In a heated exchange on social media, Senator Shehu Sani, a former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central in Nigeria’s 8th Senate, criticized the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, over remarks about alleged nepotism in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
El-Rufai had weighed in on a post by Farooq Kperogi, a US-based Nigerian professor of journalism, who accused President Tinubu of governing with a Lagos-centric approach. Kperogi alleged that Tinubu had prioritized appointing individuals from the South-West region to dominate Nigeria’s economic sector, drawing parallels to former President Muhammadu Buhari’s northern-centric appointments in the security sector. Sharing the post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, El-Rufai commented, “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” and called for “sensible inclusion” over “senseless exclusion.”
In response, Senator Sani took to his own X handle to deliver a pointed critique of El-Rufai. Sani remarked, “There were people who were silent when Buhari was fielding political offices with his kinsmen and have now found their voice to speak out when the equation doesn’t favour them.” He accused El-Rufai of hypocrisy, referencing what he described as an eight-year period of marginalization and “apartheid” against Southern Kaduna during El-Rufai’s tenure as governor.
Sani further asserted that while anyone has the right to criticize President Tinubu for alleged lopsided appointments, El-Rufai, given his own track record, is not in a position to do so.
The exchange has sparked widespread reactions, further fueling discussions on the ethnic and regional dynamics of governance in Nigeria.
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