By Amajama Adam
Mallam Nasir el-Rufa’I is in a bind. Faced with his political winter, the former governor of Kaduna state is determined to drag down any and everyone his considers his political foe and albatross.
As the evolving social media influencer that he has become, el-Rufa’I has a fan base to grow, therefore, needs to build that base with salacious tales, rake mud against political office holders and skew narratives in manner that suggests that he is a social crusader for the public good. But history dictates otherwise.
It is surprising that a man that should seek for penance over his atrocious administration in Kaduna state for over eight years and before then his less than sterling time at the Bureau for Public Enterprises has the time to wax sanctimoniously on social media is rather unfortunate.
For context, the Kaduna state assembly in 2024 and recently found the former governor of misusing loans secured during his tenure and in some instances, proper procedures were not followed in obtaining them. The assembly further alleged that the El-Rufai’s administration misappropriated N423 billion, resulting in significant financial burdens for the state.
Rather than avail himself the leeway to defend himself, he ran to court alleging abuse of his fundamental rights while issuing press statements every other week.
For those who might have forgotten or not be in the know, the bitter puritan was wholly responsible for the collapse of NITEL, the country’s then national telecommunications national carrier, when he used a shadowy entity, Pentascope, to acquire the jewel of the country’s telecoms industry then without the requisite financial capacity of technical knowhow.
A 2003 House of Representatives report exposed the underbelly of el-Rufai’s alleged hypocrisy to mislead government and Nigerians about the Pentascope management contract.
The committee found that the evaluation of the bids was “suspect” and that Pentascope lied on its true legal status and origin, which el-Rufa’i covered up. It was discovered that Pentascope was supposedly registered on January 1, 2002, which was a public holiday in European countries. Despite these alleged inaccuracies and lies by Pentascope, el-Rufa’i imposed the Dutch company on NITEL and the result was predictable.
Immediately after the takeover by Pentascope, NITEL’s profits nose-dived from N15 billion in 2002 and turned it into a loss of N19 billion in 2003. The House Communications Committee report also said that NITEL’s turnover dropped from N53 billion to N41 billion. Despite the dramatic drop in turnover under Pentascope management, but direct and overhead costs increased from N21.3 billion to N26.3 billion and from N19.4 billion to N30 billion. Wonderful!
At present, two of el-Rufa’I’s henchmen are in custodial remand over corruption cases. And this is a fellow that yaps about amnesia!
It is no longer a subject of debate that he is bitter of not been in the Tinubu administration. His angst has blinded him to reasoning that he imagines that the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was instrumental to his not being cleared by the senate for a ministerial position, therefore his latest war of attrition.
For those who know el-Rufa’I and his brand of adversarial and jeunjeun politics, others must take the fall for his egregious behaviour. Taking responsibility for his hubris is never to be considered only when there are accolades.
Seeing him with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in a feeble attempt at a political alliance or front elicits chuckles. As they say, history doesn’t forget and it would be recalled how Atiku and el-Rufa’I were at each other in April 2013 and at different times over ‘sharing formula’ of Nigeria’s patrimony in the sharing of assets.
For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku had this to say of el-Rufa’I in the controversial sale of NITEL: “The fact of the contract are like this: Obasanjo agreed with the NCP that the former BPE DG was wrong not to have disclosed his interest and that he had failed the test of transparency by not disclosing that his brother was on the board of Motorola,” Atiku told The Punch.
“You know, for instance, that it is a very serious offence to fail, refuse or neglect to disclose your interest whether directly or through someone else, in dealing with such an important transaction. But, the President in his wisdom decided that the contract be split into three, with each of the contenders, Motorola, Ericsson and the Chinese company – I think Huawei – taking a portion. As if to vindicate the NCP, by 2007 when we left office, the two others apart from Motorola had completed their own contracts. You can go and find out if they (Motorola) have finished.
“He continued, “I would like Nigerians to be smart enough to read between the lines. Why does the former FCT minister treat the Motorola issue with such persistent personal bitterness? Why is he making it a heavy matter? Anybody can play to the gallery and deceive the people. Transparency is a key issue of conducting any business, including privatisation. Conflict of interest is inconsistent with transparency.
“If you are a privatisation head and you have a relationship with a particular person connected with one of the companies making bids, it is a moral and legal duty to disclose that relationship or interest. Pretending that you have no relationship with the person who is rooting for a particular bidder is not altogether tidy and transparent. If he had no interest in a particular company for sentimental reasons, why is he making too much fuss about Motorola losing the bid?”
It is instructive to state that NSA Ribabu is above the midget influencer of Kaduna. As the NSA, he is winning the war against insecurity and has almost eliminated inter-agency rivalry, boosted oil production and entrenching peace in the Niger Delta. The armed forces is at an all-time high in terms of motivation and professionalism.
While el-Rufa’I is in a miss-road political activism, the wheels of governance turns steadily and surely building a virile economy and giving all Nigerians a chance to be part of something enduring and meaningful.
Adam, a social thinker, writes from Abuja. He can be reached on adamajama199@aol.com
