18th February 2025, NewsOrient, Opinion, Column, News, Governance And Development
By Emeka Alex Duru

Watching Nigerian politicians sing from the other side of the mouth when they lose out in power game, can be interesting. In such moments, they are humbled. They momentarily shed their toga of arrogance and appear as patriots speaking for the people. Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, is currently in that state. Of late, he has been on the move, making comments and struggling to sell the impression of being concerned at the dangerous bent the country has been tilting to since the inauguration of the Bola Tinubu administration.

He has been quite unrelenting in his road and talk shows. But they are mere theatricals or as expressed in street lingo, “all na wash”.

El-Rufai is clearly on a vengeance mission, disguised as quest for good governance. Since he was bloodied by other hawks around Tinubu and pushed out of the administration he helped foist on Nigerians, he has been dazed and has not recovered from the shock.

You will not blame him for the delirium. In the lead up to the 2023 election, he was visible and vocal in his support for Tinubu. Any person or group he suspected as obstacle to the Tinubu presidency, was crumbled and trampled upon. He was that audacious that when the Central Bank under Godwin Emefiele, reading the lips of the then President Muhammadu Buhari announced date for the old Naira notes to cease as legal tender and Tinubu cried that the directive was part of the measures to stop him, El-Rufai, rose into action, made a broadcast, ordering Kaduna residents to disregard the order from the apex bank and continue using the currencies.

He did not spare Tinubu’s opponents. At a point, he dismissed the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi, as a Nollywood actor, who lacked the capacity to win elections. Christians, of course, did not matter in his calculation. In a forum with Muslim clerics in Kaduna, he made show of how he and his group facilitated the emergence of Tinubu as All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, majorly because he was a Muslim and how they insisted that Tinubu must pick a Muslim running mate. “Asiwaju (Tinubu) got the ticket. And when he got it, we knew he would have no option but to pick a Muslim as his Vice; if not, he would lose the election. Just as I said, politics is all about calculation, there is no room for maneuver”, he boasted.

Tinubu was of course declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and El-Rufai pranced about, looking forward to be handsomely rewarded. He was initially rumoured to be the likely Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). But that did not happen. To worsen matters, when he appeared before the Senate for ministerial screening, a letter alleging that he was under investigation by security agencies, surfaced and effectively put his appointment on hold. That marked the beginning of his unease.

Ever since, the former governor has been trying to play the good boy and be on the side of the masses. The other day, he was spotted in Abuja with Obi, 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and others, offering suggestions for strengthening democracy in the land. Ironically, that was same Obi that he wrote off as a paper weight! Same Atiku he has severally castigated as a spent force! Aside the Abuja outing, El-Rufai has on other occasions spoken against the absence of internal democracy in APC. If you then mistake these remarks for altruism, you will end up falling for his dummy.

The entire thing is a facade. Beneath the farcical posturing, is his trademark arrogance and assumption of prime importance in determining who gets what in the country. Such was the case in his recent remarks in which he directed a veiled warning to Tinubu to play ball with the North or forget reelection in 2027. “Love or loathe that fact, the north remains the kingmaker in Nigerian politics, at least, as of today. Any politician or political party that plays with that reality might pay a steep political price for it”, he boasted.

That is Nasir el-Rufai in his elements, a man of brief size with Olympian impression of significance. He enjoys the klieg lights. Controversy seems a second name for him. He courts it and revels in it, even at the cost of public good. He is never tired of playing games with important issues. To him, everything is politics; and politics is everything.

Recall that as a governor, he had, in flagrant disregard to the complex cultural and religious sensitivities of Kaduna, appointed a fellow Muslim, Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, as deputy and carried on as if it did not matter. He even encouraged his successor and protégé, Senator Uba Sani, to follow the odious step.

Recall also, when he threatened international election observers that they would be evacuated in body bags if they ventured into the country to monitor the 2019 presidential elections. Recall, again, when he claimed being asked to offer bribes by Senators during his screening for ministerial appointment, during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency but when pressed to provide evidence on his claims, he chickened out, saying God was his witness.

Once in this space, I had noted that the former governor acts the good boy, when it suits his agenda and hits hard when he has an interest to pursue. He has not deviated from that path. For him, scruples are matters of convenience to be observed when necessary but can be discarded, if need be. He is shrewd. And cold!

So, while he alleges rumours of his imminent arrest and torture in one of the offices of the National Security Adviser (NSA), the alert needs to be thoroughly interrogated. He could be right. Or wrong! To be sure, it would be a dangerous gamble to take away anything from the Tinubu administration, given the increasing desperation by its foot soldiers to silence any perceived voice of opposition to its lackluster leadership.

Nasir el-Rufai is a classic case of nemesis running full cycle. Some snigger that he is reaping from the odious seeds he had sown at various times. Others insinuate that he is the architect of his travails. One thing is however clear; he deserves the rights to air his views and the freedom to associate with who he chooses. The law permits him those rights as other citizens. But while he points out the obvious failings of the government, there is need to situate him, his message and of course, the missing links.

~ NewsOrient

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