Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai (the Governor of Kaduna State) And The Limits Of Deceit

I used to admire the man. Under OBJ he was saddled with the responsibility of restoring the Abuja master plan.  People in high-up places had distorted the plan by building in places meant for other purposes like areas reserved for parks, drainage pathways, roads, electrical grid networks, future rail lines, etc.

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El-Rufai’s bulldozers roared and turned edifices to rubble and we cheered.  He was hailed as a courageous no-nonsense achiever.  Little did we know that under that shining carapace lay a not so truthful under-belly.

He went to study abroad after his BPE stint where he and Vice President Atiku Abubakar superintended the sale of government-owned enterprises. That people allegedly allege sharp practices in that process whose openness is also alleged to be famous for its opacity is no longer news.

President Yar ‘Adua’s arrival at Aso Rock is said to have accelerated the offshore study that some folks allegedly regard as self-exile to avoid impending heat. Return only happened after President Jonathan, the dove took charge.

Carpet crossing under the any-where-belle-face doctrine is nothing new in Nigerian politics and today, the irascible El-Rufai is in the twilight of his gubernatorial second tenure under the change-promising but inertia-inducing, reverse gear-loving ruling party.

From that platform, he has been spewing a lot of contradictory hot air that sometimes, one has to go and research the things he said or wrote in the past and compare them with his current utterances and positions on the national political stage. Most times, they do not add up.

I had read the Accidental Public Servant with so much admiration at the time it was published, but I do hold suspect now, a lot that was said in that book in the light of current brinkmanship and subterfuge.

The recent Arewa House submissions by His Excellency, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, regarding the Presidential Candidate of the Labor Party, His Excellency Peter Obi, is symptomatic of the former’s style.

A style that is based on the faulty assumption that the rest of us, including the respected Arewa House audience, have blank memories and cannot discern falsehood from the truth. We remember. Nigerians can recognize a scam when they see one.

When it gets hazy these days, the internet comes to the rescue.  And in this case, where El Rufai accused Obi of arresting and detaining him for 48 hours during the Anambra State governorship bye-elections in 2013, the internet has copious video records of what transpired.

As is usual with the Kaduna State Governor, he told the stories himself and the video of him playing the oppressed is available on social media.  He accused the DSS and Abuja of the responsibility of curtailing his freedom of movement and even took the DSS to court and won some damages.  Google it and see for yourself.

Could it be that the DSS had intelligence that he was at Anambra to interfere with the elections that the underdog party, APGA, was going to win?  Only the DSS can tell.  But, wait a minute, did Peter Obi as Anambra Governor, control the DSS from Abuja?  Does El-Rufai as Kaduna State Governor control them now?

And did Peter Obi at any time go to Kaduna State during its own elections for whatever reasons?  Was El Rufai ‘more governor’ than Governor Peter Obi?  He said on video a few years ago that Abuja was responsible for his trouble and sued the agency concerned and got the remedy.  Peter Obi is running for Presidency now.

Polls show he is ahead of El-Rufai’s party’s candidate who knows he can turn a rotten situation to a bad one!  Now, suddenly in 2022, it is Obi that arrested you back then. Did you lie to the court on oath sir?  Haba!

It is worse than what he tried to do was set up Peter Obi for failure because the Labor Party Candidate was billed to meet the same audience after their disaster of an engagement.

The audience did not bite the bait as they could see through the smoke and subterfuge. I do not want to call them lies because of respect for such a high office.  Obi rose to the occasion and shone like a thousand stars.

I must commend those who asked very hard questions of the candidate too. They were as hard as they come and openly asked the questions the north would like answered. They never bordered with the inanities and untruths sold earlier.  Talk of focus on issues!

Was it also not a hallucination of sorts that a governor can boast of his possible use of DSS, the Police, and the Nigerian Army’s 1st Division to harass a political opponent?  No, not opponent because the equivalence does not exist.

El-Rufai is not running for president and in the Alumni Association called Ex Governors, he is not due to apply till the end of May 2023. He was actually talking of harassing his ‘senior’ and that is bad manners and runs counter to his claim of being civilized and calling the others savages.  A civilized man does proclaim so himself.

He should also know, by saying “we Northerners are civilized” he was fanning ethnic hatred for the others like Peter Obi. In that statement is an implied message that others are not civilized, including obviously, the man he was marketing.!  Did a wise sage not say that a tiger does not proclaim its tigritude?

Governor Wike was in Benin City during the 2020 Edo State Gubernatorial election.  He was restricted by the police from the same Abuja to his hotel room.  This was public knowledge too.

So, while such restrictions have to be interrogated judicially, it was wrong for a sitting governor who knows better and said so in 2013 to change the narrative for political gains in 2022.

Ambushing your guest, in your state, is in bad taste.  It was also instructive that at the end of his brilliant presentation and Q&A session, Obi did not need a supporting troupe to make a post-presentation case, unlike El-Rufai’s candidate. It is a guilty one whose lawyer makes a case for mitigation.  Is that not what the learned call allocutus? What do I know?

Just to let Nigerians remember too that our civilized governor was the first to ‘inaugurate’ and deploy the payment of ransom to bandits.  I am not making this up. He said so himself and Reno Omokri, oh yes, said so too on his Facebook wall as follows:

“Nigerians must never forget that Nasir El-Rufai introduced the practice of paying killer herdsmen. His current posturing, that he won’t pay ransom if his son is abducted, is just typical El-Rufai munafiq Taqiyya!”  10 April 2021.  Go and verify.

Did his Excellency realize that, with his threat to use the Army, DSS and the Police against a political opponent, he has just made a valid case against the much-desired State Police?

If he had those agencies under his direct control, would he have had any scruples deploying them against Peter Obi? That he did not was because of any claim to being civilized. It was because has is not the Commander in Chief!

It is becoming clear in this race to 2023, the supporters club can do a lot of damage with their antics and theatrics.  Candidates beware!  But, of course, there would be those who will not take heed either because they are ‘know it all’, ‘it is their turn’, or their unlimited dollars will paper all the cracks.

This coming election is going to be a decider on whether Nigeria goes from rotten to bad, or it moves from consumption to production.  From lies to truthfulness.

From disregard for the intelligence of Nigerians to respect for their wisdom to make informed choices.  It will decide whether Nigeria remains a laughing and laughable stock or takes its place as the real giant of Africa.  It is as simple as that. It is that important.

Lagos. 19th September 2022 – Austin Isikhuemen

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