By; SUNDAY ODE, Abuja
Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el- Rufai has said his memo to President Muhammadu Buhari which generated a lot of controversy has yielded the desired results.
Speaking to State House Correspondents on Thursday after observing Juma’at prayers at the Presidential Villa, the governor observed that what he recommended to the President in the memo is being implemented .
He listed some of the gains of the memo as the commencement of the social protection programme , the N-Power, the recent appointments in federal agencies and budget releases have been accelerated noting that the minister of finance has released up to about a trillion naira of capital budget.
He said “Yes, I believe that since September last year when I wrote the letter, there has been significant improvement in the delivery of services at the federal level as I said some of our federal programmes have started in earnest. Social protection for instance, the N-Power, budget releases have been accelerated, this is an unprecedented move, the minister of finance has released up to about a trillion naira of capital budget.
“In September last year, little or nothing had been released and that was part of my concern, Since then the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan has been done and published. At the time I wrote the memo there was no five year plan for the country, since then the government has moved ahead to change some of the appointees of President Jonathan in parastatals.
“This is something that we were worried about, many of us in APC felt that we were in office but not in power because the people that Jonathan appointed were still running most of our key agencies. From September till date even up until yesterday there have been significant improvement.
“So there is improvement and I believe that part of what I recommended to the President is being implemented, whether because of my memo or not is being implemented the country is moving forward and I am grateful to God for it.
He expressed disappointment that a private communication to the President which is the highest office in the land can be leaked and it was leaked from the villa.
The governor noted;I am disappointed that a private communication to the highest office in the land can be leaked and it was leaked from the villa, I am told
by those that published it, but this is a fact of life.
“We live in an age where anything you write or say can be leaked. It is ok, my intentions are clear, I have no ill motive but I wanted to communicate with the President what many Nigerians are talking about and what steps can be taken to improve governance of the country and move the country forward.
“That was my motive and if tomorrow like I said I see anything that the President needs to know I will discuss with him and I will articulate and put it into writing and on the record for him to have a reminder document to work on. I have no regrets and I have no apologies.”
Asked on his war of words with the National Assembly, he asserted that;There is nothing like falling out with the National Assembly, first of all I am a state governor and do not have any direct relationship with the national assembly.
“They don’t legislate for me specifically. I don’t have any relationship that is negative or positive with theNational Assembly. The National Assembly is the legislature of the federation and we have very god relations with the legislators.
On his relationship with the speaker House Of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, he said “I have no problem with the speaker, he is my kid brother , he respects me and I respect him, I have no problem with the senate president we worked together in the past and I am confident that we will work together in the future in the interest of Nigeria but demand for accountability is not a problem and should not be construed to be undermining or any such thing. It is only someone who has something to hide that will do things like that and I don’t believe that the National Assembly have things to hide.
