THE Kaduna State Government has refuted claims made by former Governor Nasir El-Rufai that the projects recently inaugurated by President Bola Tinubu were initiated during his tenure.
El-Rufai, who served as governor from 2015 to 2023, had stated in a media interview on Monday that the newly commissioned projects were legacies of his administration.
However, in a statement released yesterday, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Uba Sani, Ibraheem Musa, described the claims as “a bare-faced lie” and an attempt to distort the truth.
According to the statement, the projects inaugurated by President Tinubu last Thursday—including three vocational and skills development institutes, a 300-bed specialist hospital, and the rollout of 100 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses—were either initiated or completed under Governor Sani’s leadership.
The vocational centres located in Rigachikun, Soba, and Samaru Kataf—named after prominent Kaduna figures—are part of a broader human capital development strategy aimed at training 36,000 youths annually.
The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has reportedly certified these institutes as the best-equipped in the country, with its Executive Secretary, Prof. Idris Bugaje, calling Kaduna “the hub of skills development in Nigeria.”
The 300-bed Bola Ahmed Tinubu Specialist Hospital, the statement clarified, was originally started during the Namadi Sambo administration but was left incomplete and unequipped until Governor Sani prioritized its completion under his healthcare revitalization programme.
Additionally, the deployment of 100 CNG buses was introduced to mitigate the effects of fuel subsidy removal, with free rides for civil servants, retirees, and students for the first six months and subsidized fares for the public.
Describing the former governor’s assertions as misleading, the government stated that the facts were verifiable and that “no amount of revisionism can rewrite the truth.”
It expressed disappointment over El-Rufai’s remarks and reaffirmed the current administration’s commitment to transparent and impactful governance.