By Chief Femi Fani-Kayode

Three very serious allegations were made last week by a former Minister of the FCT and former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El Rufai.Firstly, that he has relationship with those who bugged Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the President’s National Security Advisor’s phone and is privy to his most sensitive conversations, secondly that the National Security Advisor’s office has imported large sums of dangerous chemical weapons into the country for unspecified purposes and thirdly that there is a conspiracy between the NSA and Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, his successor in office, to “destroy him” and “jail him for life”.

I have tried to stay away from the raging debate that followed these comments due to my longstanding friendship and respect for all three parties and their respective families, but in view of the latest developments and in the light of these grave allegations, I can no longer sit on the sidelines and maintain my silence.Let me begin by saying that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, Governor Uba Sani and my good self were closer than brothers during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government and we worked closely as a tag team.

Uba Sani took over my old job as Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs when I was appointed as a Minister, Nasir was my colleague in cabinet and Nuhu headed the EFCC. We all attended Federal Executive Council meetings and, more often than not, we were on the same page on most national issues and we presented our cases with candour and vigour without any fear or favour at such cabinet meetings which President Obasanjo graciously allowed us to do.This was as far back as over 20 years ago!

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We were also all very close to President Obasanjo, whom we revered, and had many private and closed door meetings with him together with a handful of other close associates about how to move his government and the country forward and how to confront and contain his political enemies and detractors.We were loyal to a fault, tough, young, hard-working, fearless and filled with zeal and we gave our very best to Obasanjo and his government in our respective roles.After we left office, we all suffered severe persecution at the hands of President Yar’Adua’s administration simply for being ‘Obasanjo boys’ and we literally had to fight for our liberty and lives.

Nuhu and Nasir were compelled to leave Nigeria for fear for their lives whilst Uba and I stayed behind and weathered the very difficult storm.Those were the most difficult, trying and testing days of our respective lives but thankfully we all pulled through, overcame all the obstacles placed before us and eventually won the day. We came out of it all alive, healthy and well and for that we give thanks to God.Since those early years much has transpired and there was realignment sometimes finding us on opposing sides.Regardless of that, our friendship and strong sense of brotherhood endured and remained intact even if we may have publicly disagreed from time to time.

Comments

The latest development in the saga of our respective lives are the comments made by Nasir in his interview with Charles Aniagolu of Arise Television on Friday about both Nuhu and Uba which, I believe, go beyond the pale and sadly represents a permanent burning of bridges in terms of our brotherhood and collective friendship.One of the things he said in that interview is that he has relationship with those who bugged the phone of the NSA and to this, and much else, I am constrained to offer the following comments as an old friend and a concerned observer:Permit me to begin by saying that it is likely that it is the same people that tapped the late Brigadier General Uba’s phone and gave the co-ordinates of his location to the terrorists that led to his execution that bugged the NSA’s phone.It is likely that it is the same people that have enabled the terrorists to kill, abduct, terrorise and abduct our people and brought misery, suffering, tears and carnage to our land.

Between Ribadu and El-Rufai

There is one thing I ought to add which is relevant and which explains the contrasting disposition and styles of Ribadu and El Rufai.

It may also go a long way to explain the deep-seated hate and envy that the latter has always secretly harboured for the former.

Like yours truly, Nuhu Ribadu comes from a long line of distinguished public servants and enlightened and educated people.  

His father, Alhaji Ahmadu Ribadu, OON MBE, a pure and full-blooded Fulani man, was a Nigerian politician and a diplomat.

During the First Republic, he represented Adamawa East Constituency in the Federal Parliament from 1959 to 1966 and held the position of Minister of State of Economic Development in the government of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

He replaced the erstwhile Minister of Defence, Alhaji Mohammadu Ribadu, as the representative of their constituency in the cabinet after the latter passed on earlier that year.

Consequently, Nuhu was not only born into the corridors of power and is a ranking member of Nigeria’s ultra elite ruling class, though I suspect he is reluctant to admit it, but he also understands and fully appreciates the limits of that power and it’s complex nuances.

As a consequence of the circumstances of his birth, he was well educated from infancy, familiar with the rudiments and ways of the ruling classes, exposed, civilised, loyal to his friends, cosmopolitan, enlightened, careful with his words, reserved, disciplined, taciturn, tactical, wise, totally detribalised and prefers to operate more behind the scenes than in the open.

These are qualities and virtues that money cannot buy and they make him extremely effective and very dangerous to his enemies who are mainly criminals many of whom he jailed when he was Chairman of the EFCC.

He is a formidable adversary because unlike Nasir you cannot see him coming and he is far more interested in facing his work and getting his job done than in involving himself in some kind of public press war, bitter vendetta or public controversy. Such things are an anathema to him.

He is a believer in the eventual victory of good over evil which is why he could remain out of government for 16 years without complaining for one day or expressing any form of bitterness or angst believing that one day his time would once again come.

And in 2023 when he was appointed NSA by President Tinubu that time came.

Since he got there as far as I am aware he has not used that position to intimidate or threaten anyone but instead has focused his attention on solving our security problems and building bridges with our American allies which people like yours truly, at the initial stage, were very uncomfortable with yet he pulled it off!

That is Nuhu: he flees from controversy, he is focused, he is reliable, he is responsible, he is fiercely loyal to his principal the President (some would say to a fault) and he is clear-thinking.

By way of contrast Nasir’s lineage and heritage is not known to me and neither have any of his forefathers, as far as I am aware, been saddled with the responsibility of high public office.

I am told that he hails from a railway compound in Zaria and frankly there is nothing wrong with that because at least he is well educated and well read.  

What is evident in his unknown lineage and rather than accept the fact that power is a trust that ought to be wielded with restraint, compassion, decency and decorum, he uses it as a tool of vindictiveness and vengeance.

It is precisely for this reason that people are wary of granting power to such people and instead are more comfortable with those from the ruling class who, more often than not, exercise far more restraint and are mindful of the fact that such power is not only transient but also ephemeral.

They know, from experience, that it never lasts and that there is always a day of reckoning.

They know that it comes one day and it is gone the next and the lesson that one should learn from this, which Nasir has failed to do, is that whilst you enjoy it you had better wield it with equity, fairness, compassion and the fear of God seeking to better the lives of others rather than destroying them.

With this aside I close and conclude my contribution.

May God bless Nigeria.

Chief Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode, the author of this essay, is a former Minister of Culture and Tourism, a former Minister of Aviation, a former Senior Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Public Affairs, an Ambassador-Designate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, the Otunba of Joga Orile, the Aare Ajagunla of Otun Ekiti and a legal practitioner.