeply divided, a situation, he alleged that made it difficult for residents from Southern Kaduna to live freely in the Northern part of the state. Residents of the Northern part, he pointed out, suffered same fate of not living freely in the South.
However, he noted, the current administration of Governor, Uba Sani, has gradually made deliberate efforts to rebuild trust and restore unity among residents of both the Northern and Southern Kaduna.
Musa: “We know how it was when El-Rufai was there; it was toxic.
“El-Rufai did a lot of terrible things in Kaduna State. He divided the country, the State, into two. In that, if you are from the south, you cannot go to the north to live. Those ones from the north were moving to the south.
“Governor Sani within one year has been able to dissolve all that. You see, now everybody is free, everybody has a say. It’s not 100%. Let me tell you, it’s not 100%, but you can see that he’s making deliberate effort in uniting the state.”
On the feelings of Southern Kaduna people towards the former governor, the Minister said it is difficult for the people to forget their ordeal under El-Rufai.
El-Rufai, Musa alleged, deliberately planned the killing of people in that region.
Musa: “Well, I don’t know if unhappy is an issue. I think if there’s anything worse than unhappy, we can never be happy with somebody who has deliberately planned for the killing of our people.
“I mean, when you look at it, if you look at his videos, you know, his speeches, he was very proud of what he did.
“He told us he paid bandits. He told us he did this, he did that. He didn’t hide it. He was that arrogant to come out and tell people that this was what he did.
“The Southern Kaduna people are still very pained. Of course, definitely. I mean, if you look at the number of killings that was done there and what is going on now, you can’t compare at all.
“I can tell you what he has done to people living in Kaduna from his own area. He did a lot of things that I’m sure even him is not proud of.
“We should get politicians that want to unite Nigeria. For me, any individual who is using either religion, tribe, creed, or anything to divide the state can never be a friend; can never be somebody we look up to.
“We shouldn’t have those kind of ones in government. Anybody who is using religion or tribe or whatever to divide Nigeria is an enemy of the state.”
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