EL-RUFAI: The Ruffling of a Ruffler By Charles Ohia

ANY FOOL CAN CRITICIZE, CONDEMN, AND COMPLAIN…….AND MOST FOOLS DO, BUT IT TAKES CHARACTER AND SELF CONTROL TO BE UNDERSTANDING AND FORGIVING WHEN CRITICIZED’’- DALE CARNEGIE


The democratic experience in Nigeria is one that exemplifies governance as being a tad too complex; politics as being treacherous; and politicians as hypocrites who would say about anything just so they can win the votes of the electorate and get into power.

That the All Progressives Congress (APC); Nigeria’s ruling party, rode to power leveraging on a well oiled machinery of propaganda, criticism , deceit , hypocrisy and in certain extreme instances outright fallacy, is no longer news to those who have ardently followed recent developments on the Nigerian socio-political landscape .

The leading lights of the APC ensured that they provided unsuspecting Nigerians with enough political missiles with which the self styled largest party in Africa; the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was brought down to electoral earth. Not that the PDP covered itself up in glory, it must be said. Of those leading lights, one who stood out, shining like a million stars in the propaganda galaxy of the APC is Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai; the diminutive, intelligent yet highly vulgar Governor of Kaduna State.

A casual perusal of El-Rufai’s twitter page prior to his being elected Governor, revealed a concise one liner that was an apt summarization of the man. It read: Ruffler of Feathers. And ruffle the government of President Jonathan he did. Relentlessly, inexorably, passionately and with so much gusto that you would think his life depended on it. In his sordid attempt to gravely misinform and misguide gullible Nigerians, El-Rufai gave himself up as a deeply ungrateful man by setting out to malign, undermine and impugn a sitting President.

Suffice it to say that President Jonathan it was who practically handed El-Rufai the freedom to return to Nigeria, when he was virtually smoked into exile by the government of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. But you see, the global political terrain is one which is riddled with landmines planted specifically for the purpose of ensuring that the permanency of interests is a far more attractive proposition that that of friendships.

Therefore, it came as no surprise that El-Rufai; whose first official visit on his return to Nigeria was to Aso Rock to show his appreciation to President Jonathan, went for the jugular of the man who made it possible for his forced exile to be cut short. And he went about it in the most disdainful, odious, discourteous and devious of ways possible. Throwing caution to the wind and good reason to the dogs, El-Rufai denigrated the Office of the President of the Federal Republic with panache. He was uncouth, vapid and cantankerous in his criticisms as well as ungentlemanly in his public conduct, utterances and mannerism.

Cheering El-Rufai on from the sidelines was an army of very impressionable youthful followers whose educational qualification you won’t want to question based on the proclivity of these young men and women to gluttonously gobble every dish of disgruntlement served up by El-Rufai on his popular social media platform, twitter; without as much as questioning the condiments or recipe at his disposal . For them, as long as it came from the Mallam, it was scrumptious. These youths it was that helped in no small measure to persistently propagate the fallacies of El-Rufai all in the name of criticism.

As a private citizen, you would be tempted to forgive El-Rufai’s irresponsibility as a function of his misguided declarations. However, like the maxim goes, with power comes responsibility. It was thus a shell shocked audience at a town hall meeting in Kaduna last week, that listened to their Governor spew out the words that have since made headline news across Nigeria. In a spasm of neurotic arrogance typical of him, he said:

‘’IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY WITH HEARING THE TRUTH, YOU CAN GO AND CLIMB KUFENA MOUNTAIN, AND JUMP’’.

He practically stopped short of adding ‘’and die’’. Considering that the elevation of Kufena Mountain above sea level is 822meters, it definitely would take the grace of God for anyone to survive a fall from that height. One would have thought that as Governor, El-Rufai would shed his huge baggage of uncouth speech. But hey, not even the heaviest of rainfalls can wash off the spots of a leopard. Habits die hard, especially when they are bad habits and El-Rufai’s case is a perfect exemplification.

Wishing death on citizens is not part of the social contract of governance, but it does seem that it is becoming fashionable to the extent of being elevated to a state policy status for the APC government. Recall that only two years ago, Adams Oshiomhole; the rabidly vacuous and shamelessly loquacious Governor of Edo State had asked a street trader in full glare of a shocked nation to ‘’go and die’’, because she had the effrontery to plead for forgiveness from his Royal Majesty.

Ironically, El-Rufai’s highly ludicrous statement was made as a consequence of criticisms pertaining to the lopsided and inappropriate nature of his appointments by those who voted him into office.

The fact that an El-Rufai who dispensed criticisms on a daily in the last political dispensation as if he were handing out Christmas presents, cannot stomach a dose of his own medicine is nothing short of being preposterous. The man for whom ruffling feathers came as second nature could not bear the very thought of his state citizens staring diffidently at his own feathers and telling him to his face how hideous they look.

Curiously, if you were expecting the foot soldiers in the El-Rufai social media army to condemn his distasteful vituperation, it would probably have been easier asking for the moon. The deafening silence that greeted the faux pas by El-Rufai is a testament to the hypocrisy that has become an insignia for the APC. It must be said at this point that the reinvention of our country would continue to be a pipe dream as long as citizens choose to criticize issues of national importance solely on the basis of partisanship or on the individual or group of individuals involved. That said, the APC and its followers have a pathetic bunch of hypocrites who lose their collective voices when it counts the most.

Unfortunately for Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, there are three more years during which his feathers would be continuously ruffled. But l have an advice for him. If he cannot stand the heat, he should get out, of not just the kitchen alone but the entire house. The Kaduna State Government house that is.

Better still, he can go climb the Kufena Mountain and fall off it.

Charles Ohia is an Environmental Management Consultant and his tweet prints can be found via @9jaBloke