Is el-Rufai feeling dwarfed by Uba Sani?

BY JAMIL IDRIS

It is amazing the length the former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el Rufai, would usually go to wreck maximum havoc. Perhaps the greatest weapon in El Rufai’s arsenal is his uncanny ability to deploy warped logic to obfuscate raw and irrefutable facts. Using what he assumes to be sophistry, El Rufai at all times seeks to sow the seed of discord and pitches leaders against the led. Even as an influential Minster of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the Obasanjo administration, El Rufai perpetually pitched that government against the people and brought so much opprobrium to that government in spite of the best efforts of the legendary Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

Similarly, as Governor of Kaduna State for eight years, he unconscionably reaped unmerited political dividends by pitching unsuspecting groups and persons against each other. He left the state soaked in tension, insecurity and huge debt. Thank God for the phenomenal leadership qualities of his young successor, Senator Uba Sani, who has since assumption of office in May 2023, been busy cleaning up the huge mess El Rufai left behind. Governor Uba Sani, who was recently named Nigeria’s Governor of The Year (2024), has been doing an exceedingly great job uniting the people and opening up rural communities across Kaduna State irrespective of the ethnic or religious inclinations of the good people residing in the 23 local government areas of the State. No wonder that for the first time in decades, Kaduna has been enjoying relative peace, safety, security and sustainable development. May the beautiful State never again be governed by a divisive and mischievous leader like Mallam Nasir El Rufai.

El Rufai is at it again. He has returned to a familiar path: a foolish mission to destabilise and possibly bring down the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at all costs. El Rufai, typically is bent on sacrificing any and everything on sight to achieve this. He knows that to get to Tinubu, he would need to contend with staunch supporters of the President. So, it comes to no one as a surprise that he has been concocting and spreading childish and unfounded lies against Governor Uba Sani, a known ally of President Tinubu.

Speaking of the mess El Rufai left behind in Kaduna. It is public knowledge that Governor Uba Sani inherited a staggering debt burden of $587million, N85 billion and N115 billion contractual liabilities from Nasir El Rufai. And that is even putting it mildly. Governor Uba Sani also inherited hundreds of abandoned projects that had already guzzled huge sums of money, allegedly paid out to faceless contractors and ‘Consultants’. I will not even dwell on this since many of the persons involved in this possible heist are currently being prosecuted by anti-corruption agencies in competent courts.

Typically, deploying subterfuge, fallacy, and deliberate falsification of facts, El Rufai was at his destructive best at a recent gathering of fellow disgruntled politicians in Abuja, mischievously dubbed a “National Conference”. It was not a conference of any sort; it was just a gathering of power mongers who are obviously united by their anger and distraught for being left out of the administration of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Most miserable of the lot at the ‘Conference’ were known members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who for selfish reasons, want the Tinubu administration ousted at all costs. They do not even care if the nation’s hard-won democracy is endangered in the process. El Rufai at the sordid event sought to incite the populace against not just the President but against the ruling APC at large.

According to him, “I no longer recognise the APC. No party organ has met in two years; no caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it’s a zero-man show. The problems that led to the creation of the APC remain unresolved, but I no longer believe the APC is interested in addressing them. The distance between me and the party is widening.” The very loquacious former Governor Nasir El Rufai, echoed the earlier position of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that the APC and President Tinubu were bribing persons in opposition parties in order to destroy their respective parties.

“The way and manner opposition political parties are being targeted for destruction, and the style and quality of governance in this country today are a national emergency. It should concern everyone. And I think this is a problem for all of us to think about and play a role in changing because, as His Excellency (Atiku) said, we stand the risk of losing democracy itself,” El Rufai said. Recall also that the same El Rufai had earlier dismissed the Tinubu government as one being run by illiterates. “You cannot afford to have illiterates, semi-illiterates, and cunning people as your leaders. This is why we end up with the poor leadership we have today,” he said.

Apparently amused by the hypocrisy of several of the politicians who attended and spoke at this “National Conference”, persons familiar with their antecedents have been reacting. On his part, Governor Uba Sani, in his usual intelligent but blunt manner, dismissed them as persons merely scheming to grab power at all costs and not that they genuinely mean well for the people.

“Most of these politicians that came out and say they are forming a coalition or something like that and were at that gathering, are politicians that were in government only less than two years ago. What did they do when they were in government? They are only fighting to grab power, not because they could do anything better,” Governor Uba Sani said. Dismissing the wild allegations, the politicians heaped on President Tinubu and the APC, Governor Uba Sani insisted that no President in Nigeria’s contemporary history had ever practiced democracy like President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Governor Uba Sani cited the example of the very cordial working relationship between the Federal Government and the sub-nationals. “The President treats all the States and Governors equally irrespective of region or political parties. For the first time, we have a true democrat who actively fought for democracy as the President of Nigeria and it is not a surprise that finally we are now practicing true democracy in the country,” Uba Sani enthused.

Reeling out other achievements of the Tinubu administration, Governor Uba Sani particularly contended that States in Nigeria are now earning more money because of President Tinubu’s bold decision to withdraw subsidy on petroleum products. “But for the bold step the President took to withdraw subsidy on petroleum products, most States in the country would not have been able to pay salaries to workers not to talk of executing projects that would impact positively on the lives of the people that voted for us.” Given the huge debt burden he inherited in Kaduna State, Governor Uba Sani said the State would have been very badly impacted given that nearly N5 Billion is deducted every month at source from statutory allocations to the State to service the debt.

Moments after Governor Uba Sani made this comment, El Rufai who has been craving even the flimsiest of opportunities to lash out at his high-achieving successor in office, simply went bonkers. The cheeky man accused Governor Uba Sani of being “bribed” by President Bola Tinubu to defend his administration.

“Every day I see this Governor embarrassingly and sycophantically rambling, I used to wonder why? However, confirming that Federal Government ‘reimbursements, interventions and grants’ in excess of N150bn have been given selectively to Kaduna by Tinubu, in the last 18 months, now explains everything. By all means, defend Asiwaju for the conditional cash transfer. Asiwaju has earned it, coming from you. The people of Kaduna State will judge at the right time and place. Have a nice day,” El Rufai twitted via his verified X account.

This, of course is El Rufai at his devious, divisive and mischievous best. For a man who has previously served as a Minister and only just left office as a two-term Governor, El Rufai is well aware that the Federal Government occasionally approves the release of statutory grants to all (or any) qualified States of the federation. Same applies to due reimbursements and such other interventions. He also knows all too well that no State in the country, no matter how close the Governor of the State is to the President, gets any of these funds if it is not due or qualified for any. More importantly, El Rufai knows that the processes of releasing funds to states follow laid down procedures that involve a plethora of agencies of the Federal Government. However, it is very convenient for El Rufai to glibly twit that Governor Uba Sani is defending the President of his country and the Leader of his party because Mr. President is “dashing” his state money. Haba Mallam!

Truth is that, unlike El Rufai, Governor Uba Sani has lived his entire adult life fighting for the wellbeing and welfare of the people, particularly the downtrodden and underserved – the likes El Rufai abandoned in rural communities across Kaduna State. Unlike El Rufai, Uba Sani is not a power monger who grabs power for the heck of it. Governor Uba Sani is an empathetic transformational leader who deploys political power to free the people from the grip of poverty, illiteracy, insecurity and under-development.

As FCT Minister, Mallam El Rufai was one of the most vociferous defenders of his boss and party leader, President Olusegun Obasanjo. Similarly, as Governor of Kaduna State, El Rufai was even ready to die defending the President at the time and the leader of his party, President Mohammadu Buhari. Nobody queried his motive or dubiously alleged that he was defending his leaders because they were ‘dashing’ him (or his State) money. So, why is Governor Uba Sani’s stout defence and support for President Tinubu any different or suddenly induced by so-called ‘reimbursements, interventions and grants to Kaduna State.’

Clearly, Nasir El Rufai’s legendary failings can no longer be hidden. Neither should it be ignored by any right-thinking people. Worse still, Nasir El Rufai is shameless. He may well be overrated given that he ought to be familiar with the inimitable assertion of Karl Marx that shame is a revolutionary sentiment. In other words, all normal persons need to feel shame, occasionally, in order to grow to higher and better heights. Grow up Mallam.

Idris resides in Barnawa, Kaduna.