In the past few days, there have been a lot of brooding and civilian sabre-rattling over a video clip in which my friend – the outgone governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El Rufai, is seen addressing an audience of a supposedly Muslim Imams and Ulamas. Among other things in the now viral clip, he unambiguously said: one, that the 2023 elections were a referendum between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. “If anything”, the former governor said, “they (the elections) have demonstrated to Christians – especially the presidential candidate of the Labour Party – Mr Peter Obi, that in politics, they could only become what we (the Muslims) want them to become.” Two, that during the gubernatorial campaigns in Kaduna State, Christians asked him questions about inclusion and he replied them saying his concern is about capacity and not religious identity “even though”, he added, “I know it is about religion. But you know I won’t tell them that.” Three, that Professor Akintola (undoubtedly of MURIC) had approached him on how Muslims in the south are being marginalized. Hence, the need to author a Muslim – Muslim ticket at the national level as was first experimented in Kaduna State to prove a point. He therefore concluded by saying the same -faith ticket in Kaduna State will continue until its 20th anniversary so that the non – Muslims could be taught a lesson. All say Amen!
After watching the video, I tarried for days to see if there will be any reaction by our elders and senior brothers in the APC from Southern Kaduna, the leading opposition political party – the PDP, Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, Muslim groups or individual statesmen from across board. But not unexpectedly, and understandably, everybody seems to be only whispering in the dark for obvious reasons. Yet, it behoves on some of us who have no Honourable prefixed to our names; and as quasi members of the Nigerian theological school of thought, to always diagnose the issues for the understanding of our people and in our resolve to build an egalitarian society irrespective of whose ox is gored.
Though tons of the usually gullible northerners may see the El Rufai outing as an act of bravado, watching the video, I felt relieved that not even the governor- elect appeared happy or approving of the accidental public servant’s diatribe. But should there be any cause for alarm? Should Christians or anybody for that matter, hide under the table in fear? Has the video clip revealed anything strange or unusual as evidence for the alleged Islamization agenda that has now become a cliché? Certainly none of the above. Yes, none of the above.
To my mind, there are just two things: Firstly, by telling the world how he, in the last eight years, deliberately excluded his fellow APC members from being part of government on the ground that they are not of his religion, he has indirectly given them the brief with which to approach both Governor Uba Sani and our dear President Bola Tinubu for restitution. At least, the governor said, throughout his regime, except for the first four years that the late Architect Bala Bantex was deputy governor, the position of deputy governor, Secretary to the State Government, Chief Of Staff and Commissioner of Finance have been Muslims. Obviously missing in the list are the two ministerial slots given to the state among many federal appointments. And, rather than taking part in this needless intifada, there is no better time than now to reach out to Mr President for a balance especially as he prepares to appoint ministers, security chiefs, special advisers and heads of agencies and parastatals to work with. At a time that most parts of the country cry marginalization based on identify, both Governor Uba Sani and President Tinubu must be seen to be leaders for all. By so doing, they will be laying a solid foundation not only for continuity in 2027, but also providing the oxygen for the survival of a now highly divided Nigeria.
Secondly, the El Rufai clip has nothing to do with the promotion of any religion against another. It is rather about the manipulation of religion. It can in clear terms be called the economics of survival aimed at endearing himself to both his faith constituency and to Mr President. And this is neither peculiar nor restricted to him. Recall in an article I took on the outgone Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, I said: “Like other conflict entrepreneurs, the governor who tactically defied party allegiance has suddenly transmuted into a sort of defensor populi by creating a narrative that casts him as an ethno-religious knight in defence of his people against a Buhari-led federal government that appears tolerant and even supportive of the killer-herdsmen with whom the president shares a tribe and a religion.”
“Ortom, I am sure”, I continued, “is not unaware of how religion and ethnicity have been used in purchase of legitimacy in other states by his fellow politicians over the years. He may have seen how former Governor Ahmed Sani Yerima used what Obasanjo referred to as ‘political Sharia’ to source for legitimacy in Zamfara State. Sam Omatseye put it well when he said: ‘Ortom is wagging the dog’s tail. He has been an abysmal failure as governor, owing about a year in salaries and presiding over Makurdi that still looks only a little better than a village in the 1980’s . The herdsmen crisis is an opportunity to ride to a second term. It is a boon for him from the enemy’.”
“Yes”, I submitted, “Governor Ortom knows very well that with so much killings by the so much criminalized Fulanis in the middle belt presented as being in a mission of Islamization with a stamp of approval from the president himself, it will pay to ply through a road tarred with both religious and ethnic sentiments to cover up for his sins and then regain the confidence and trust of Benuelites in view of 2019. And this is exactly what politicians especially from the north have been doing thereby producing the bricks that laid the foundation of a region built on religious and ethnic distrust. This is why the north is more of a religion than a region.”
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“But those who are involved in this outmoded game of manipulating religious, ethnic and sectional sentiments in order to gain or retain power”, says Prof. Steve Nkom, “are doing a great disservice to all.” By the way, what has this tyranny of numbers translated into? Are Moslems today buying from different filling stations from the rest of us? Or has this triumphalism changed the facts that Northern Nigeria is the poverty headquarters of the country; with close to 15 million children on the streets; and as the only bakery feeding the rest of the country with loaves of violence? Has it changed the fact that the almajiris are still on the streets, and that it is the region with the highest number of the uneducated, lepers cum large orphanages and graveyards littered all around?
But since the elections were a referendum, and that Cross Rivers, Rivers, Benue, Plateau, Edo, Imo, Ebonyi, Delta, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Gombe, Lagos, and Southern Kaduna among others, that gave Mr President about half of the 8.9 million votes he won with, are also Muslims, in the referendum, did His Excellency recall to include the votes from ISWAP, Boko Haram, Bandits and Kidnappers since they also worship like us and are ours?
Finally, I will want to end by reiterating the eternal words of our indefatigable Bishop Kukah to our dear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Uba Sani, when at the funeral of Governor Patrick Yakowa he said: “The world looks up to you never to be tempted by the whispers of the wicked whose devilish and selfish hold on power has held our society down. Do not be tempted to think that the Muslims have taken what the wicked have presented as a prize for only Muslims. You have taken over the steering wheel and must obey and respect all road signs so that we can arrive at the destination that we have set for ourselves. “
“Let us reverse the divisive, ugly and pernicious past which was constructed by men who had the hearts of apartheid. By pursuing the politics of exclusion, these men and women merely destroyed both the noble Faith of Islam and the North that its founders dreamt of. I want to assure you … that the monopoly of power by one section or even one gender or generation denies our people a future. This is what South Africa realized. It is what the Americans have also realized.”
Surely, that video clip was embarrassing and shameful largely because it emanates from a supposedly educated, cosmopolitan and well- exposed Malam Nasir El Rufai. And for the fact that it is meant for a mourning community who, until now, are still conducting mass burials of their loved ones and paying taxes to kidnappers, he must retract those words if History and posterity are to judge him kindly. And may God save our country from the traps of more collapse.
•Damina wrote from Kaduna and can be reached via francisdamina@gmail.com
