Date Published: 12/18/09

Let the Senate apologise to Nasir el-Rufai By Godwin Atah 

Our people have a saying that it is only when a man is married to more than one wife that he can really get to know who among the women in his life loves and cares for him the most. This saying is certainly not an endorsement of polygamy. Rather, it is a philosophical observation that in human relationship and situations, it is more helpful to look at people and situations in comparison with others. It is only then that we can better appreciate people and circumstances.

In the case of a polygamous man he may get to learn to his surprise that his first wife whom he used to regard as a she-devil is actually the woman who means well for him and is the pillar of his home and estate and that his later wives are parasites who came to feed fat on his wealth and name.

We are also taught by this wise saying that if you have leaders, do not rush to judge them either too harshly or too favourably until you have had the benefit of weighing them against others.

This observation has come to my mind after having observed in only about two and a half years the performances of two ministers of the Federal Capital Territory who have succeeded Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. Dr. Modibbo Umar succeeded el-Rufai in 2007. What many Nigerians and especially residents of the FCT remember Modibbo for is that through out his tenure he kept talking about a certain project he wanted to embark upon called Abuja Boulevard. What is also remarkable about his tenure is that he did all he could to show that his former friend and predecessor el-Rufai was not better than him. He also engaged in a titanic turf fight with his minister of state, Akpan John Udoudoedehe. The fight proved politically fatal as both of them were sacked in a cabinet reshuffle.

There is no known legacy that one can point to as an achievement or accomplishment of Modibbo’s stay as FCT minister except we want to mention the UN award he got for banning smoking in public places in the FCT.

After Modibbo’s rather uneventful and short tenure, he was succeeded by the current man Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero. Under Aliero now, residents of the FCT are audibly grumbling that garbage is not cleared in time and that the grasses are allowed to grow uncontrollably. The city is not as clean as when el-Rufai was in-charge here. What history will record about Aliero is that under his stewardship, Abuja became the most expensive city in the world to live in. Since the coming of Aliero, sundry charges for living in Abuja or owning or trying to own land or property in the city have gone up over nearly one thousand per cent. A few weeks back, the FCT administration under Aliero’s charge came out with what it called tenement rate charges which have been roundly condemned by residents as the charges are so outrageous that no one would pay. Yet, in spite of the numerous levies imposed by Aliero, services in the city have deteriorated sharply. Contracts for projects in the city are talked about in billions but you do not see new settlements and new districts being opened up as in the good old times of el-Rufai.

In short, Abuja has been worse off under Modibbo and Aliero than it was in the time of el-Rufai. If truth must be told, the difference between el-Rufai and his successors is clear. While the short giant provided a visionary and dynamic leadership, the other two have been rather lackluster. They approached the job with a lack of enthusiasm and initiative.

It is clear to even el-Rufai’s worst enemies that el-Rufai had a consuming passion to work for the beauty and functionality of Abuja. His successors have lacked his dynamism, his passion and his sense of manifest destiny to create one of the best modern cities in the world.

Quite sadly, el-Rufai got vilified mostly for the very courageous decisions he had to take which made him excel. He was called a demolisher and an inhuman reformist devoid of the milk of human kindness. He was accused of conflict of interest just because he gave a few plots of land (12) to some of his friends and relatives out of the over 27, 000 plots he gave to other Nigerians. Today, allegations are coming out thick that more than half of the plots of land that Aliero has so far allocated have gone to Nigerians from the Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara axis, the political base of Adamu Aliero. We also hear of Aliero’s nepotistic appointments into some of the parastatals and agencies of the FCT. In fact, all the accusations leveled against el-Rufai when compared to what Modibbo did and what Aliero is doing now make el Rufai a saint.

Where, today, is the Senate, which with the obvious prompting of some members of the Executive, held a vindictive hearing whose chief aim was to denigrate, demonise and humiliate el-Rufai? Why did we not hear any lament from the ‘hallowed chambers’ of the Senate against the incompetence of Modibbo and the continuing display of incompetence of Adamu Aliero? All manners of people who were affected by the el-Rufai’s well-meaning efforts to sanitise Abuja were mobilised to denounce the man. It was so very unfair and very shameful that a body like the Senate which is supposed to comprise some of the wisest and most honourable men and women in the land was a willing tool in the character assassination of a citizen who had done so much for the fatherland.

It is like the heavens are punishing Nigerians and especially residents of the FCT for the ingratitude the Senate heaped on el-Rufai who did so much to make this city a beautiful and functional one by giving us people to succeed him who are clearly incompetent.  

If our Senate is peopled by men of integrity and fairness and courage, I invite them today to move a motion apologizing to el-Rufai for the campaign of hate waged against him by the Senate Committee on the FCT.

Having seen that el-Rufai dwarfs his two successors in terms of achievements and fairness, the Senate should apologise to him for portraying him as an unjust man. It is even more painful that some members of that committee who do not have one tenth the gift of intelligence, the can-do spirit and public virtues which el-Rufai possesses were even saying that he should be banned from holding public office. They even wanted to become a god over el-Rufai’s destiny! What impudence. 

Mr.Atah lives at 36 Gongola Street, Area 2, Garki, Abuja