allAfrica.com: Nigeria: El-Rufai's Hollow Defence (Page 1 of 1)

'In time of war truth becomes so sacred that it must be attended by a body guard of lies' – Winston Churchill

In my cogitation of the events which took place at the Senate probe of the FCT administration on April 30, 2008, I have been unable to find anything spectacular or convincing about Mallam Nasir el-Rufai's defence of his tenure.

Yet, I have read a few jejune accounts which sounded like tales from moonlight. Some of these phantom tales of a fantastic performance by a man whose sight provokes public odium on account of the so many inhuman acts he perpetrated while acting as the Emperor of Abuja, leaves one wondering whether we are living in wonderland. We may really be living in a world of utopia for some persons to presume our memories too short and narrow to understand issues in their proper perspective. Thus, in their embarrassingly poor eulogies for their "hero", some of the writers have tended to speak from a blank - perhaps, oblivious of the fact that the events at the Senate probe are very much in the public domain. Jaded and inelegant as they are, some indicate a poor understanding of the facts in issue in the FCT probe, and, some times, suggest an orchestrated attempt to "dress a corpse in glittering garments", just to give it a saintly look. But they forget that a corpse remains a corpse, no matter how elegant and pompous it might look in the linen in which it is wrapped. And so, we must enter a demurrer on the vexatious and orchestrated attempts to present a drab show as a "fantastic performance" by a man doomed to constant hunt by the many souls he had inflicted with pain and agony while he ruled the FCT as a tyrant.

Days before his appearance at the public hearing in which a litany of bizarre and gruesome testimonies have been given regarding the bestial activities of the defunct administration, el-Rufai had boasted that he was set to "spill the beans" and to "dismantle the heaps of allegations against him with facts and figures". In an interview he granted to Daily Trust and published on April 28 - two days before his appearance at the probe, the man in his usual arrogant self-assured manner, had boasted of opening the Pandora's box that would supposedly shock Nigerians. Before then, however, el-Rurfai, though his cronies and surrogates, had attempted to tar some members of the Senator Sodangi - led panel with cheap blackmail as a strategy to brow beat the Senate and stall the exposition of his misdeeds. Unfortunately, his so many subterfuges and empty theatrics could not work.

In that interview, el-Rufai had boasted: "It is also good for the truth to come out because this kind of hearing enables every one to come out with his complaints. As long as I have the opportunity to defend myself, to tell my own side of the story, Nigerians are better for it. I am now prepared, and I am preparing. The hearing is continuous and every single day new issues come up and I keep updating myself. I am fully prepared to explain every action I have taken because everything I have done in the FCT is based on policy; is based on rules and is based on logic" (underlining mine). I wonder which Nigerians el-Rufai says will be better for hearing his own side of the story - the thousands of Nigerians who died as a direct consequence of his insensate and bestial acts? Or the survivors like Dr. Ahmadu Ali, Senators Anyim Pius Anyim and Jonathan Zingwina and a host of others who are still nursing the wounds inflicted on them by a callous administration? Who will speak for the dead?

El-Rufai also boasted: "… I come from the tradition in which public service is serving God and humanity, and you don't go into public service to take care of yourself or your spouses…" Yet, he argues that "there were no rules that his family members, who are Nigerians, were not entitled to plots of land". The contradiction in these two statements is too glaring to be ignored. The truth is that el-Rufai was being clever by half. In fact, it is senseless to boast that he comes from a tradition which considers public office as service to God and humanity and which does not see it as an opportunity to take care of oneself and his spouses, yet attempts to defend a clearly self serving and selfish conduct of allocating plots of lands to every member of the el-Rufai clan on the ground that they are Nigerians. They may well be, but I wonder whether el-Rufai has ever heard of something called "Abuse of Office"!

Perhaps, the most stupid and intemperate claim made by el-Rufai in that interview is the one in which he claimed to have acquired the 'wicked skills' he displayed in Abuja during his terror reign, from Barewa College. He said: "… I went to Barewa College, which has produced many leaders for this country, including the current President. We were brought up to know that it is a responsibility to serve others; to take care of the problems of others…" This ungodly attempt to smear the good image of Barewa College by a man considered as one of the ten most hated Nigerians alive is a sacrilege which must be roundly condemned. Indeed, if el-Rufai is an example of the famed Barewa College, then there is no need for sane and rational people to attend that college any more. However, while the man may have passed through the college, he certainly did not allow the college to pass through him. In other words, el-Rufai falls by far short of the "learning and character" requirement which reputable institutions like the Barewa College insist on. Pray, why is it that President Yar'Adua is lawful while el-Rufai was lawless? Yet, they are supposedly products of the same great college!

Against the background of his boastings, one had expected him to defend himself creditably with cogent facts and figures as he earlier claimed. But rather than do so, the man churned out tissues of lies against the dead and the living - often attempting to convert such a sacred arena into a circus show as he pranced and jumped about, even as the committee allowed him such baffling indulgencies. With a Quoran in his hand, el-Rufai lied over Senator Ahmadu Ali's house, which he callously demolished on the wild claim that it was sitting on a phantom sewage; as he did on so many other issues before the Committee. And this is supposed to be the traits of a product of Barewa College! In some instances during his April 30th appearance, el-Rufai pretended to suffer memory loss as he randomly claimed not to remember certain facts about important allegations against him. And when it suited him, he claimed that he acted on rules, policy and logic during his tenure. Indeed, el-Rufai was boastful and arrogant, rude and ungracious even to the dead, insolent and cruel to the victims of his mal-administration. There was no sober moment for him and he arrogantly squandered a golden opportunity to say: "I am sorry"- a short statement which would have effectively extenuated his sins before God and man!

By constantly making reference to "policy", "rules" and "logic", he exhibited such shocking poor intellect that belied the purported claim by some to his fabled brilliance. It is only a morbid mind that would audaciously assume that policy and logic are superior to the Constitution of the land. Take for instance, his bold face claim of not knowing that the Land Use Act which is part of the extant Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is superior to a purported Act of the FCT with regard to land allocation and ancillary matters. Take for another, his blind insistence that service of court orders would only be proper when served on him personally as minister. But even a secondary school student knows that public offices are no personification of persons, given their transient nature. After all, "Soldier go, Soldier come but the Barrack remains", is an elementary adage which goes to the root of the nature of public offices the world over.

Perhaps, the most uncharitable testimony of el-Rufai before the Senate Committee was his claim of absolute ignorance of certain legal connotations of his conduct as minister, especially as they relate to matters bothering on disobedience to court orders as in the case of the late Justice Bashir Sambo and numerous others which he flagrantly violated. By implication, he was saying that the legal department of FCDA was dead or bereft of any knowledge of court processes. In which case, one would suggest an immediate disbandment of the department for irrelevance. However, the man who headed that department before el-Rufai shoved him aside in his moment of irrationality, Barrister Alkali, had described the el-Rufai regime as "lawless" and "irresponsible", during his testimony at the hearing. What more can anybody say!

web allafrica.com	Enter your search terms	Submit search form
OR subscribers use AllAfrica's premium search engine


Use our pull-down menus to find more stories