By Emeka Okafor
Late former Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Barnabas Yusuf Bala (Bantex), wrote resignation letter three times, Governor Nasir El-Rufai has disclosed.
Bantex died two weeks ago to an undisclosed ailment.
El-Rufai speaking on his relationship with Bantex, who served as deputy during his first term as Kaduna governor, said he declined to accept Bantex’s resignation on three occasion to pacify his people from Southern Kaduna.
He said he never had any disagreement with his former late deputy governor aside refusing his request to resign from the government.
The governor spoke on Thursday during a valedictory session by Kaduna State Executive Council held at the Government House, Kaduna.
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According to him, he and Bantex never argued, nor had quarrel with him between 2015 and 2019 he served as Kaduna deputy governor.
“The only disagreement we ever had, had to do with his offer, not once but three times to resign his office as deputy governor. Thrice I rejected.
“He offered to resign because he felt that the open hostility of some leaders, groups and associations from his senatorial district will be reduced if he resigned and if I conceded to such persons the right to nominate his replacement.”
“I assured Bantex that under no circumstance will any person or group dictate who I work with as deputy governor. I appealed to him to stay and he agreed. I am very grateful to him for that,” he revealed.
El-Rufai also described the deceased as a good man whose emergence made the office of the deputy governor of Kaduna State the most powerful of such office in Nigeria.
He further said that such was the esteem in which Bantex was held that he was the only deputy governor to be part of the President’s entourage to the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
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“The greatest tribute to Bantex for us as a government is how his election as deputy governor of this State has made the office the most powerful of any State in the country.
“Our deputy governors in Kaduna State are not spare tyres. He acted as State Governor, leading with integrity and chairing our State Executive Council so many times when I was out of the country,” he said.
“As a former local government chairman, he was an authority on local government administration and responsible for the autonomy we granted all our LGAs from day one in 2015… he also convinced our cabinet to legislate on the presidential system of local government- a first in Kaduna State and one of the few states in Nigeria practising this system faithfully,” El-Rufai said.
