Date Published: 12/30/09

El-Rufai: Between Courage and Foolhardiness By Christian Amadi 

I felt happy when some time in November I read in several of our newspapers former FCT minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai’s letter to his friends and supporters notifying them that he will be coming back to his fatherland, on December 27 to confront his accusers and persecutors.  

Because I admire the former minister enormously for his public virtues and for his sterling performance as minister in-charge of Abuja, I had readied myself to mobilise thousands of his other known admirers to line the route of the airport he was to arrive at to welcome him. I had planned that we will display placards with the following sentiments: “Welcome, sojourner! Your country needs you.” “We need performers like el-Rufai.” El-Rufai: speak for us. We need blunt talkers.” I had planned that we will do all this and more to show our depth of positive feelings for el-Rufai. 

It was therefore something of a disappointment when it was announced by el-Rufai’s lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, that my hero will not be coming back to the country as planned. I was disappointed because I will no longer have the chance to publicly express my solidarity with Mallam el-Rufai. However, when I read further that the planned return was aborted due to cogent reasons having to do with the current political uncertainty and the security situation in the country, I felt relieved and at the same time happy that el-Rufai had taken a good decision.

A wise man does not confuse foolhardiness with courage. It would have been foolhardy for el-Rufai to walk into an open trap. It is no secret that those of who have hijacked this government from the invalid Yar’Adua do not want el-Rufai to come back to Nigeria and add his critical voice to those already existing. This explains why they had issued a warrant of arrest on el-Rufai to come and face treason charges. Treason charges are political in nature and it is doubtful if a noted and hated critic can face such a charge and have justice.

El-Rufai’s traducers are aware of the fact that the criminal charges against him are merely trumped up to smear him and that he stands no chance of conviction in court which is why they designed that he should face the more difficult treason charges. And it is good that he has decided not to give them joy by walking into a clear judicial ambush. 

Although el-Rufai did not specifically name the names of his friends and supporters to whom he addressed that letter, I had humbly numbered myself among millions of his supporters who feel outraged by the undisguised show of hostility by this administration towards him and his pal, Nuhu Ribadu. I would like to describe myself as one of millions of Nigerians who admire el-Rufai unrepentantly for his competence, his courage, his commitment to the service of the fatherland and his conviction about certain principles of life.

I particularly admire el-Rufai for his clarity of vision and his dogged commitment to achieving set goals. It is no exaggeration to say that since the demise of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, el-Rufai is one man we have seen in recent times in our public life who demonstrated a clear idea of what he wanted to accomplish in office for the greater good of the greatest number of the people and who pursued that goal with doggedness until he achieved it. Many of the public actors on our national stage today appear as if they are acting a drama consisting of an uncertain people confronting the unexpected. They do not appear to have any mission. We sorely miss people like el-Rufai who are intelligent, self-confident and self-assured. They know clearly where they are going and know how to mobilise good people to help them on their journey to reach their destination.

As minister of the FCT for four eventful years, el-Rufai set for himself a goal: to stop the bastardization of the idea of a modern capital for Nigeria and restore Abuja to the dream of its founding fathers. To help him achieve this objective, he assembled a team of enormously talented men and women, infused them with his enthusiasm and uncommon zeal and in no time Abuja was saved the fate of becoming an urban jungle like Lagos. He knew exactly what he wanted to achieve for Abuja and set out to do just that. No amount of orchestrated campaign and conspiracy to distract and frustrate him succeeded. That is the kind of man we need in Nigeria now.

It is unfortunate that in our country we appear to hate good people and to love flatterers, bootlickers and the inept and those who are given to evil. It is based on this negative principle that the Yar’Adua administration has done so much to destroy el-Rufai’s reputation and to rubbish his sterling performance as the most successful minister the FCT has ever had since it came into being in 1975.

Some of us are angered that instead of seeking to benefit from el-Rufai’s can- do spirit, this administration that lacks men and women of competence has chosen to be so antagonistic to el-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu.

This government has not hidden its attitude that it regards el-Rufai as one of its prime enemies. That is why it has come out that the machinery of government had been put in place to give el-Rufai a maximum rude welcome; to slam him with treason charges. The plan is that as soon as he arrives, the police will handcuff him and lead him away in a blaze of publicity in order to portray him as no more than a common criminal and an enemy of the state. Since a majority of discerning Nigerians are aware of the hostility of this government towards el-Rufai, no one will think that the courage to come home has deserted him at the last minute. As we have said earlier, there is a difference between courage and foolhardiness.

A wise man sees a trap and takes steps to avoid it but a foolish man sees the same trap and walks blindly into it.  

Mr. Amadi is an Abuja-based writer and public affairs commentator