By Jide Oluwajuyitan,The Nation

Copyright thenationonlineng

Nasir Ahmad El Rufai is a controversial politician whose colleagues, whether in PDP where he cut his political teeth under Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar, the grand masters of political mischief, APC where he acquired great influence through hero-worshipping of late President Buhari, SDP that found him too hot to keep and now in ADC, the vehicle he and his class of 1999 PDP members want to use to salvage Nigeria, cannot ignore. El Rufai, ever full of fire and fury, is never afraid of war.

His major shortcoming according to Obasanjo who describes his political son, in his ‘Under my Watch’ as a “malicious liar, a pathological purveyor of untruths and half-truths with little or no regard for integrity”, is his “inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue for long, but only to Nasir El Rufai”.

Atiku Abubakar his other political godfather and boss at BPE has also spoken of his character defects including his self-love. Following Atiku’s claim that he turned down his godson’s offer of shares in Transcorp, El Rufai wasted no time before savaging his political father’s character by challenging him publicly to talk about “the shenanigans surrounding Ericsson manoeuver and the Abuja water treatment plant contract scandal.”

And if further evidence is needed to confirm Nasir loves only El Rufai, he provided evidence of that in chapter six of his “Accidental Civil Servant” sub-headed, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’.

Obasanjo was determined to make him a minister in spite of his character defect, including what Obasanjo describes as his penchant for insulting and disrespecting people, savaging their character in their absence and thinking he alone knows everything.

To ease his godson’s confirmation process at the senate, Obasanjo directed him to meet Senator Ibrahim Mantu, deputy senate president who told him that on account of how El Rufai treated senators while he was BPE chair where they watched him ‘cornered things to himself’, while avoiding to specifically mention the controversial presidential guest house El Rufai bought, he would have to raise N54m “to give to the more recalcitrant senators to soften the ground”. For Obasanjo who was desperate to make El Rufai, Minister for Federal Capital Territory to return sanity to a new city fast taking after Lagos, he was not going to allow anything including money to derail his plan. He therefore directed his godson to see VP Atiku Abubakar.

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El Rufai got through the screening and later became minister without bothering about how the bribe demand by the National Assembly was paid. But few months after becoming minister, El Rufai did not think twice before securing the support of Obasanjo who was trying to humiliate his estranged VP, to leak the N50m bribe story to The Guardian on Sunday (August 31, 2003).

Obasanjo got his own El Rufai’s treatment not long after. Following his disagreement with Obasanjo over privatization of Nigerian Airways, El Rufai joined forces with Atiku to start planning the downfall of Obasanjo on the strength of a prediction by a Cameroon marabout that Obasanjo would not last beyond first term.

“When I am president, we are going to take charge of this place and fix it … you are one of my best people” to which El Rufai replied “fine, Mr. Vice President, I will hang in there”. While El Rufai daily assured Obasanjo of his loyalty as his minister, he was from August 2002, engaged in nocturnal meetings with Atiku, Usman Bugaje, Atiku’s political adviser and Nduka Obaigbena, his close friend scheming how to take make the transition smooth. (Nasir El Rufai: Accidental Public Servant pg.131-152)

Tinubu, the master of the game himself probably took a cue from the El Rufai’s well-documented history of disloyalty and refused to commit political suicide by going the Obasanjo’s 2003 way of allegedly bribing National Assembly with N54m to make El Rufai a minister by all means.

Tinubu, an uncommon politician always in control of his environment probably had access to the DSS damning report on the El Rufai-led government of Kaduna State over the killing of the sons of the Shiite leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, in Zaria, Kaduna State in 2015 along with about 300 members of his Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), known to be a body of Shiite Muslims in Nigeria.

The El-Zakzaky case, according to the SSS, was reported to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and is being investigated by the United Nations human rights body.

Aside from the El-Zakzaky case, the SSS also accused El Rufai of having engaged in arbitrary arrests of political enemies and seizure of properties and wanton demolition of properties of perceived political enemies across Kaduna State.

It was also apparent the senate was not ready to overlook El Rufai’s alleged abuse of trusts, allegedly involving the use of cronies, allies and family members for corrupt purposes during his time as head of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Tinubu might have pleaded with El Rufai to be part of is government, but decided to err on the path of caution to stabilize his new government. But El Rufai saw only betrayal. He publicly blamed President Tinubu and not the senate for his loss of the presidential slot.

This is the source of his bitterness. This is why El Rufai, who hardly forgives is fighting with his two eyes closed. If he pretends to fight for Nigerians, it is because it is convenient for him and his fellow PDP members currently taking refuge in ADC, to blame Tinubu’s two years administration for the fallouts of his economic policies.

On insecurity, although his failed policy of appeasement and ‘bomb Fulani terrorists out of their hide-out in Kaduna State’, instead of relief, brought more pains to Kaduna during his eight years of highhandedness. But El Rufai finds it convenient to lie by accusing his successor and the federal government of adopting his failed “kiss-the-bandits policy” by giving monthly stipends and food supplies to criminal gangs.

It was this El Rufai’s attempt to misinform the people that recently forced Uba Sani to present his community-driven ‘Kaduna peace model’ which involved traditional rulers, religious leaders, and other stakeholders to the public. It was according to him, the result of six months study which identified the root causes of insecurity poverty, unemployment, lack of schools, hospitals, and commerce in rural areas, all of which pushed people into crime”.

Uba Sani said he realised it is not the Inspector General of Police or the National Security Adviser but he as the one elected by his people to solve their problems that needed to go to Giwa, Birnin Gwari, or the Dansadau forest to reconcile his multi-ethnic and multi-religious, diversified people with over 65 different languages. That bold initiative is what has become the Kaduna peace model hailed and supported by the international community including Britain and Qatar.

President Tinubu had also during the recent commissioning of the first phase of 50 housing units for families displaced as part of the collaborative effort that also includes a school, clinic, and shopping complex as part of a broader 500-housing-unit intervention by the Qatar Charity Foundation, praised Uba Sani’s Kaduna peace model which he said steered Kaduna “from despair to stability, from a hotspot of insecurity to a more stable and hopeful environment”.

Of course El Rufai who has never been known to fight anyone’s wars is fighting for relevance. Two years out of government, he has exhibited so much bitterness against the president, predicting he will lose the 2027 election probably coming a distant third. His battle cry is that the president be sent back to Lagos.

El Rufai’s other colleagues including David Mark, Rotimi Amaechi and their group members that have been in control of the commanding heights of our political, economic and social lives in the last 30 years are angry and want to send Tinubu back to Lagos. But even in their selective madness, beyond their resolve to return Tinubu to Lagos, they are yet to provide alternatives to his renewed hope agenda that will make our lives better.

Listen to them on Channels TV and Arise TV, they rant on and on telling you everything that Tinubu is doing that is wrong except providing alternative blueprint.