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.
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.
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: “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 when 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 tagged, “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.
Abdu Abdullahi; aaringim68@gmail.com; 07036207998
