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Tag: El Rufai

  • El Rufai, an iconoclast, now politically homeless

    El Rufai, an iconoclast, now politically homeless

    • By Sunday Olagunju

    Sir: As a former Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprise, FCT Minister and two term governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai hasn’t been a pawn in the chessboard of contemporary Nigerian politics. As an actor in the Nigerian politics, and political polemics, both his social stature and political antecedents have continued to expose his expertise and suspicion in equal measure.

    Known for brewing social misgivings and causing political storms, the former Kaduna State governor is today politically homeless, having fallen flat at gimmickry, a political game he knows and plays best. As a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) El Rufai without batting any eyelid, dumped the APC, a party he worked hard for, accusing the party’s bigwigs of denying him a ministerial appointment, having failed security screening by the Department of State Security (DSS).

    Though he appeared unruffled and unmoved as a result of the unfavourable security report, yet the former governor, indubitably, bore unimpeachable grudges against President Tinubu, an erstwhile ally and a pathological hatred for the APC as a political body. After the ministerial disappointment, he told the whole world about his retirement from politics: “Since 2013, I have hoped that my personal values and those of the APC will continue to align until I choose to retire from politics”.

    After a while, the former Kaduna political stormy petrel probably has a re-think to return to politics, and at his earliest convenience pitched his tent with the Social Democratic Party (SDP). But it didn’t take two long before he was accused of causing disaffection by his characteristic inordinate ambition to hijack the party from its original founders.

    El-Rufai’s defection from APC to SDP on March 10, was announced with characteristic fanfare, but the relief he was seeking was painfully shortlived. He was soon disowned by the Kaduna chapter of the SDP, branding him as a usurper and a political interloper. But unmindful of his demonstrable political misdemeanour, El Rufai immediately began frolicking with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), towards a blind coalition with the sole aim of unseating the president come 2027.

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    In a swift reaction in early August, the Kaduna chapter of ADC warned El Rufai to steer clear of the party, charging him with undue attempts to sway the locus of the party towards personal advantage. They accused El Rufai of trying to undermine the unity of the party based on his brazen yeoman actions and warned ADC members to be wary of Rufai’s imperceptible politics. Today, El Rufai’s gallivanting across political parties, searching for relevance and political homestead, has ironically ended in utter deficits.

    With the likes of El Rufai hopping around political parties, ostensibly to hatch their political ambitions, there is palpable danger on the horizon that in the absence of a clear-cut ideology and cherished values, the country’s political development will continue to be taken for granted. The sort of political macabre dance around political parties by the likes of El Rufai, who are hell-bent on hijacking any party to push their selfish political agenda for 2027, has called for an inevitable deepening of the otherwise fragile party system presently the vogue in the country. 

    More than ever before, party discipline and values must be further deepened and jealously guarded to stem the likely escapades by political do-gooders like El Rufai who are trying to reap where they have never sowed.

    But sadly for now, El Rufai, the political stormy petrel and iconoclast, is politically homeless and socially disillusioned.  

    •Sunday Olagunju,

    Ibadan, Oyo State

  • El Rufai: Stirring discord in Northern Nigeria

    El Rufai: Stirring discord in Northern Nigeria

    By Yunana Shibkau

    The unfolding political scenario in Nigeria with respect to Kaduna State and the need to promptly respond threw up these apt responses.

    On Sunday Politics (Channels Television), Nasir El-Rufai, the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, claimed that the federal government—via the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA)—was clandestinely paying bandits billions of naira to secure the release of kidnapped victims across northern states. He dismissed official responses as “fake, predictable hot air.”

    El Rufai labelled ONSA’s handling of terrorism and banditry a politicization of security and stressed that media narratives are being whitewashed to cover the true extent of insecurity in the country.

    If effective governance had been allowed to thrive as we all strive to sustain it in Nigeria, we wouldn’t have bother to raise a response or offer any criticism to the baselessness and emptiness of El Rufai’s puerile ranting, but that was not the case in the present dispensation, as the likes of El Rufai had constituted and continue to constitute himself as a nuisance of the first order, which continues to threaten our national security.

    After he left office as governor of Kaduna State, President Bola Tinubu submitted his name to the senate for screening as one of the ministerial nominees. But he was duly dropped. Since then, all hell has been let loose threatening brimstone and fire, exhibiting a sense of entitlement and heaping all blames on our dear president.

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    For instance, in early 2025, he publicly bewailed that President Tinubu didn’t want him in the cabinet, which was false. He appeared on Arise TV insinuating it wasn’t the senate but rather the president who changed his mind. Reno Omokri and other commentators, however, argue that El-Rufai was actually nominated, but failed security clearance and was deemed a diplomatic liability, citing both his “body bags” statement in 2019 and his alleged role in various controversies—including the Zaria Shiite massacre and demolitions of opponents’ properties.

    No one is spared of his uncontrolled tongue, including the person and office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He did not stop at that, like a bull in the China shop, he went after the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, and also descended on the office and person of the governor of Kaduna State, Malam Uba Sani.

    El-Rufai, no doubt is bound to continue with such malicious campaigns if not checked, promptly called to order or arrested, hence our patriotic clarion call to for the agencies involved to do the needful.

    As governor of Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023, El-Rufai’s tenure was marked not by peace but by accusations of ethnic cleansing, religious persecution and a chronic inability, or unwillingness, to stem violence in one of Nigeria’s most diverse and volatile states. Kaduna, under his leadership, became a flashpoint of ethno-religious bloodshed, and a killing field, particularly in southern Kaduna where minority Christian communities bore the brunt of incessant attacks.

    In 2019, a massacre in Kajuru Local Government in Kaduna State resulted in the death of 141 people. The Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) reported over 4,000 deaths between 2011 and 2015 from 54 documented attacks in what many described as a campaign of ethnic and religious terror. Nasir El Rufai, rather than showing understanding or taking decisive action to protect the victims, was more concerned in managing perceptions of the people about him. In 2016, in one of the most controversial admissions of his tenure, El Rufai admitted to having traced and compensated foreign Fulani herdsmen—allegedly to prevent retaliatory attacks, a claim he later denied. However, the shocking revelation sparked outrage and reinforced suspicions of bias, with the likes of SOKAPU and other Nigerians accusing him of encouraging the very militias responsible for the killings.

    The accusation and allegations of involvement in the southern Kaduna massacres is not a political smear; it is a serious moral and legal indictment that hangs heavily over El Rufai’s legacy and leadership.

    Moreover, allegations of corruption and abuse of power continue to trail El Rufai’s political career. From his days as minister of the Federal Capital Territory, where land allocations and demolition exercises were flawed by claims of selective justice, to his shoddy handling of public finances as Kaduna State governor, El Rufai’s record does not inspire the kind of trust and integrity he now appears to demand of others. It is therefore hypocritical for him to suddenly present himself as a champion of good governance, particularly when he was reportedly dropped from President Tinubu’s ministerial list due to failing security clearance—a move many interpreted as a silent indictment.

    Under his watch as a governor, bloggers and journalists were incarcerated, protesters tear-gassed, and opposition figures characteristically harassed. It is not for nothing that human rights groups frequently listed his administration among the worst violators of civil liberties during that period. The case of Abubakar Idris, known as Dadiyata, the activist abducted in 2019 and is still missing to this day, remains a haunting stain on El Rufai’s time in office. He consistently disobeyed court orders and had no respect for the rule of law.

    For instance, in October 2022, traders and shop owners at Kasuwan Barci, Tudun Wada area of Kaduna metropolis trooped to the street, asking the state governor, El Rufai to obey court order by paying them compensation over their demolished shops and markets. This protest came after the Kaduna State High Court in September 2022, ordered the El Rufai led- government to sufficiently compensate the shop owners.

    In furtherance of his chronic abuse of human rights and dignity, on April 28, 2016, the El Rufai-led government ordered the arrest of Jacob Onjewu, a Kaduna-based journalist. The journalist was alleged to have written an inciting story that the governor, El-Rufai, was attacked with stone in Agwan Gado, a suburb of Malali axis in Kaduna North LGA. The Kaduna-based journalist was invited by the Kaduna Police Command and was remanded in custody without option of bail. He was however granted bail after spending seven days in detention.

    Thus, a man with such tainted record of service as El Rufai; a man who lacks credible leadership  antecedents, have no grounds to unjustifiably attack President Tinubu, Ribadu, Governor Uba Sani, despite their great achievements in office, which obviously towers above his own over-inflated achievements.

    Today, and sadly so, El Rufai is making futile efforts to make the nation ungovernable. He is envious of Uba Sani’s achievements within the shortest period of time; he is ashamed that peace is returning to Kaduna and people see that Uba Sani’s leadership is far better than his and becoming more popular by working to unite the people in the state. He is jealous of Uba Sani’s superlative achievements and he is trying to destroy the peace in Kaduna State. He is angry that he did not get ministerial appointment under the present administration; this indeed is an era of frustration for El Rufai.

    The loss of power and relevance of El Rufai and the intention to get back to the corridor of power promoting his new alignment and exploring ways to stir unrest and discord by his utterances and unholy mobilization in the northern Nigeria against the Tinubu administration, gave him away as a man with nuisance value. His mobilization of coalition and opposition in a country that is fragile and battling with terrorism and insecurity, should be a source of worry and concern to all patriotic Nigerians.

    The facts remains that El Rufai’s allegations against President  Tinubu and Malam  Ribadu are baseless, divisive, inflammatory and inconsistent with the administration’s dual strategy of kinetic operations and community engagement. El Rufai must refrain from framing security as a political tool, for to do so is to bear the consequences of insulting our sacrificial security personnel.

    Nigerians must recognize the political opportunism masked as activism. El Rufai is neither a patriot or democrat, but a chronic dictator and an opportunist. He did not find his voice in past administration’s failures when it mattered the most to be on the side of the people. We must stop Nasir El Rufai now, before his unwarranted antics aimed at destabilizing the polity!

    •Engr. Shibkau is president, Association of Arewa Professionals in the United Kingdom.

  • Dessert for El Rufai

    Dessert for El Rufai

    Last Saturday, the petit enfant terrible that governed Kaduna State for eight years, from 2015 to 2023, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, raised alarm that his successor, Governor Uba Sani, whom he called his godson, was responsible for the political violence that marred a rally he organized to foster the opposition parties in the state. According to media reports, thugs invaded the ceremony, for the official inauguration of the transition committee, jointly set up by opposition parties in the state. El Rufai accused the state governor of sponsoring terrorism.

    While not sympathetic to El Rufai considering his past records, this column condemns all forms of political violence. But we must recall that as governor of Kaduna State, El Rufai ruled like a sovereign potentate, and he treated his victims worse than subjects. The former governor confessed that he paid cross-border herders from neighbouring countries to stop killings in southern Kaduna, instead of bringing them to account. According to him, he told his emissaries to inform the criminals that one of their own, a Fulani, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, had become the president and they should stop the killing.

    But did the killings stop? It didn’t. In fact, it got worse, and instead of showing empathy to the victims, he criminalized them, and made them look like the aggressors. He framed the killings as reprisals and revenge attacks, especially in Kajuru and Kachia local government councils. But interestingly, since Governor Uba Sani took over, the killings have stopped, and even markets closed for many years have been reopened. So what could have led to the return of peace in the communities after the exit of the former governor?

    While the crisis lasted, many indigenes of the affected communities viewed El Rufai as an enabler of the crisis. The Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) on the eve of the 2019 general election raised such alarm. In February, 24 hours to the 2019 polls, they said “The attention of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) has been drawn to a report credited to Governor Nasir Ahmad El Rufai over alleged killing of 66 Fulani in Kajuru Local Government Area.”

    They went on: “We are at a loss as to the real motive behind the governor’s disclosure, made public less than 24 hours before the commencement of national polls that were postponed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).” They continued “We are of the view that El Rufai’s comments over Kajuru killings was deliberately orchestrated to inflame ethnic and religious sentiments to produce yet another cycle of bloodshed.” The leaders accused El Rufai of lying about any killing of Fulanis, and accused him of being silent about the actual killing of Adara natives in Ungwar Barde, in Kufana District of Kajuru Local Council.

    The leaders didn’t spare the former governor. In their words “Arising from the above, SOKAPU is shocked at the deliberate falsehood by El Rufai who found it convenient not to inform the world of an earlier attack that claimed lives of 11 Adara natives. SOKAPU is convinced that Governor El Rufai is on an irrevocable journey of inflaming ethnic conflagration that has always been in line with his deliberate chronicle of profiling Southern Kaduna people as favorably disposed to violence.”

    The group claimed that El Rufai was instigating the crisis for political gains. While on one of his visits to the scene of the killings, El Rufai promised to set up a judicial panel of inquiry, which he later did after several months, and sounded sympathetic. He said “It is very sad that people that had lived together side by side for hundreds of years have suddenly started killing one another.” He went on “It is not in our culture, our religion to permit anyone to kill. All those who engage in these are not godly people but godless people, they are neither Muslims nor Christians.”

    Hearing El Rufai sound sanctimonious, one would think that his regime was driven by fairness while he governed the state. That indeed, he had regards for all citizens of his state, regardless of their tribe or faith. But far from that, El Rufai governed the state as a very divisive person, who cared more about winning election at all cost. While justifying his choice of a fellow Muslim as deputy, when all previous governors had shown concern for religious plurality in the state, he spoke derogatorily about the people concerned.

    Speaking to Channels Television, el-Rufai said “what if I tell you that no matter who I choose as my running mate, even if I choose the Pope, 67 per cent of Christians in Southern Kaduna have made up their minds that they will never vote for me.” Clearly el-Rufai was a very reckless and insensitive fellow, who cared not, whose ox was gored. Yet by some accounts, the Christian population is about half of the population in the state.     

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    In the eyes of the law, El Rufai can be properly prosecuted for aiding and abetting terrorism while he was governor of Kaduna State. Some of his opponents who are of the same faith with him, suffered similar abuses like southern Kaduna Christians. Renowned activist and former senator Shehu Sani, calls El Rufai a very divisive fellow, and he believes that the state is safer since his tenure ended. He accused the former governor of engaging in mass sackings, property demolitions and flagrant disobedience of court orders.

    Shehu Sani, wrote El Rufai off, as a “midget professor” and said that “out of power, he is sanctimoniously preaching democracy to the country he helped to wreck, plundered, and persecuted”. He went on: “He demonized the opposition when in the palace and now embraces them in the wilderness.” No doubt, El Rufai is a shifty politician, when it comes to loyalty. He was brought to limelight by former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, but when it suited him, he aligned with former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to persecute his former benefactor.

    When last week, El Rufai accused his successor of sponsoring terrorism, many waited for a bombshell of evidence. Rather, he said he would submit the evidence to the police if given the chance. One hopes it is not his usual bluff, otherwise why would he wait to present the evidence before the court of public opinion. If he could make such a weighty allegation, without waiting for police investigation, he ought to present his evidence bare, without hesitation.     

    The people of Southern Kaduna, and others, who bore the brunt of several alleged terrorist acts, linked to the ill-tempered governance of El Rufai, as Kaduna State governor, must be amused that the hunter has become the hunted. They would call it, his just dessert. It is also alleged that his poor records as governor, made President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, drop him as a ministerial nominee. Clearly, El Rufai will still pay a lot more price for his time in power as Kaduna State governor.

  • Hear El Rufai, after the shellacking

    Hear El Rufai, after the shellacking

    The man Nasir El Rufai always makes a good copy for the journalist only because he is not a man to copy. He is a bombast, a stormy petrel, adept at undermining others. He brandishes statistics of which he himself is the researcher, compiler, promoter and reporter. He has a contemptuous attitude to facts in as much as he bastardises memory.

    He thinks the universe is populated by him all alone, and so he can take liberty with conscience and other people’s dignity. He just stepped out into the spotlight a few days ago for a television interview in which he tried in vain to ride roughshod on his viewers because the fellow who interviewed him either forgot his audience knows one or two about asking a good question and one or two about tendentious questions that coddle an interviewee. Maybe the interviewer just does not care what the audience thinks, or he thinks he can bamboozle the audience because El Rufai always believes he is a good orator.

    The man says he can beat the president in an election next time, and one would expect that he would have had to answer a question or two about the shellacking last time, a few days ago in his homestead of Kaduna State. He was the one who boasted. He was the one who lost, and he was the one who was not asked why he lost and so badly after he lost so terribly. He even said 30 million Nigerians have moved to poverty, and where did he get the figure. Go ask the on-air questioner why he did not ask.

    Rather he was accusing, again without evidence, that his former party, The All Progressive Congress (APC) disturbed the meeting of his party. Hardball would have asked him why that could happen when the African Democratic Congress (ADC) was actually the one who lost. So why would a winner, and confident one at that, want to disturb the meeting of a loser? Maybe he should address speculations that the new baby – not really a baby since it was coerced into a new identity – already has internecine conflicts. 

    He called his successor Uba Sani, now Governor of Kaduna State, his boy – imagine the petulance of calling a man of over 50 years, a governor, a senator, with multiple university degrees, a fighter of human rights credentials “my boy.” He said he was not his friend in one breath and his friend in another, and said he made him. Why not ask him why the man you said you made so disgraced you in public in an electoral contest. Did Sani not just make El Rufai the boy?

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    He was not asked properly why the State is so peaceful compared to his time, especially southern Kaduna where he made them hostage to sectarian and ethnic violence. Rather he said they were paying ransom. Nuhu Ribadu, the national security adviser, had an answer: No, sir. No ransom. Just pure efficiency that Nasir didn’t have.

    But the real question should have been, why was he worried about ransom when he El Rufai, by his own confession, paid the predators who kept attacking the weak and vulnerable? This is the making of a pharisaic politician who has not learned how to be sober.

    Was he not the one who has not been able to provide answers to how he devastated the Kaduna finances? Was he not even ashamed that places like Birnin Gwari were prostrate every day he was governor. The cattle market was rattled out of existence by gunmen and he was part of the team that followed then candidate Bola Tinubu with what looked like a battalion to the place. Now no one needs a pistol to wheel into town. Why can’t he address that.

    El Rufai spoke to friendly interview, not an interrogator but a co-conspirator against the facts on the land.

  • Rantings of Nasir El Rufai

    Rantings of Nasir El Rufai

    • By Lawan Bukar Maigana

    Sir: On his Monday appearance on Arise TV, former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, shocked many Nigerians with a barrage of self-incriminating statements. “A collection of urban bandits,” he said, referring to the current administration and its actors. He went on to call it “an immoral government”.

    For many, these statements would pass as the usual political rants in Nigeria’s heated climate. But coming from a man who was a central player in the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC), these words cannot be ignored.

    In 2023, despite whispers of personal ambition, he was one of the strongest voices in the North who campaigned vigorously for Tinubu. His public endorsements, presence at campaign rallies, and mobilization in Kaduna helped secure votes for the now-president. For him to now paint the very system he helped birth as “immoral” is not just ironic, it’s shaky.

    Political criticism is valid in any democracy. But when a key architect of a political structure suddenly turns around to demolish the very walls he built, after comfortably benefiting from its platform, it raises questions about credibility, loyalty, and personal motives.

    El-Rufai’s outbursts seem more like bitterness than constructive criticism. The same man who once praised Tinubu’s political sagacity now pits him unfavourably against Goodluck Jonathan. The same man who benefited from the party machinery now refers to its core as “urban bandits”.

    One cannot help but wonder: where was this moral outrage when he was benefitting from the corridors of power? Where was this so-called clarity when he was among those determining the direction of the APC and influencing national appointments?

    It is important for Nigerians to see through this pattern. El-Rufai is not the first politician to distance himself from a system after losing influence. In many ways, his recent commentary is not about the people, but about his personal frustration and perhaps fading relevance.

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    President Bola Tinubu inherited a broken economy, rising insecurity, and decades of systemic mismanagement. The path to rebuilding was never going to be easy. The reforms, although painful, are necessary. And just like any honest effort to reset a nation, it demands patience and courage from the people.

    Despite El-Rufai’s ranting, the Tinubu administration continues to lay the groundwork for sustainable growth through fiscal discipline, security initiatives, infrastructure investments, and engagement with global investors. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither can a wounded Nigeria be healed overnight.

    Rather than throwing stones, El-Rufai should be reflecting on his own legacy. He governed Kaduna State with mixed reviews, and left behind a trail of controversies from demolitions to religious polarization. If anyone should be silent on morality, perhaps it is him.

    As for President Tinubu, he is focused on the task at hand. Leadership is not a popularity contest; it is about difficult decisions and long-term vision. Nigeria is in capable hands, even if those who helped bring us to this point now wish to rewrite history and wash their hands clean.

    Progress has never been juicy or convenient. It requires sacrifice. President Tinubu’s reforms are not about optics, they are about legacy, sustainability, and future generations.

    El-Rufai’s words should not be ignored, but they should be understood for what they are: a confession that he, too, is part of the problem. His own admission “Don’t trust me” should be the final warning bell for anyone still under his spell, thinking he has some good to offer and he fights for them.

    Lastly, let those who built the house stop pretending they were only visitors when the roof starts leaking. Nigeria is moving forward, with or without them, and we are no longer kids. Our senses can no longer be played with like children play with rubber dolls. If trust is evil, then some Nigerians are truly part of that evil.

    •Lawan Bukar Maigana,

    Lawanbukarmaigana@gmail.com

  • Like father like fraud

    Like father like fraud

    A tweet went viral last week from the fingers of lawmaker and son of former Kaduna State governor, Bello El-Rufai. I did not see it until quite a few people forwarded it to me. A former minister also sent it to me with a comment, “This little prick needs to be put in his place.” What did Bello, a member of House of Representatives, write? “Thanks. I left the office early to see him off at the airport. I just told him a lot of you do love him and have been supportive. I shared some tweets to him. We also laughed at a shameless idiot, Sam the houseboy at 70, of the Toilet Paper called The Nation.” He accompanied the tweet with a picture of the back of his father, the former governor who bleeds rather than talk.

    So, that is the quality of a lawmaker in today’s democracy of the 21st century. A father is accused of stealing over N400 billion, the son goes to the toilet to defend him. Is that the sort of family that should spill into the public square? So, if father is an accused thief, son is a liar. What a combo of family.  Who is shameless if not a thief or a liar? The Nation is toilet paper but it was not so when it defended him in the past, when he made headlines against his enemies. It is because he has a toilet imagination that Bello’s father can be accused of stealing and he does not hide himself in the shadows.

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    He calls me 70, where is his fact? His father returned to Atiku, the man he betrayed for OBJ. he has returned to his own vomit. So, it is a case of a traitor cohabiting with a defector. What a marriage. And they say they love this country? Bello himself has been pampered by his father. He never had any real job in this country before he became lawmaker, except a stint at a Chinese firm his father helped him get. He schooled outside this country. I recall challenging his father at Sheraton sometime ago in front of my editor colleagues when he wanted to advertise his integrity. He said his salary was small. I asked him how he funded his children, including Bello, from a government salary that could not pay more than a month’s rent abroad. He could not answer me then. Now I know why, and why his son must defend his father.

  • El Rufai’s political disintegration?

    El Rufai’s political disintegration?

    By Abdu Abdullahi

    Who will ever forget Malam Nasir El Rufai, the great political gambler and the emperor of Nigeria’s contemporary politics? Famous for being adamant of the consequences of his actions and inactions, he is also renowned for perpetrating political shenanigans both at the state and national levels. He is reputed to be the ‘father’ of the ill-motivated Kano inconclusive election of 2019.

    Nasir El Rufai means different things to many people. He is both the loved hero and the hated villain. He acts both the antagonist and protagonist roles with aesthetic talents and achievements. Arrogantly, he parades himself as a general who requires no artillery. Like him or hate him, his unwavering approaches to complex matters are always firm and resolute towards achieving outstanding goals. His governmental decisions were a proper mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly.

    When his inner convictions become explicit for our scrutiny to make valid judgements on his fulfilled mission, it is apparent that he is passionate about facing challenges. Luckily for him, he possesses the intellectual resources for overcoming them. This trend motivates him to higher brilliant performance. Thinking of El Rufai is reflecting on his human sagacity, fostering progress and development through conquering main obstructions.

    If development has its own chronic pains which many leaders will not want to absorb, El Rufai has his own way of absorbing them and waxing stronger. But the point he outrageously abuses is that of compromise. He is merited to have sterling courage as his biggest asset. Thus, he will rather overwhelm circumstances instead of allowing circumstances to overwhelm him. This shows that his political will is robust and deserves tremendous accolades. Those who cheer this glorified and gifted attribute often refer to his reign as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

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    El Rufai’s political loyalty aligns mostly with self-indulgence. He is largely combative with people and not ideas. This is where his political parallelism rears its ugly head. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he discerns and defines political loyalty from the point of view of personal fulfilment and not collective end effects.

    El Rufai is a bad player of sanctimonious character, erroneously believing in his perfection even if all other people doubt him. However, his greatest flaw is his bloated intolerance for doubting him.

    Also, discussing El Rufai is a profound surveillance of his personality traits that often clash with the values of the mainstream society. Till date, many people fail to understand the unusual working of his school of psychology that breeds anomalies to execute obnoxious policies of government. The demolition of the Kasuwar Barci market in Kaduna in 2020 is a typical example. What baffled the victims more was the audacity that propelled Nasir to visit the destruction site to ensure that it was perfectly done!

    In an interview with The Guardian, a victim, Malam Musa Zubairu lamented, “The governor has destroyed our lives by demolishing our market; where can we go now? This governor has no pity for us and Allah will pay him back”. Those who rated him as belligerent then drew comparison with former Benue Governor Samuel Ortom, who donated N50 million to the victims of Oturkpo Main Market inferno in the same year.

    I have thoroughly studied his political psychology. It is saturated with templates for enemy creation as well as increased fantasy. This is even as Al-hassan warns that, “Do not buy the enemy of one man for the love of a thousand men”.

    In a posting on his Facebook account on November 5, 2018, he unguardedly wrote: “FRIDAY REMINDER: To the cursed Kaduna senators, enemies of Kaduna State and their co- travellers”. Thus, El Rufai’s political record is full of enemies, real and imagined.

    El Rufai was recently reported acting like a nomadic politician. He was traversing from one part of the country to the other to attain a political succour. His greatest headache now is how power structures of 2027 should look like, especially at the centre. His contacts with major political players in the country are indices for the political hardship and frustration he is undergoing. He is neither at the centre nor at the state level. His political structures are collapsing. His only healing lies with the outcomes of 2027 elections.

    El Rufai’s political evolution was largely shaped and boosted by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar. He later abandoned them to become an independent politician without a political godfather. But in the end, he became a godfather to Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State. But he must have forsaken him now because of the probe against him bordering on corrupt practices. This is also unfolding at a time it is discovered that he owns a magnificent edifice in Dubai. Initially, he told the world that the only house he owned was in Kaduna. The puritanical pretence he exhibited is now fading. We are now watching the other side of El Rufai.

    According to the French writer Andre Malraux, to be a king is foolish; what matters is to make a kingdom. As Kaduna’s controversial governor, El Rufai maintained a stubborn status of being a powerful and indomitable king. He fiercely fought those whom he wrongly or rightly perceived as his foes. In the end, he fared well in many areas but he failed to establish a new Kaduna kingdom. The only kingdom that prospered was that of the brutal bandits. There was unprecedented mayhem across the state. Blood, sorrows, fears, despairs pervaded the whole state. Eventually, the brutish bandits demonstrated that they were the greater kings.

    Harold Lasswell’s incisive book, ‘Politics: Who gets what, when and how’ is a good material for reference. El Rufai got what he wanted lavishly in the past. He knew how he succeeded but later engaged in political risks and bohemian plundering.  El Rufai’s desperation for 2027 is a symptom of his unprecedented political dislocation. Nigerians are now wiser and know that his political scheming is staggering opportunism.

    In 2023, I wrote a piece titled, ‘El Rufai Vs Foes: Who will laugh last? I enumerated his perceived adversaries such as Senators Shehu Sani and Hunkuyi, the frustrated Shiites, the disgruntled Christians of southern Kaduna, the sacked primary school teachers whose benefits were delayed for payment and the victims of his demolition exercises, among others. He is now powerless and the listed people above are watching his political decomposition.

    Finally, our ‘new’ El Rufai is no longer at ease. His political resources and exuberance have declined. He depends on 2027 to rejuvenate his emerging political disintegration.

    •Abdullahi writes via aaringim68@gmail.com