El-Rufai Among Other Dictators
BY PROF TUNGA LERGO
I have been waiting this long for El-Rufai to deny the video clip on social media that makes childish, mean and Christo-phobic remarks about Southern Kaduna to a group of Muslim clerics, but this has not happened. So, it is authentic. It’s unfortunate.
Paradise, it was.
It was a paradise growing up in the former capital of the northern region of Kaduna, with Igbos, Hausa, Yoruba and hundreds of ethnic groups and religions. Back in my village in Southern Kaduna, my grandfather was the friend of the only two Fulani families — all nomads — so to this day my clan has cordial family bonds with them.
My uncle in Kaduna brought me up. I still recollect, with euphoria, my early days in that blessed town shared with Muslim friends as well as Igbo and Yoruba friends. Most of my friends were Hausas (or Hausa Fulani) Muslims. Oh! How Christian and Muslim families sent food gifts during Christmas and Sallah celebrations!
During the Christmas celebration, Muslims and Christians would exchange wishes/gifts of Merry Christmas; and during Sallah (Eid al-Fitr), Christians and Muslims would exchange wishes/gifts of Barka da Sallah. Oh, happy days, especially for children waiting for treats that came twice a year. It didn’t matter if you were Christian or Muslim. The idea was that you were born one or the other, so there were no forced conversions.
I love my Muslim friends, most of whom attended primary and secondary schools (all Catholic) with me. I recollect how in Unguwar Rimi, I used to wait for my Muslim friends to return from Friday prayers so we could go fishing together. I would stand by the side of the road as they and their fathers went by in their Friday attire carrying prayer mats; I would make sign language to my friends, reminding them about going fishing. Oh, what joyous times!
I also recollect Maimuna, a very pious Muslim beggar who lived next to my uncle in a beautiful house with her pious Muslim husband, Ali. She used to feed me with her delicious home-cooked food. All these relationships informed my contemporary conscience of the Kaduna Christian-Muslim relationship, despite current attempts by some politicians, like El-Rufai, to manipulate religion for devilish, selfish outcomes. At that time, the Sardauna was the father of all Northerners — at least, so we thought.
Paradise Lost.
That childhood paradise gradually began to be lost in the late 1980s when I was a graduate student at ABU. Early in the morning one day, the campus woke up to find banners plastered over the university’s north gate and on other places on the campus. They all had the inscription “Islam Only.” This was the beginning of the gradual loss of paradise in the north. Clearly, someone was pushing an agenda. As Karl Marx proclaimed, religion is the opium of the masses.
With the new Muslim worldview of “Islam Only,” Muslims began to purge Kaduna State communities of Christians and Christian influences. The seed of religious suspicion and mistrust was sown. The once diverse, harmonious, and peaceful capital became residentially divided along religious lines. The once peaceful, secured, agricultural area of Southern Kaduna became the target of a Fulani Jihad, with devastating consequences to date. It’s now Nigeria’s most unsecured, underdeveloped, religiously, and ethnically cleansed area.
Transcendence governors of Kaduna and the need for a messiah!
With the emergence of democracy during the second and third Republics, fair-minded politicians have tried to regain the lost paradise of connected communities of religious and ethnic groups by governing fairly, transcending religion and ethnicity. Some people are worth mentioning; for example, Balarabe Musa (Muslim, PRP). A man of simplicity, integrity, and selflessness, he transcended religion and ethnicity while governing Kaduna State before the new worldview of “Islam Only.”
Southern Kaduna was treated like any other part of the state during the two years of his rule from 1979-1981 (the Fulani party of NPN impeached him in 1981). Muslims and Christians lived together in peace. There was neither a Southern Kaduna nor Northern Kaduna. There was no poor or rich, at least in mindset. We were all one in humanity. Balarabe Musa publicly voiced this philosophy until his death in 2020. One can deduce that people did not see him as carrying the flag of Dan Fodio because he governed fairly. That was why he was impeached.
The next Kaduna State Governor was Ahmed Makarfi (Muslim-Christian ticket, PDP). He was Governor from 1999-2007. He introduced the Sharia law system into the state judiciary, which led to a series of killings and destruction of worship places. This was the second phase of “Islam Only.” Ahmed Makarfi was able to diffuse the situation through transparency, introducing a triple legal system of common law, Sharia law, and customary law.
He did this through mediation and transparency as well as respecting and liaising with traditional and religious leaders — not by being an extremist/jihadist and dictator/tyrant. Like other transcendence and democratic leaders, he had a confident personality and did not need to ingratiate himself with Muslims, Christians, or other ethnic groups to be effective. Though his tenure was not a win for Southern Kaduna, at least it provided crumbs for the people living there and helped establish the culture of PDP in Southern Kaduna. In some Southern Kaduna villages, he is still hailed as a good governor, though he has been silent on the pogrom taking place in Southern Kaduna.
The next governor worth mentioning is Patrick Yakowa (PDP Christian-Muslim ticket by default). Due to the providence of circumstances, he was elected as governor in 2010. However, providence impeached him when he died in a 2012 helicopter crash. He was a true Christian who tried to govern fairly to a fault. He neglected the Christian and Southern communities to ingratiate himself with the Muslims or be seen to be fair. Thus, he packed all his eggs in one basket. Perhaps he had the intention of helping the Christian and Southern communities later. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to do so.
The common thread that links these men is their political intelligence and godliness. All three recognised Kaduna State’s diversity and the need to govern fairly to bring unity. Only tyrants or dictators lack such intelligence; as history has proved, they suffer from an inferiority complex.
El-Rufai: Mini Buhari of Kaduna State!
And now comes the evil one: the tyrant and dictator-Governor, Nasiru El Rufai (Muslim- Christian ticket, later Muslim-Muslim ticket, APC). Having dropped the PDP flag in Abuja, he rode on a taqiyya horse into Kaduna with the APC Fulani flag seeking to transform Kaduna State into his image and liking, which meant Fulani Islam only. He must have seen himself as a neo-Jihadist, a Sardauna’s grandson, and Usman Dan Fodio’s great-great-great grandson.
His calling was to complete the fulanisation of Nigeria, using Kaduna State as a political laboratory. While some of us hailed his coming and even wrote about him as a young progressive leader in the tradition of Aminu Kano, Tafawa Balewa, Balarabe Musa, Abubakar Rimi of Kano, and Professor Bala Usman, we soon realized that we had been deceived and that we were dealing with evil.
El-Rufai’s eight years as governor of Kaduna State (2015-2023) will go down in history as the greatest historical tragedy for Kaduna State. His divisiveness was unprecedented. His disrespect for traditional rulers and institutions (particularly those in Southern Kaduna) was unprecedented. His hatred of non-Fulani Muslims and anything non-Fulani was unprecedented. His biased/skewed development of the state was unprecedented.
In addition to the crisis started with the ‘Islam Only’ jihad battle cry between Christians and Muslims, his regime ushered in new crises, leading to the intense ethno-religious genocide of Southern Kaduna peoples. The operating template was Fulani herders’ terrorism, through kidnappings, raiding of villages at night, and murders. El-Rufai disempowered traditional rulers and prominent figures. His government confiscated Southern Kaduna farmlands, settling Fulani herdsmen there under the guise of government-termed “transnational” rights of Fulani to land anywhere in Africa.
Typical tyrannical behavior exhibited in El-Rufai’s last two weeks as governor!
Suffering from inferiority complexes, tyrants and dictators must always show off to feel good. They use the instruments of power and authority to replace their lack of confidence with a puffed-up ego. Leaders and figures like Balarabe Musa, Aminu Kaduna, Tafawa Balewa, Professor Bala Usman and Wole Soyinka don’t need a political office for self-actualization. Tyrants like El-Rufai do.
Instead of going “quietly into the night,” El-Rufai did what people with inferiority complexes always do. He celebrated how he had destroyed the venerable. These are some of the actions he took against Southern Kaduna during his last two weeks as governor, as documented in a Southern Kaduna Diaspora (SOKAD-USA) press release:
He demoted His Royal Highness the Etum Numana (General Aliyu Iliyah Yammah (ret’d), reduced him to the Chief of Arak, and then deposed him. Similarly, he deposed the paramount ruler of the Piriga Chiefdom, His Highness Jonathan Paragua Zamuna.
He sacked three District Heads of Aban, Abujan Mada, and Anjil in the Arak Chiefdom.
He engaged in the targeted killings of prominent Southern Kaduna leaders, such as Dr. Yakubu Sankey, former Director General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS).
He demolished homes, businesses, and churches in the Gbayi Villas community in Southern Kaduna.
He proscribed the Atyap Community Development Association.
The people of Southern Kaduna were suffering before El-Rufai, but he took it to the highest level with zealousness. Southern Kaduna has yet to experience the full economic and social impact of El-Rufai APC’s eight years of dictatorship and tyranny. Southern Kaduna communities have always complained, but to no avail. El-Rufai’s human rights violations are huge and warrant prosecution for war crimes. However, no action has been taken yet. With more pressure from human rights organizations, pressure groups and associations, we hope this will change.
Nationalisation/globalisation of the Kaduna Evil and Southern Kaduna’s plight
A video clip that went viral on social media and the internet brought national and global awareness to the evil that El-Rufai has perpetuated against Southern Kaduna people and Kaduna State Christians. The world can now hear what Southern Kaduna citizens have been experiencing from the devil’s mouth. It’s authentic and not AI created. In the video, he speaks in Hausa (interestingly, not Fulfulde) to a group of Imams and Muslims. He boasts about his and APC’s achievement at Islamizing Kaduna. He blusters about how he has succeeded in relegating Christians to second-class citizens and rendering their voting power useless.
Then he preens about how he hopes to replicate the Kaduna model nationally. He has unmasked his evil for the nation and world to see how he conceived, funded, and perpetuated the colonization of Fulani terrorism, kidnappings, and murders in Southern Kaduna. Finally, El-Rufai admitted to the plight of Southern Kaduna’s people and his role in it.
For now, true Nigerians and APC members should pray that such a person is not given a federal appointment. How can someone like El-Rufai hold a national office?
Paradise regained?
There is still hope for Kaduna State. There is a new APC administration. There is hope that Uba Sani will be his own man, not someone’s puppet. We call on Uba Sani: You are young (52) and have been a senator. We ask you to cultivate the mindset of people like Balarabe Musa and Makarfi, — true Muslims who transcended religion when given the responsibility of governing a diverse State. El-Rufai might have helped you to be governor, but don’t emulate his behavior. Be a modern young man who serves not one group but all the groups living in Kaduna State.
I speak for many by joining with the President of Southern Kaduna Diaspora (SOKAD-USA), Dr. Freeman Kamuru, in a press release appealing to you:
Transcend religion and ethnicity and govern with fairness and justice. Reinstate and reinstall the two Monarchs and the three District Heads deposed during El-Rufai’s last days as governor; unite us- Christians and Muslims. Let the two religions return to the tradition of reciprocity of gift giving during Christmas and Sallah celebrations.
Professor Lergo teaches Sociology, at Santa Fe College, Gainesville, Florida, USA
