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NASIR EL RUFAI AND NUHU: THE
ROUGH AND TUMBLE OF POLITICS IN NIGERIA
By Jide Ayobolu
Oct 18, 2006
ideayobolu@yahoo.co.uk
My first impression after reading the
interview which both Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the minister of the federal
capital territory and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) granted some national dailies recently
is that, there are many things that were left unsaid, but which gave more
telling signals, about the intents and mindset of these two characters in
question. These young men are desperate political power seekers; they want
to be at the commanding heights of Nigeria’s political economy. So, what
they claim to be doing now, which is the implementation of various reforms
agenda, of which the fight against corruption is a part and, which
carries with it, misanthropic economic programmes that have brought untold
hardship on the people, as well as the selective, vindictive, undemocratic
and vicious nature of the lopsided graft campaign, are all done this
worrisome way, just because, the so-called economic reform team, have
become, contending power agitators, and desperately wants to control
political power in Nigeria.
Two, Obasanjo is politically naďve, he thinks
everything is all about power, and the use of brute force, he does not
appreciate the importance of intellectual brainstorming exercises as well
as strategic thinking. Hence, there is no way he could have known that, he
is held hostage by these two birds of similar plumage, and they are
somehow setting up the president, without the president knowing and
exposing him deliberately to attacks and mortal punches that can abruptly
truncate his government. Albeit, on the surface, they pretend, as though,
they are defending the president, they behave as if they are loyal and
committed to noble and refined ideals that can catapult the country to the
apogee of growth and development.
In the said interview, both El-Rufai and
Ribadu said that, the Nigerian problem is purely and simply the problem of
ignoring the rule of law. And when you have a society of anything goes,
then you can’t make any progress. This is a very interesting statement.
But these are the two people in the country, apart from the president
himself, who behave as if they are above the law, on many occasions when
court orders restrain El-Rufai from demolishing structures and buildings
in Abuja, he flagrantly disobeyed such court orders with impunity, and
went ahead with the demolition exercise, which displaced so many people,
and have resulted in social dislocation as well as increase in the rate of
crime and anti-social activities in Abuja.
Similarly, there are numerous court orders
asking Ribadu’s EFCC to release people on bail, usually these are people
who have been unlawfully detained and are yet to be charged to court. But
EFCC has bluntly refused, and kept such people in solitary confinement.
Ribadu will go on television and abuse people, calling them unprintable
names, when they have not been so adjudged by any court of competent
jurisdiction, which is undoubtedly a violation of the fundamental human
rights of the people involved in this horrendous development. The point
that should be made here is that, these two people are guilty of
lawlessness, they live outside the law, and they behave as if they are law
unto themselves, they don’t have respect for the Judiciary, law courts,
due process, the constitution and the rule of law. And, the alternative to
all of this is anarchy.
Therefore, it is very obvious that, they do
not know what the tenets of democracy are. The have not in any way imbibed
democratic ethos. Perhaps, they would have served better under military
rule. In fact, the way and manner they even carry on now, they are not
accountable to anybody but themselves. This because they want power at all
cost, what they now do is to paint every other person black, discredit
them and portray them as no do-gooders, particularly those are interested
in political power, the idea is to present themselves alone, as the only
good people, the only clean people and the only people that can lead
Nigeria to the promise land, hence, in the process of their sly and
serpentine political scheming and manipulations to get power in the final
analysis, not only do they heat up the polity unnecessarily, they tell
blatant lies, give a false impression of themselves and sinuously hide
their penchant for political power, however in the said interview, they
gave a hint on their quest for power, when they were asked, what if they
call you to be president? They answered; it depends on who calls you. The
point here is, they are indeed political power seekers, and they are very
desperate about it and can do anything to get it. This has been played out
over time in the country.
The also speak about the political face-off
between the president and the vice-president, and they said that most of
the information given by the VP side is false; it is a case of forgery.
This claim by the duo cannot be true, only time will tell, more so that,
the senate committee will soon begin its hearing where all the facts will
be laid bear for all Nigerians and indeed the whole world to see. Again,
it is very important to point out that, all the cheques that have been
released by the VP side are not forged as claimed by the controversial
duo, in fact, in all cases, those who collected cheques said, yes, they
collected but for different reasons. So, Afe Babalola, Samuel Ogbomudia,
Lamide Adegbenro, Bodunde Adeyanju, all collected cheques from the MOFAS
and Marine Float accounts, at the instance of the president at one time or
the other. Initially, it will be recalled that the presidential aides
said, Obasanjo had nothing to do at all with these two accounts in
question, as well as the PTDF funds, that the president is above board or
beyond reproach, only for El-Rufai and Ribadu to unwittingly admit that,
Bodunde Adeyanju only collected a paltry sum of N17million from the
controversial account but the P.A. to the V.P. collected N400million,
hence, the VP is more guilty. The point the VP’s camp has always made is
that, there is no link between the PTDF account and the MOFAS as well as
Marine Float accounts, two, that these two accounts were the joint account
for the Obasanjo/Atiku campaign organization for the 2003 presidential
election, while the aides of the president maintained that, these accounts
were conduit pipes through which funds were siphoned from the PTDF account
for personal use, so, why the sudden change of account by those who claim
to be speaking for the president?
Not only this, if the president did not
benefit from these accounts, how come he refunded, N50million to Plateau
State government? But El-Rufai and Ribadu engaged in audacious mendacity
and wanton prevarications, and remarked saying, “the VP said he was broke
but the president felt, as leader they should take responsibility for it,
the president had to pay off the money on behalf of the VP”, so, when did
the president start to be magnanimous with funds? The position of the two
people are not supported by commonsense and facts. They also admitted
after initial and several earlier denials that, indeed, the president
bought shares in Transcorp, they again confessed that, “Transcorp has
certain government shareholders and that the same Transcorp is buying
government assets”. So to them, it is a conflict of interest, but not
corruption issue. But the question is who is defining corruption in this
instance? If this not corruption, then what is corruption? This is the
problem about fighting corruption in Nigeria, when it is the president and
those that have found favour with him, it is conflict of interest or error
of judgment that can be easily glossed over, but when it is the perceived
enemy of the president then, it is corruption, that must be decisively
dealt with by the full weight of the law, they must be exposed, they must
be painted very black to serve as deterrence to others, they is no
forgiveness for them. They must be taken to the cleaners, they must be
disgraced, this is their own perspective is how to fight corruption in the
country. If this is not corruption, why did Chief Gani Fawehinmi take this
particular case to the code of conduct bureau for the president to be
properly sanctioned?
It is a very imperative to underscore the fact
that, the president is being set up by these hawks and to systematically
discredit him in the eyes of everybody, so that, the coast can be cleared
for them to contest for the highest position in the land. Moreover, I am
not surprise at the way the duo threw insults at the VP that helped him to
become whatever they have become today, it was the same thing El-Rufai
did to Zaydad of TCPC who was his godfather, this is the same El-Rufai who
the House of Representatives said is a rogue and emotionally unstable,
therefore unfit to hold public office, again, in Nigeria before the law
courts upturned the verdict, and instead of him to be remorseful, he
called the members of the House of Representatives, fools, this is a man
who paid female corpers in dollars and lied that they were world bank
consultants, this is a man who was unable to come out clean from the
Pentascope deal, yet, this is the same person talking about corruption in
Nigeria. It is as a result of the lawlessness of these guys that some
much, needless tension and chaos pervades the polity. The fact of the
matter today is that these duo who claim to be fighting corruption are not
only common thieves, they are more patently and rabidly corrupt than those
they paint as corrupt.
Until we do away with these kinds of dangerous
pretenders and have serious minded people in government, who truly love
Nigeria, not because of what they stand to gain, but to contribute their
quote to the all-round development of the Nigerian state, then the country
will continue to move aimlessly about in search of what is not lost.
By Jide Ayobolu
No 19 Gongola Street
Garki 2
Abuja
Nigeria.
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