Rafiu Ibrahim, a PDP Senator representing Kwara state has revealed why Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai is angry with Senate President Bukola Saraki
According to Ibrahim, this is because of the Senate’s refusal to approve $350 million loan sought by the Kaduna State Government from the World Bank.
The Kaduna State Government has last year, requested the loan for ‘Development Policy Operation’ from the World Bank.
El-Rufai has explained then that the loan would have helped out critical areas in Kaduna state.
The loan was ultimately not approved by a committee that included Senator Shehu Sani (APC-Kaduna) and Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North) and Danjuma La’ah (Kaduna South).
This had angered El-Rufai who had even gone as far as to call them useless.
In relation to the radio program in which El-Rufai labelled Saraki’s Senate the ‘worst in Nigeria’s history’, Ibrahim said that the former minister of the FCT is a “loose cannon and a liar who is one of the people that got the All Progresives Congress (APC) into the current mess it found itself now.”
Ibrahim added: “El- Rufai is an aggrieved Governor. He is pained by the rejection of his request for foreign loans by the Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Debt which is headed by a Senator from Kaduna State, Shehu Sani. The Governor has been speaking from both sides of the mouth,”
“I am aware that when he sent the current Minister of Finance to Dr. Saraki, the latter made it known that he too was helpless on the issue as there was no personal reason that will make him stand against such a request.
“The Senate President advised the Governor to reach out to the three senators from the state and get them to support the decision as he, the Senate President, would find it difficult to overrule the senators, particularly since one of them is the chairman of the concerned committee. The three senators from Kaduna State insisted that an approval for the loan would sentence Kaduna State to many years of indebtedness.
“I am aware of the text message that this same El-Rufai sent to Saraki few weeks ago, thanking him for the useful and supportive discussion the Senate President had with the Minister of Finance on the Kaduna loan issue and commending this same Saraki for the leadership he has provided on a number of issues,” he said.