By Segun Ayobolu
After what must have, for him, been a memorable spell on the stage of public prominence as Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and later Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Malam Nasir el’Rufai went on to serve as governor of Kaduna State for eight years between 2015 and 2023. Those years would easily rank among the most troubled, violence-ridden, blood-suffused, intolerant and intemperate in the history of the State.
Having been continually in the public eye as an occupant of various high offices for an unbroken period of no less than two decades, power has understandably become addictive for Nasir. Just out of public office for the two and a half years of the Tinubu administration, el’Rufai’s constitution is evidently still being wracked by tormenting withdrawal symptoms. He is bitter. He feels slighted. ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’, intoned the bard.
Perhaps what irked the closet Ayatollah most was the manner of his seemingly ignominious exclusion from the present club of APC ministerial power elite. President Tinubu had nominated him for a ministerial appointment. He accepted. This was a Tinubu he had openly denigrated, insolently insulted and conspiratorially undermined. But he accepted to be a minister in his government. Power addiction.
His name was forwarded to the Senate along with others for legislative confirmation. The Senators would most likely have given him the nod. But no, the security report said. Ayatollah was unfit for public office. And his bosom friend and fellow Fulani, Nuhu Ribadu, was NSA? He was dropped. The cut ran deep. The wound still bleeds. On television show circuits. In vitriolic outbursts on the Hausa Service of the BBC. In incendiary newspaper interviews. Then there were rumours of an alleged foiled coup attempt. Inexplicably, Ayatollah laid low for some time. Gradually he is regaining his mojo.
This week, Nasir shared on his Facebook page an article by one Mohammed Bello Doka titled, ‘Is Tinubu waging a quiet war on the Muslim North – Or is it all a coincidence?’ It was an inflammatory piece deliberately designed to instigate the Muslim North against the Tinubu administration and draw a wedge between northern Christians and Muslims. Some language experts who have dissected the purported Bello Doka piece insist that the voice is that of Jacob but the hand, that of Esau.
They insist that the caustic style and belligerent temper is that of Ayatollah. The fear of treasonable felony is surely the beginning of wisdom. Thus, Ayatollah ‘s pseudonymous retreat. Thank God, there are limits to reckless hubris, even for our fearless stormy petrel.
Here, the opening of the piece shared by el’Rufai: “Two years after President Bola Tinubu rose to power on the back of a controversial Muslim-Muslim ticket, a growing unease is spreading across Northern Nigeria. The same region that absorbed political fire, international criticism, and domestic outrage to deliver victory in 2023 is now asking an uncomfortable question: has the pact been broken?”.
The article continues, “One after another, key Muslim Northern figures exited strategic positions – party leadership, defence, security oversight – often replaced by Northern Christians, Middle Belt figures, or Southern allies”.
First, no single region can solely produce the President of Nigeria. The constitution has been deliberately crafted in such a manner that the winner in a presidential election must have not just the highest number of votes but must score no less than 25% of the votes cast in each of at least no less than two-thirds of the 36 states and the FCT. He must have a pan- Nigeria spread of votes. True, the Muslim North played a critical role in President Tinubu’s 2023 electoral victory.
But then Alhaji Atiku Abubakar ‘s Northern strategy also worked considerably. The Waziri Adamawa and PDP candidate won in the core Northern states of Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi, Sokoto, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe, Jigawa, Kebbi and Taraba states. However, Tinubu won in Borno, Jigawa and Zamfara States in the core North while also winning in Kogi, Niger and Kwara in the North Central. To the credit of the far North, even where Tinubu did not win, he came a close second and hauled a substantially higher number of votes in Kano, where Rabiu Kwankwanso won, than Atiku did. All these were critical factors in Tinubu’s electoral triumph and I am unaware that anyone in Tinubu’s camp denies this.
But the obverse side of the coin is that until Tinubu teamed up with Buhari in 2015, the latter’s consistent haul of over 12 million votes did not give him victory in three successive elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011. It was the additional votes of the Southwest in 2015 that gave Buhari the pan- Nigeria support he needed to win a national victory and this was repeated in 2019.
In the latter part of the piece under consideration, the writer claims that “Southern voices declare openly that Muslim Northern votes are no longer decisive. Some cheer Northern discontent as politically irrelevant. Others openly frame 2027 as a Southern consolidation project”. This is sheer mischievous propaganda to pitch the far North against Tinubu and the South. The writer mentions no known names making such assertions. He attributes no sources except the feral jungle known as social media. In any case, did el’Rufai not do a well publicized memo to President Buhari insisting that the contributions of Tinubu and the Southwest to his electoral victory was grossly exaggerated?
The article shared by el’Rufai claims that President Tinubu is removing ‘key Muslim Northern figures’ from ‘strategic positions’ and replacing them with ‘Northern Christians, Middle Belt figures or Southern allies’. The insinuation here is that an anti-Northern Muslim agenda is at play. Nothing could be more dishonest and mischievous. He cites as an example the National Chairmanship of the APC where Alhaji Umar Ganduje has been replaced by Professor Nentawe Yilwatda from Plateau State.
But was religion the issue here? The position of National Chairman had long been zoned to the North -Central. Thus, when Ganduje from the Northwest replaced Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu from Nasarawa State in the North Central in 2023, there were sustained protests from the latter zone that this perceived injustice be redressed. This has been done with the emergence of Yilwatda. Why does this irk Nasir?
Again, reference is made to the replacement of former Defence Minister, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, by General Christopher Musa, a Christian from Southern Kaduna in the Middle Belt. Is the issue here religion or competence and performance? If the buck stops at the table of the President and the blame for worsening insecurity ultimately rests on him, can he be blamed for appointing a Defence Minister he believes can achieve the desired results? Is Nasir questioning the competence of General Musa or is the problem with the highly regarded General’s faith?
In any case, why do the likes of el’Rufai accept Northern Christians as part of the North for population count and electoral purposes but are bitterly resentful when they are given key public office appointments, which are then described as an affront on the Muslim North?
Again, the Mohammed Dikko piece shared by el’Rufai gives the impression that the insecurity and violence in the North started in the last two years under Tinubu. According to the writer, “Villages are emptied. Farms abandoned. Schools shut. Entire communities negotiating their survival with armed groups. In some states, local governments barely function beyond state capitals. Yet critics increasingly point to what they describe as a lukewarm presidential posture towards Northern insecurity…A single road project in Lagos is measured in trillions of Naira. The combined security votes of all 19 Northern governors do not approach that figure”.
This is brazen incitement predicated on falsehood that should ordinarily attract the attention of the security agencies both to the writer and the publicist because of the latter’s prominent position in society. In the first place, insecurity in the North can be traced to the extra-judicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram, while in police custody in 2009 and has steadily worsened since under successive governments.
Under Tinubu, funding for the military has increased substantially and onslaughts against terrorists and bandits have been intensified especially through precision airstrikes. Scores of well known notorious bandits’ leaders and hundreds of their fighters have been eliminated and this onslaught continues.
Again, several governors have publicly stated that under Tinubu, allocation to states from the Federation Account has more than tripled. State governors including those from the North thus have considerable much more to spend on security to reinforce the significantly increased budgetary allocation to defence at the centre. The statement that ‘A single road project in Lagos is measured in trillions of Naira’ is preposterous blackmail. Nasir should be challenged to name one such road or else apologize for sharing false information.
The Lagos -Calabar Coastal Highway, for instance, is planned to physically connect the western and south -eastern regions of Nigeria and passes through through 9 states – Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom States and ending in Calabar, Cross River State. The Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway extends from Sokoto through Kebbi, Niger and adjoining States and ultimately linking the Lagos -Calabar Coastal Road. Where does religion come in here except for those with a terroristic Ayatollah mindset like we know who?
It is most laughable that Nasir can summon the temerity to share an article which states that “Equally troubling to many Northerners is the continued reliance on the same political middlemen to negotiate with bandits – negotiations that often end with cash payments, concessions and temporary…Who benefits? Does this approach pacify violence or institutionalize it?”. Luckily, we do not have to go too far for a response to Nasir. Let us resort to the ubiquitous internet which never sleeps or forgets.
According to Wikipedia, “In December 2016, in an open interview the Kaduna State governor, Nasir Ahmed Musa el-Rufai, confessed to paying some Fulanis across the Sahel countries like Niger, Mali, Chad, Senegal and Cameroon, to stop killing Southern Kaduna indigenous due to grievances erupting from the killing of their cattles in the 2011 post election crisis in the state…In response to the above, the sitting senator representing Kaduna South Senatorial District, Danjuma Laah, said there was never a time in 2011 that Fulanis in those Sahel countries mentioned by the governor were killed with their cattle in the Southern Kaduna as the area is not a converging point for those countries and called el-Rufai ‘s claim a lie.
“According to the Senator, “The Governor just invented this lie to make excuse for his imported murderous Fulani kindred to continue their extermination of our people and the occupation of our lands.”…In April 2021, el-Rufai made a turn-around and said anyone caught negotiating with bandits would be severely dealt with”.
