The Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has replied the representative of Bayelsa East Senatorial District, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, in continuation of their face-off over who should get the credit for the rail modernisation project in the country.
The face-off between the two men, on Twitter, started on Friday when Murray-Bruce asked President Muhammadu Buhari to give credit to former President Goodluck Jonathan for the project.
This was based on the train ride President Buhari took from Abuja to Kaduna, where he commissioned new coaches.
He tweeted: “I hope President @MBuhari remembers to say thank you to former President @GEJonathan for the train ride he enjoyed in Kaduna. Some of us haven’t forgotten that that achievement was ENTIRELY the handiwork of the Jonathan government. Nigeria should give honour to whom honour is due.”
Reacting to the tweet, also on his Twitter handle, el-Rufai faulted the position of the senator.
He said instead of giving credit to Jonathan, he should rather be blamed for stalling the project for almost two years alongside his former boss and President, late Umaru Yar’Adua.
He said the credit should go to the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, of which Jonathan was not part of, for initiating the project.
He tweeted: “Wrong Distinguished Senator! The Obasanjo administration which Jonathan was not part of, designed, raised the financing and started the EPC of the Lagos-Kano dual track-standard gauge rail system, and the Abuja Light Rail. Yar’Adua-Jonathan stalled both projects for two years!”
But in a reply to el-Rufai, a member of the All Progressives Congress, Murray-Bruce, who is of the Peoples Democratic Party, said the governor’s response was based on his dislike for Yar’adua.
He tweeted: “Your dislike of the late Yar’adua may have clouded your judgment. I made no mention of the ‘Abuja light railway’. My tweet referred to the Abuja-Kaduna railway which IS a product of the Jonathan administration. I am happy to publicly debate this with you.”
Reacting to Murray-Bruce on Saturday, el-Rufai, who served in the PDP government of Obasanjo, tweeted: “There is nothing to debate. Facts cannot be debated. Opinions are free. While the Obasanjo administration was conceiving the rail modernization programme, Sen Ben-Bruce was organizing beauty contests and Jonathan was a deputy governor. I am not cluelessly common-sensical!”