Kaduna State governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, has withdrawn the N176.4 billion 2013 budget proposal earlier submitted to the state assembly by the late Governor Patrick Yakowa who died in a helicopter crash in the Niger Delta on December 15, few days after presenting the budget.
Blank NEWS Online learnt that Governor Yero decided to withdraw the proposed budget after a close review of the Yakowa budget.
A government source in Kaduna state revealed that “The move has triggered another round of cold war between politicians across religious and ethnic lines in the already disunited state. “Those who were close to Yakowa are saying that Governor Yero is trying to rubbish his predecessor’s legacy and policies.”
It was also revealed that Yero’s request to the state legislature to allow him review some capital projects in the budget earlier submitted by Yakowa may have been due to pressure from some of his political associates, who had alleged that the former governor’s budgetary allocations were one-sided.
Another source disclosed that Yero’s plan to propose a new budget that fits his political interests and priorities, are as a result of his ambition to contest in the 2015 governorship election.
Recall that late Yakowa submitted the proposed budget, tagged “Budget of Consolidation and Advancement” with recurrent expenditure of N74,441,824,583 and capital expenditure of N102,038,518,425, totaling N176,480,343,008 two days before his death.
Mukhtar Ramalan Yero became Commissioner of Finance when Architect Mohammed Namadi Sambo (now Vice President of Nigeria) was elected governor in 2007 and was chosen as the Deputy Governor to Patrick Yakowa in 2010.
