Abuja – Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State on Wednesday declared that he has better things to do with his life than being a governor of Kaduna State.
He therefore promised to concede defeat to whoever wins the 2019 governorship election in the state if he loses.
Speaking at the event organized by the Kaduna State Peace Commission in partnership with AID Foundation Development Peace Initiative, United States Institute of Peace, Nigeria Bar Association and Nigeria Union of Journalists, el-Rufai said he spends most of his time with his family which he has not done in the last 10 years.
He said politics or election is not a war but a competition that has to produce a winner at the end and therefore called on politicians to shun politics of bitterness and therefore appealed to politicians to put the people first, saying they should adhere to the tenets of the religion, as no religious preach hatred.
According to him; “When politicians give weapons and drugs to young people for electoral purposes, then what do you do with them after you win? They become monsters that will be difficult to deal with.
“For us as a state government, we must continue to govern and these are very serious issues for us. We have no thugs in the APC, all those that campaign with us, we try to empower and give them employment so that they can be off the streets.
“If you don’t find job for these people, they are the ones who become soldiers for Boko-Haram, kidnappers and involved themselves in other criminal activities.”
El-Rufai therefore urged politicians to conduct themselves during the campaign and avoid using hate speeches, saying that campaign should be issues based and therefore vowed that whoever is found using the social media to incite the killing of people in Kaduna or destruction of property shall be brought to book.
In his words; “We are determined and we are doing that vigorously. We do not care about what people say either you call yourselves Bishop, Imam, Sheikh, Chief or District head, we will bring them to justice.
“We are on the trail of those who have done that, some in Abuja, some in Lagos and we will bring them to Kaduna and charge them for hate speeches and we will not politicise it, because the protection of lives and property should never be politicized.”
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