Kaduna state House of Assembly has rejected the nomination of Aliyu Ja’afaru Abubakar for appointment as commissioner for allegedly criticising governor Nasir El-Rufai’s policies in the social media.
Abubakar was among those recently nominated by the governor for appointment as commissioners.
Abubukar alongside other nominees appeared before the house on Thursday for screening and confirmation.
But while other nominees were cleared and confirmed, Abubakar, was rejected for allegedly criticising el-Rufai‘s policies, especially in the education sector on his Facebook page.
Aminu Shagali, the Speaker of the house who presided over the sitting had asked the nominee why he wanted to serve in a government that he attacks its policies.
“You criticise the same administration who is about to employ you now in one of your posts on Facebook.
”You said there’s nothing good about the education policy & attacked the Governor.
”The Governor still chose you based on your merits, your CV was chosen among about ten CVs presented to the Governor, do you think it’s honourable to accept this nomination?
“To work for an administration whom you think is a bad one?” the speaker had asked.
The speaker noted that since 2017, Abubakar had been criticising the education policy of the governor, which according to him, is one of the best.
The speaker who quoted some of the Facebook posts of the nominee said: ”In your face book account, you said there is nothing like making Kaduna state great again, it is a deceptive clinch used by politicians to deceive the masses, we will make Kaduna great at appropriate time.
“You said it is a responsibility for those who are truly sincere not for those who are inherently sarcastic. You also said El-Rufai must learn to tackle issues with human face. You said you are an advocate of change that goes to the root and cause (of a problem) not only the symptoms.
“You also said in the same post: stop comparing me with El-Rufai who thinks he is more intelligent than intelligence itself.
“You however said you are a humble human being that believes that all that glitters is not gold there is nothing authoritarian in insisting on the truth and never speak truth,
“You also said that you ‘detest insincerity as there are better ways of genuinely solving problems”.
Abubakar who was visibly dumbfounded when confronted with the questions was barely given time to defend himself and was unanimously rejected by the house.
In an interview with journalists shortly after the plenary session, Chairman House committee on media and public affairs, Tanimu Musa, said Abubakar’s nomination was rejected because he criticised the el-Rufai administration.
“The evil that men do lives even after them, Jaafaru has been a critic of this administration on social media
”The nominee has been criticising the government, so why did he want to work with the government you have been criticising before,” Musa said.
The speaker also announced that the Deputy Governor Hajiya Hadiza Balarabe would serve as the acting commissioner of Health pending the appointment of a substantive commissioner.
