Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, in this piece takes a look at how Kaduna Governor’s letter to the President has opened a can of worms, sort of
TONGUES are still waging over the leaked letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, in which he had urged the President and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to urgently take steps to arrest the obvious drift in the affairs of the country towards the negative.
While the letter continues to generate mixed reactions, even as mum remains the word from the camp of the Kaduna State helmsman who is reported to be out of the country since the news broke, indications are emerging that some issues surrounding the now controversial correspondence may not be unconnected with growing power play within the ruling party as well as the 2019 presidential election.
The Nation gathered that the letter, written last September and delivered to the President almost immediately, must have been leaked to the public for political purposes. Allegations and counter allegations of how the letter got into the public currently rage between the camp of the Kaduna State governor and some senior officials in the presidency.
It was also gathered that the development has further inflamed the subtle internal wrangling that has been rocking the ruling party for a while now, with chieftains of the party now divided into groups of those who are in support of the opinions expressed by El-Rufai in the letter and those who are against them.
“The party is the worst hit by the leakage of the letter. While I cannot say how the letter became public, I want to tell you that it has further helped in polarizing our party. As we speak, party chieftains are divided over whether El-Rufai’s opinions are right or wrong. Aside that; there is also the argument over whether he should have written such a letter to Mr. President.
“Many meanings are being read to many portions of the letter. Many people are taking offence or offering support. Coming at a time when our party leadership is battling to nip some emerging crisis in the bud and hold the party together at all cost, this is a big setback for the APC. We are really affected by the development.
“Another problem is the issue of who leaked the letter. That has led to several allegations and counter allegations within the party. A letter addressed to the President by a state governor would be seen by only a few officials apart from the writer and the person it is addressed to. So, suspicion is very rife over how the letter went public,” a source told The Nation.
Our source, a member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) from the Northwest, also added that the leakage of the controversial letter has strengthened the anxiety within the party over alleged scheming in some quarters ahead of the 2019 general election.
“One must not lose sight of how our party came to be. And the activities of some of our members in recent times indicate that some scheming may be underway. El-Rufai is a dye in the wool supporter of Mr. President. If we now have a case like this involving someone like him, there is bound to be anxiety within the party. And that is exactly what is happening now,” he said.
It was also gathered that the inability of the leadership of the party to respond to questions over the said letter may not be unconnected with the anxiety it is generating. The APC had said it is still studying the letter, when asked by media outfits for its comment on the controversy it is generating.
“It is a delicate situation given those who are involved. The party would have to deal with a number of issues concerning this matter. Is it right for El-Rufai to write the letter? Should the letter have been leaked? Who leaked the letter and why? Are the allegations therein correct? These and many more are questions also begging for answers internally,” our source added.
Speaking on the development, a serving APC Senator from Kaduna State said the development is a confirmation of the fears in many quarters that some chieftains of the party are allowing their ambition to blind them. He lamented that unless something is urgently done, the ruling party may self-destruct.
“The time to talk is not now. The time to talk is when the party fails to do the needful in this matter. Some of us have been calling on the leadership of the party to rein in some people if the party and this administration is to berth well. But that was not done and what we have now is a case of people blinded by ambition and power.
“The letter in question was written several months ago and it was received without noise. Why was it made public now and for what purpose? And if you consider the timing of the leakage, you will know that it was done to further create problem for the president. The APC must do the needful otherwise, I fear an implosion,” the lawmaker said.
The controversial letter
At noon, Thursday, March 16, six days after President Buhari returned to the country after about 49 days of absence occasioned by the need to receive medical attention while holidaying in the United Kingdom, news broke that Governor El-Rufai, had severely criticized the Buhari-led administration in a letter he personally wrote to the President.
The social media was soon agog with various versions of what the Kaduna governor allegedly said in the letter. There were reports and rumours of how the letter was allegedly leaked. And by the next day, reports about the letter made the cover page of all national dailies. Soon, the full text of the said letter was available for all to read and digest.
In the damning and very blunt letter, El-Rufai had pointedly suggested an urgent overhaul of the entire gamut of government, if the President and his party, the ruling APC, are not planning to leave the country worse than they met it when they took over the government in May 2015.
In the memo, dated September 22, 2016, but which went viral on that fateful Thursday, El-Rufai, a known loyalist of the President and a chieftain of the ruling APC, while urging Buhari to be prepared to seek re-election in 2019, reminded the President that his political future was intrinsically tied to the performance of the current administration.
“Poll after poll in Kaduna State, before and after the 2015 elections, clearly shows that my fate, politically and otherwise, is uncannily tied to yours. If you do well, I stand to benefit immensely. If you do not do well Sir, whatever I try to do in Kaduna matters little to my present and any future political trajectory,” El-Rufai said in the letter.
El-Rufai also directly mentioned the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. David Babachir Lawal, as aides of the President who are not doing enough to promote the progress of the APC-led administration.
“There is a perception that your ministers, some of whom are competent and willing to make real contributions, have no clear mandate, instructions and access to you. Ministers are constitutional creations, Mr. President, and it is an aberration that they are expected to report to the Chief of Staff on policy matters,” El-Rufai noted.
He only came short of specifically calling on the President to sack the named officials. But he was blunt enough to write that the duo are not fit for the various positions they currently hold, citing reasons for his opinion and telling the President that it is not too late to correct the mistakes in his administration.
“You appear to have neither a political adviser nor a minder of your politics. The two officials whose titles may enable them function as such generally alienate those that contributed to our success. The SGF is not only inexperienced in public service but is lacking in humility, insensitive and rude to virtually most of the party leaders, ministers and governors.
“The Chief of Staff is totally clueless about the APC and its internal politics at best as he was neither part of its formation nor a participant in the primaries, campaign and elections. In summary, neither of them has the personality, experience and the reach to manage your politics nationally or even regionally,” he wrote.
When he wrote, “there is a strong perception that your inner circle or kitchen cabinet is incapable, unproductive and sectional. The quality and the undue concentration of key appointments to the North-East and exclusion of South-East are mentioned as evidence of this,” the Kaduna Governor hinted at earlier allegation of lopsided appointment levelled against Buhari within and outside the party.
The governor did not stop there, he specifically mentioned names of some party leaders who the news have been on the social media for some time that they have been allegedly sidelined, as if to confirm such news. He went on, “Mr. President, Sir, your relationship with the national leadership of the party, both the formal (NWC) and informal (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), and former governors of ANPP, PDP (that joined us) and ACN, is perceived by most observers to be, at best, frosty. Many of them are aggrieved due to what they consider total absence of consultations with them on your part and those you have assigned such duties. This may not be your intention or outlook, but that is how it appears to those that watch from afar.
“This situation is compounded by the fact that some officials around you seem to believe and may have persuaded you that current APC State governors must have no say and must also be totally excluded from political consultations, key appointments and decision-making at federal level.
“These politically naive ‘advisers’ fail to realise that it is the current and former state governors that may, as members of NEC of the APC, serve as an alternative locus of power to check the excesses of the currently lopsided and, perhaps, ambivalent NWC. Alienating the governors, so clearly and deliberately, ensures that you have near-zero support of the party structure at both national and state levels,” he added.
Assessing performance of the government, he said: “In very blunt terms, Mr. President, our APC administration has not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance outside of our successes in fighting Boko Haram insurgency and corruption.”
Expressing his worst fear in the letter, El-Rufai said, “those of us that look forward to presenting you again to the electorate in 2019 are worried that we need to sort out the party’s membership register, review the primaries system to eliminate the impact of money in candidate selection, and reduce the reliance of the party on a few businessmen, a handful of major financiers and state governments for its operations and expenditures.”
He advocated what he called “A surgical operation is needed in party machinery, financing and electoral processes if the future political aspirations we desire for you will not be made more difficult, if not impossible, to actualise. Mr. President, Sir, It is a constitutional reality that to succeed, the Federal Government must work harmoniously with two other arms of government; the National Assembly and the Judiciary.”
Raging controversies
However, if the Kaduna State governor had thought the letter will be accepted by all and sundry as a timely warning to the president and the ruling party, he was mistaken as the content of the correspondence is now being interpreted differently in various quarters within and outside the ruling APC.
One of the issues being raised in relationship with the now controversial letter is how it got leaked into the public domain, six months after it was written and sent to President Buhari. Not a few are reading meanings to the decision to make the letter public shortly after the President returned from his delayed stay abroad.
The Nation learnt that there are already about three schools of thoughts over how the letter went public. One of such is the assumption that fifth columnists, probably outside the ruling party, had gotten hold of the letter and leaked it with the intention of embarrassing the president, the party as well as Governor El-Rufai himself.
Goma Iliyasu, former scribe of the All Peoples Party (APP) in the state, who is now a chieftain of the ruling APC, urged Nigerians to be careful in believing some of the interpretations now being given to the said letter. According to him, it is clear that some people are trying to take advantage of the situation for political gains.
“We are all aware of how badly the opposition wants to distract this administration. Many people in the opposition today are unhappy with the ruling party. It is not impossible that these are the people who saw an opportunity in the letter and decided to leak it and blow the content out of proportion just to embarrass the president, the party and the writer of the letter.
“I can tell you that Governor El-Rufai and the President enjoy a very cordial relationship. I am in a position to say they are like a father and a son. So, I won’t be surprised if this letter we are talking about is even a product of their closeness. This, in my opinion, is why neither Buhari nor El-Rufai is saying anything on the matter,” he said.
But Goma’s position is not shared by some chieftains of the ruling party who are strongly of the belief that the letter was intentionally leaked by top associates of the President with the intention of causing a friction in El-Rufai’s relationship with Buhari. According to a party source who sought anonymity, this has brewed mutual suspicion amongst party chieftains.
This is just as another school of thought insists the camp of the Kaduna Governor leaked the letter to score political points ahead of the 2019 general elections. The Nation gathered that the confusion being created by the divergent opinions over the leakage of the letter is responsible for the inability of the party to comment on the development.
“The situation, for us as a party, is not a good one. The letter in itself is not the real problem, rather the mutual suspicion its leakage is causing within the party. Accusations and counter accusations are flying all over the place and we don’t even know which to make use of in trying to unravel the mystery behind the development.
“We have those who are saying some top aides of the President who are unhappy with the Kaduna Governor for some reasons and want to clip his wings politically, are behind the leakage of the letter. It is even being argued that the President had discussed his thoughts about the letter with these associates before travelling.
“Someone was here to tell me of how some officials in the presidency are of the opinion that El-Rufai, who has been very vocal in condemning how the President’s men have been treating state governors, needs to be curtailed. The person added that the Kaduna governor attracted the wrath of a cabal in the Presidency with his bluntness. Now, they are out to nail him.
“I don’t know how true this is but as a party, we are bound to listen to all these and investigate them with a view to resolving the logjam we have on our hands.
“On the other hand, we have also heard people saying El-Rufai got the letter leaked to score political points. We even got a letter asking the party to punish the Governor for embarrassing the President by writing him privately and leaking the letter to attract attention and accolades from the public,” our source said.
Speaking on the matter, a member of the National Assembly from Kaduna State blamed the raging controversy on what he called the inability of some chieftains of the party to control their ambitions. He said the leakage of the letter is not unconnected with the 2019 political calculation of some desperate politicians within the ruling party.
“We have said this before and we will continue to say it. I am waiting for the party to make its position on the matter known before I will come out and say what I know about this openly. We have told the party what we know and we expect the leadership to do the needful. The whole matter is about the over ambitious nature of some of us.
“Where some people feel they can garner political advantage ahead of the next election by taking advantage of the unfavourable economic situation to incite the people against the government and the party, it is unfortunate. That is the reason why a letter, written and accepted over six months ago, is now leaked to the public. Let the writer of the letter explain how it got into the public,” the lawmaker said.
But whatever way the letter is interpreted, what is clear is that it has ruffled some feathers and how this is settled is in the winds of time.
