Perhaps to his own surprise, former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, has been in detention for more than a week, and the sky has yet to fall. From the unsolicited update given by his media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye, it seems he has been dealt with a fraction of the violations of legal processes ordinary Nigerians are regularly subjected to at the hands of constituted authorities. They have searched his house, an application for bail was rejected, and the mystique he has sought to project by taking on the presidency has been severely whittled. How did that happen to someone especially gifted at thrusting himself forward and snagging the national limelight?
For a man who manages to maintain social relevance by making incendiary claims when he is not close to political power, he seemed to have overestimated how well his old tricks would serve his politics this time. After having had too much to eat, he wrote a public letter to the Office of the NSA claiming he sought “clarification and reassurance” regarding reports “available to political opposition leadership” that the government had obtained thallium sulphate (a highly toxic and tightly regulated substance) from Poland. Now, I do not know for a fact whether the NSA obtained such a substance, but I can read between the lines of El-Rufai’s mischief to ask: why will the NSA go through the trouble of eliminating political opponents when they have almost succeeded in buying them over, and far more cheaply too? You see, El-Rufai’s miscalculation is what happens when you rely on the same set of gimmicks all the time and fail to improvise to meet the changing dynamics.
This was the same guy who, along with some others, reportedly created the fictitious “cabal” around ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua. They sold the story of how the shadowy cabal, led by his wife, Turai, had hijacked the man in his vulnerable state and whipped the whole nation into a frenzy. “Cabal” became a buzzword that year, only for us to later learn that El-Rufai and others created the story to weaken the first lady’s moral position in public. Years later, in a leaked audio, El-Rufai reportedly accused Yar’adua of wanting to kill him, saying, “You know, there were plans to inject me with a combination of Hepatitis and HIV if I returned to Nigeria. This is what I heard. I don’t know whether it is true or not true. But the fact that I am alive and he is dead, I should be grateful to God. Everyone has his own fate and destiny.”
Under Dr Goodluck Jonathan, the same El-Rufai alleged that he was the seventh on a “hit list” of targets to be executed by snipers. If we do not know his penchant for mischief, one would be forgiven for imagining he suffers delusion complex. Who are you that presidents serially want you dead?! Again, that “sniper” accusation was another story that gained traction and perhaps contributed to the animosity towards Jonathan. When you look at the pattern of his allegations, you will see that the only presidency that has not tried to kill El-Rufai since 1999 is the one that has either given him lush political appointments or the one under whom he held a profitable elective position. When he sits at the table of power, he has little to bellyache about. When they do not reckon with him, he becomes an emergency social activist. There was an exception, though. While he was governor, he wrote a memo to Muhammadu Buhari, highlighting all the failures of his administration. Reminding a failed president of his mandate would have been considered noble; typical of El Rufai, he used it to draw attention to himself. He—although he denies it—leaked the memo to the press just so he could play the good guy. He could already see the Buhari political force waning, and that memo was his way of creating an alibi for the day he would need to distance himself from Buhari’s failures.
Do not be fooled by the reason he gave for seeking information regarding the Thallium Sulphate; El-Rufai does not believe in public safety, democratic accountability, or maintaining public trust. When he was challenged on his allocation of plots of land to his family while he was FCT minister, nothing in his arrogant response suggested he cared for either democratic accountability or public trust. Where was “public safety” when he boasted about sending election observers back in “body bags”? Where was “democratic accountability” when he was dismissive of the Shiites’ massacre that happened under his watch?
All these years, he remained mute about the fate of Abubakar Idris Dadiyata, leaving it to his sons to post cryptic messages on social media. El-Rufai only deemed it fit to respond now that he needs to score political points. He is not the first Muslim governor of Kaduna state, but his anti-Christian bigotry was legendary. He is probably the first governor to admit on television that he has been paying kidnappers. It was that same self-assurance, that arrogance, that lack of regard for public sensibilities that drove him to go on television and boldly claim to have conspired to tap the NSA’s phone and listen to private or official communications. It is quite possible he was not telling the truth, but he walked into his own trap.
Does the Federal Government have a serious case against him regarding his claims of wiretapping? I do not honestly think so. They probably know he was merely bluffing when he claimed he listened to the NSA’s conversations, but they will keep him long enough to incapacitate him so he will pose no serious threat to their 2027 ambition. By the time they are done with him, he will not only be politically diminished but also financially crippled. Do not be surprised if he does a Reno Omokri 180 and goes to prostrate before the president in Aso Rock.
His present travails should—and will—be filed under the long list of human rights violations of which the present administration is guilty, but the truth is that I received the news with the same indifference as I did the report of ex-Attorney General, Malami Abubakar, who had also alleged that he was a victim of administrative high-handedness. This is not because I support abuse of political power, but their fate is not a lesson for regular Nigerians who already know, from experience, what an abusive government can do. If you have been one of the routine victims of this repressive government, El Rufai’s situation has nothing to teach you. The lesson is for him and his fellow politicians who routinely abuse power and privileges while serving in the government, only to become victims of their own serial violations once they are on the other side.
El-Rufai’s current situation is a parable of how the pendulum of power swings in Nigeria, and why we should all insist on due process, because one just never knows. Vice President Atiku Abubakar warned the FG that they would be held accountable if any harm came to El-Rufai in custody. A better piece of advice is that El Rufai had better stay alive because, if anything happens to him, he will not be a martyr as Atiku imagines. There will be no consequences, just as he, too, has not been accountable for what happened to Dadiyata under his watch.
