By Ismaila Chafe
Governor Nasir El-Rufai warned Nigerians Monday not to take hook, line and sinker everything that emanates from the Nigerian Senate, if they do not want to have mental problems.
The blunt, sharp-tongued governor of Kaduna State was reacting to the labelling of the main highway to his state from the capital of Abuja as the ‘most dangerous road in Africa’.
Nasir said the categorisation was a mere exaggeration, not grounded in facts.
“If you believe everything that comes out of Nigeria’s Senate you will have serious mental health problems”, the governor told State House correspondents in Abuja on Monday.
“There are things that are said there that are just for the gallery, for the media. I don’t know what statistics that were used to determine that the Abuja-Kaduna road is the most dangerous road anywhere – I like fact; I like using figures, I wish the people that said that would produce figures.
“I’m saying that no matter what anybody said last week, I’m assuring Nigerians that the Abuja–Kaduna road is quite safe now and will be so following the measures put in place by the various security agencies.
The governor, who said that he was not assuring absolute safety for travellers plying the road, maintained that only God can guarantee total safety.
“But I’m saying, as the governor of the state, based on the security measures put in place, I’m confident that the road is safe, and I drive on that road,’’ he stated.
The Senate on May 8 described the Abuja-Kaduna highway as the most dangerous road in Africa due to the activities of kidnappers and armed bandits operating on the expressway.
Sen. Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, while contributing to a motion on “Urgent need to increase the number of coaches on the Abuja-Kaduna railway line” labeled the aforementioned highway as one of the most dangerous in Africa.
But Sen. James Manager countered that the highway was not one of the most dangerous but the most dangerous road in Africa.
On the comments that trailed his recent remarks where he said godfathers must be retired in politics, El-Rufai dismissed the insinuation that he was referring to the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
He said that he was not in dispute with anyone as being insinuated.
The governor, however, said that the template on retirement of godfathers in Kaduna could be applied anywhere in the country and “it will work’’.
