Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna has explained why some governors, especially those of the All Progressives Congress (APC) filed a suit against the Muhammadu Buhari-led government over the implementation of the naira redesign policy.

El-Rufai stated that the governors took the decision when their advice was ignored by the central government.

“On this naira redesign policy, we sat several times with the president and the CBN governor; all our requests and advice to no avail. We didn’t have any other options than to go to court,” the governor said in an interview with Radio France International (RFI), Hausa.

El-Rufai also responded to critics of their action.

His words: “How many times did I comment on security? For three years I have been advising them not to reconcile with these bandits; let’s kill them. So now people have forgotten what I said and start saying I didn’t comment until this policy?

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“Secondly, on ASUU, people have forgotten that federal universities are different from state owned. Go and check Kaduna State University; they didn’t go on strike because we told them that the disagreement was between federal government and its universities. We had done our part, it was federal government that didn’t fulfil its promises. We didn’t have problem with state universities. That was why they didn’t go on strike.

“People want us to interfere on everything, but according to the constitution, federal and state governments have their peculiar responsibilities and we do our own at state level. For security issues, they (federal government) are with military and police. We know the security problems better than them because we are close to it. We told them what to do….

“For example, in Kaduna State, months before the Abuja-Kaduna train was attacked, we sent letters advising to stop night travel but they ignored us. So, those saying we didn’t act don’t know who a governor is and his responsibilities; they don’t know what we do behind the scene.

“This is what people don’t know; it is not everything you discuss with the president or federal government that you will tell the public. So, anyone who says governors didn’t show concern on people’s sufferings until this policy is not fair to us.”

The Star