In what looks like a pre-announcement to an epic political battle ahead in Kaduna State, Bashir El-Rufai has accused the State governor, Uba Sani, of shying away from his responsibility by always staying away from the state and hibernating in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

Bashir, who is a son of the immediate-past governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, also accused Governor Sani, who is a friend of his father, of surrounding himself with a retinue of incompetent aides appointed for political patronage.

Bashir said that instead of admitting its incompetence, the Uba Sani administration has resorted to deflect by raising alarm on a debt burden inherited from Governor El-Rufai administration.

LEADERSHIP reports that Governor Sani earlier on Saturday at a Town Hall Meeting in Kaduna, said he inherited a huge debt burden of $587m, N85bn and 115 contractual liabilities from the El-Rufai administration, making it difficult for him to pay workers’ salaries.

But, in an apparent response to the claim of the Kaduna State government via a series of tweets on his X handle (formerly Twitter) shortly after, Bashir El-Rufai berated Governor Sani and his team, accusing them of incompetence, contract inflation and Forex speculation, wondering why they were giving debt burden as an excuse for their poor performance.

The younger El-Rufai wrote: “These guys have realised that they are wholly incompetent and the only way to mask the nonsense is to deflect. From a Governor that is always sleeping in Abuja to a litany of incompetent aides that were only rewarded for foolish political reasons.”

On the debt profile of the State, he responded: “FYI: He was the Senator from Kaduna who lobbied & approved the loans.”

It will be recalled that Governor Sani was Kaduna Central Senator in the 9th Senate before his emergence as the state governor in the 2023 elections.

Bashir further tweeted, “One would think that from all the FAAC allocations these unserious clowns have changed to dollars, debt would be the least of their problems.

“The current administration in Kaduna is building a banquet hall for 7BN naira and is lamenting about debt left by the previous administration.”