El-Rufai And The Evil That Men Do

By Agada Emoche

Out of office and desperate for relevance, Nasir El-Rufai has now found his voice and wants to be counted among social critics and the conscience of the nation. He has now put on his manipulative vest and wants to turn the general public, most especially the gullible ones among the predominantly Muslim North against the government of the day. He has done this for so long and always gets rewarded for this act of mischief.

The former governor of Kaduna State is not new to controversy. His public service record is an open book, and it has been from one controversy to the other. He was brought into government by H.E. Alh. Atiku Abubakar when he was the Vice President. El-Rufai was appointed the Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) during the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. At BPE, he sold the nation’s choicest assets to non-existing or incompetent organisations with no verifiable office address or trace. Others were companies hurriedly registered by friends and cronies for the sole purpose of taking over the management of these government companies. More than 20 years after this privatization and commercialization adventure midwifed by El-Rufai, none of the government institutions are doing well today. Most of them closed shops long ago. This alone should be an indictment on the capacity and foresight of an El-Rufai but for the fact that he lacks shame.

After their re-election in 2003, El-Rufai, a man gifted in manipulative skills, had done enough to warm his way into the heart of the President and earned himself the juicy portfolio of the Minister of the FCT. From the bitter experience the president had with his deputy in the run-up to the re-election, President Obasanjo was out to cut Atiku to size, and he turned to his protege in the person of El-Rufai to do the hatchet job. In his book, “The Accidental Public Servant”, El-Rufai described himself as the de facto Vice President during President Obasanjo’s second term and anything he wanted, he got. How shameless could a man be?

As FCT Minister, the little mallam was on a demolition spree. The outdated Abuja Master Plan, designed by the military, which was lacking in modernity, was his anchor. So many people were sent to their early graves as everything they laboured for in life was brought to rubbles overnight courtesy of El-Rufai’s bulldozers. Experts in urban planning volunteered to help and redesign the city in such a way that it would accommodate existing structures and create new sewage lines, highways and others, but El-Rufai will take none of that. The crying and wailing got to the high heavens, but El-Rufai was never touched by the pains of the people. Recovered lands later got re-allocated to friends and family members.

Before a government-owned shopping centre is demolished, a Mall or Plaza owned by a crony of the Minister would have sprang up in the neighborhood and when El-Rufai was confronted with these facts when he appeared before the Nigerian Senate, with a bold face, he told them to wait for their time and when they have such opportunity, they can allocate such places to their enemies. No remorse and no regret. Bolingo Hotels was marked for demolition. The owner was running from pillar to post looking for anyone within the corridors of power to help save his lifetime investment, and on one of those trips, he died in a plane crash.

That was the pain and agony the El-Rufai that’s now sensitive to the sufferings of Nigerians brought upon us. In late 2005 or thereabout, an incident took place at the IBB Golf Club in Abuja. The wife of one of the patrons of the club met El-Rufai and asked him to give his policies “a human face”. This innocuous advice incurred the wrath of the short man, and the management of the Gulf Club suspended the husband as El-Rufai promised never to patronize the Club again. This man is the image of wickedness and the poster boy of every evil in government judging by his records.

With the emergence of Umaru Musa Yaradua as president in 2007, El-Rufai went into a self-imposed exile in order not to give account of his stewardship as the FCT Minister. He equally knew it would be difficult to manipulate the Muslim North against a fellow Fulani man that has blue blood running through his veins. As Yaradua’s health deteriorated, El-Rufai began to position himself as a Jonathan strategist with the hope of being nominated as the Vice President but failed in his manipulative game. President Jonathan picked his fellow Kaduna brother, Arc. Namadi Sambo and from that moment, El-Rufai returned to the trenches and did everything humanly possible to discredit the Jonathan administration. In 2015, they succeeded in bringing President Jonathan down, and while General Mohammad Buhari became the President, El-Rufai took over as the governor of Kaduna, the Liberal State.

As governor of Kaduna, the State was no longer liberal. El-Rufai’s records are there in the public, and they are not so fantastic to recite. From mismanagement of funds to mishandling of security matters, religious intolerance and many more, El-Rufai was indeed an accidental and opportunistic public servant who sowed sorrow, tears and blood.

So even if the President Tinubu-led government is bad, El-Rufai is the least qualified person to point that out to us. A fundamentalist and religious bigot, El-Rufai left Kaduna in a deep mess after 8 years. His record of public service is that of a man in love with anti-masses policies, always intolerant to criticism and opposing views, and he hung the badge with pride and arrogance. With great disdain for the good people of Southern Kaduna, who are predominantly Christians, he promoted violence in their land by funding bandits in the guise of compensation. He deposed their kings, seized their lands and ostracized their communities. Today, El-Rufai want to be seen as the answer to Nigeria’s many problems. He needs to first go back and see how his predecessor, Governor Uba Sani, has accommodated everyone in a plural society like Kaduna State. That’s leadership 101.

President Tinubu is proving to be a stable hand regardless of what El-Rufai think or says. He has dealt with insecurity in the country with precision. Kidnapping for ransom has drastically reduced. Activities of bandits along the northern forests are at their lowest minimum in over a decade. Abuja-Kaduna highway is now accessible to motorists without the usual fear of kidnapping. The capacity of terrorists in the Northeast to hold a whole community hostage has been decimated, and they now only resort to guerilla tactics or “hit and run” to carry out any successful operation. The military is no longer playing politics with insecurity, and the bandits now know the true strength of our Armed Forces.

Nigerians are being made to be more responsible by paying for social services like electricity and good roads. We are not used to these as everything was free or cheap so the complain is much but should we continue on this path, things will get better. Unfortunately, when in government, El-Rufai is a proponent of these policies. He believes in high taxes and zero subsidies. But no one does it better if El-Rufai is not part of it.

The current state of the Abuja – Makurdi Expressway, where you now have to pay toll, is far better and cheaper than the previous state when there was no toll. It saves time, fuel and wear to our vehicles. The speed of work on the dualization of the Makurdi – Otukpo – Enugu Road should gladden the hearts of lovers of good things. It’s unlike a Nigerian road project where contractors will remain at one spot for a whole year. Many other roads were listed to be completed with toll gates before the end of the year, and I wish they can quickly add the Keffi-Nasarawa-Oweto-Otukpo Road and many others to this noble plan.

I don’t pray that Nigeria return to the old almajiri policies of government, and I don’t wish people like El-Rufai come near power again. I see Tinubu completing his 8 years and handing over to a more humane, pragmatic and people-conscious individual like Nuhu Ribadu. Like all of us, these men are not perfect, but they are far better than a million El-Rufais who have mastered the habit of weaponizing poverty and religion for their political gains.

Emoche wrote this piece from Abuja.

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