Shehu Sani, a former senator who represented Kaduna Central senatorial between 2015 and 2019, has said that he was insulted for rejecting the $350m World Bank loan the El-Rufai administration in Kaduna state sought for.
Kaduna state governor, Senator Uba Sani, had at a town hall meeting on Saturday, disclosed that the state is heavily indebted he can’t pay salaries without further borrowing.
Reacting to the governor’s to the huge debt profile of the state in an interview with journalists on Sunday, Shehu Sani said if his advise was heeded, the state would not have found itself in the present predicament.
Sani and two other senators from Kaduna state – Suleiman Hunkuyi (APC Kaduna North Senatorial zone) and Danjuma Laah (PDP, Kaduna South Central Senatorial zone), rejected moves by El-Rufai to take the $350m World Bank loan.
Sani and Hunkuyi eventually lost their bids for reelection and were replaced by Uba Sani and Suleiman Kwari who lobied for the approval of the loan.
In May 2018, El-Rufai had while flagging off campaign for Local Government elections in Kaduna, rained curses and insults on Shehu Sani, Hunkuyi and Laah for rejecting the loan and had called on the people to shave their beards and heads” whenever they come to Kaduna.
According to Shehu Sani, the hour of reckoning has come for every citizen of the state.
“I was insulted for saying no to that loan. The hour of reckoning is here to every person in Kaduna state.
“Just like the way Lot (in the Bible) warned people, prophets of the past warned people, but they refused to hear and then you see pedition and affliction.
“In the same way, I warned the people of this state, but they were told that that the money will bring paradise – land of milk and honey.
“Today, you can see the problems at hand as far as that loan was concerned.”
Speaking further, he said, “If you look at it, what I said about this state, there has never been any of my prediction that has not come to pass.
“Today the state is strangulated because of that money which we couldn’t pay.
“We borrowed $350m when the naira was N400 to the dollar and we are going to pay when the naira is what it is today.
“If people heeded to what I had said and understood me and agreed with me, we couldn’t have been where we are today.”