Dear Mallam Nasir El-Rufai,
Season’s greetings to you, your excellency.
Sir, as a former minister of the federal capital territory and governor of a multi religious and multi ethnic Kaduna state, you are a statesman.
And therefore, you should act as one in all situations either favourable where you are in government or unfavourable where you are out of government.
Mallam, I wonder if you read the post you shared on what the writer called marginalization of the northern Muslims by the present administration and hold responsible the administration for the underdevelopment, poverty and insecurity in the north.
I hope you did not read it before sharing it but I can only hope, I don’t think that given your past utterances and actions and inactions, you did not read it.
If wishes were horses…
Mallam, the writer whose thought you shared cunningly picked some northern Muslims including yourself as people who this government is persecuting.
The writer also mentioned the tussle over the seat of the Emir of Kano. Tinubu was never a governor in Kano state.
He said that the first lady usually visit and make donation to certain part of the north but not the Muslim dominated areas in the zone but when Seyi Tinubu donated during Ramadan , he did not include it in his write up. He did not say that same northerners said that after making their people poor, he was giving them peanuts.
As a little boy, I used to count on my fingers the number of leaders Nigeria has had back then, and in my little innocent mind, I used to wonder why it was largely a section of the country that was producing leaders (civilian and military).
I would remember Tafawa Balewa as the first and only prime minister between 1957 to 1966. Yes, many people did not know that Balewa became Nigeria prime minister before independence. He was called Chief Minister.
That was nine years.
Between January and July, 1966, a southerner, Aguiyi Ironsi ruled as a military leader.
That was six months.
Yakubu Gowon, yes a Christian but a northerner ruled between 1966 and 1975.
Another nine years.
Then another northerner, a Muslim, Murtala Mohammed ruled between July 1975 and February 1976 when he was assassinated in a failed coup.
He ruled for almost 7 months.
Then a southern Christian, Olusegun Obasanjo took over and ruled for three years.
Obasanjo handed over to a northern Muslim, Shehu Shagari.
Shehu Shagari was in charge between 1979 and 1983.
(Then as I grew up, the trend continued.)
That was four years when a northern Muslim, Muhammadu Buhari overthrew his government.
Between 1983 and 1985, Buhari was in charge.
Ibrahim Babangida, a northern Muslim overthrew him in a palace coup and IBB was the military president between 1985 and 1993 when he reluctantly left office after annuling the first presidential election won by a southerner, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Olanbiwoninu Abiola.
So Babangida ruled for eight years.
He handed over to Ernest Shonekan’s interim government as a mere placeholder for his friend, Sani Abacha.
Shonekan’s government was from August to November 1993.
That was three months when Abacha who was fh minister of defence made him resign and announced himself as the new Nigerian leader.
Sani Abacha was another northern Muslim.
He ruled between 1993 and 1998. So he ruled for five years.
Abdusalami Abubakar, a northern Muslim succeeded him after he had died in office in July, 1998 and he was the leader until May 29, 1999.
That was about ten months.
Olusegun Obasanjo came this time as a civilian president and from 1999 and 2007, he was the leader.
That was eight years.
He was succeeded by Umaru Musa Yar’adua who was president from May 2007 and May 2010.
That was three years.
Goodluck Jonathan, a southern man, Christian ruled after him between May 2010 and May 2015.
He served for five years.
Muhammadu Buhari came back as a civilian president and he served for eight years from 2015 to 2023.
On May 29, 2023, Bola Ahmed Tinubu became president. He is the first southern Muslim to lead the country after Abiola’s election was annuled.
Tinubu has been in charge for two years seven months.
Now, since we started self governance in 1957, northerners have ruled for 49 years and only one of them was a Christian (this became imperative as your writer did not only try to use ethnicity but religion as well).
It therefore means that while northerners have ruled for 49 years, southerners have ruled for 19 years as follows: Aguiyi Ironsi – 6 months; Olusegun Obasanjo – 3 years as military leader and 8 years as civilian president; Ernest Shonekan – 3 months; Jonathan – 5 years and Tinubu 2 years and 7 months (still in office).
Mallam, how do you then hold a two year old government responsible for the high level of poverty, illiteracy, economic retardation and insecurity in the north simply because the leader of that government is not another northern Muslim?
Your writer even blamed Tinubu for infrastructural decay in the north as if the south is better.
He cunningly quoted the Lagos -Calabar coastal highway but neglected the ongoing Sokoto-Badagry highway.
He said that Tinubu has stopped trade between the north and Niger Republic while business thrive in the south but on March 14, 2024, the Tinubu government opened land and air borders with Niger Republic and lifted other sanctions against that country’s military junta.
( https://statehouse.gov.ng/nigeria-opens-land-and-air-borders-with-republic-of-niger-lift-other-sanctions/ )
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, it is also not true that this administration is witch hunting northern Muslims, the administration is after thieves no matter their religion and ethnicity.
Emefiele has forfeited some of the properties he acquired through corruption and he is neither a northerner nor a Muslim. How you and your writer forgot that is a mystery.
Fayose is not in custody but is Yahaya Bello in custody or is Kogi no longer a northern state and Yahaya Bello no longer a Muslim?
Is Tambuwal still in custody?
Or is he a southerner and a bishop too?
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, those appointed to offices you and the writer think that should be reserved for northern Muslims are Nigerians too.
Let us therefore not cause unnecessary tension among the people because of politics and the struggle to get back to public office at whatever cost.
God bless you.
God bless the President.
God bless the good people of Nigeria.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Adeniran wrioes from Jabi, Abuja
