It is safe to say that El-Rufai has long before now gained a reputation as an ethnic irredentist and a governor who is doing so little to resolve the security situation in Southern Kaduna
―Ebuka Onyekwelu
The Selection of the Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El Rufai as a guest speaker at the Nigerian Bar Association –NBA- Annual General Meeting, has been canceled following outrage and protest by thousands of Nigerians for NBA leadership to drop him. Only yesterday, the National Executive Committee of the NBA resolved that “the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H. E. Nasir El-Rufai by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn and decision communicated to the Governor”, a tweet by the NBA handle read.
This latest decision by NBA has sparked off a debate on social media on whether El-Rufai is deserving to be treated in that manner, considering his economic strides in Kaduna state and his intellectual involvement in the governance of his state, a rare fit in Nigeria; as most state governors are not intellectually involved in the governance of their states.
Governor El-Rufai, reacting to the development said, “it bears noting that (NBA’s decision) is in response to pressure, the NBA leadership has signaled an unfortunate embrace of injustice, unfairness, absence of fair hearing and total disregard for the rule of law”, a statement signed by Muyiwa Adekeye who is the governor’s Special Adviser on Media and Communication.
Essentially, the call for El-Rufai to be dropped from speaking at the conference started following accusations of Governor El-Rufai’s complicity in the ongoing carnage in Southern Kaduna where several hundreds of people who are mostly Christians, have been killed and several villages destroyed by armed Fulani militia. The situation in Southern Kaduna has become so dire that only days ago, Federal Government deployed some special forces to put the activities of bandits in the area into serious check. But Governor El-Rufai has continued to be accused of complicity in what is often regarded as ethnic and religious cleansing against the people of Southern Kaduna.
For years, the narrative has been sustained by many stakeholders that what is going on in Southern Kaduna is ethnic cleansing. More recently, Christian Association of Nigeria –CAN- described the killings in Southern Kaduna as ethnic cleansing. The forum of northern bishops also described the killings as ethnic cleansing and the governor is often blamed for not doing enough or not doing anything at all, to contain the situation. The Southern Kaduna situation has drawn international attention with Nigerians in the diaspora protesting against the killings. In the midst of all this, governor El-Rufai only a few days ago described the situation in Southern Kaduna as “media hype”.
According to El-Rufai, “we challenge anyone to characterize or differentiate the communal clashes, attacks and killings in parts Northern and Central Kaduna state…from those in Southern Kaduna”. So many observers consider the governor’s statement as extremely insensitive and only a rationalization of the bloodbath going on in Southern Kaduna. The problem with the governor’s suggestion is that the people of Southern Kaduna found a way to tell their own stories and shape their own narrative without the government of Kaduna state and for the governor to then suddenly call the security challenge a media hype smacks of revisionism.
The situation in Southern Kaduna is well known and has been mainstreamed and with Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna state often accused of shielding the bandits or looking elsewhere while the armed bandits unleash terror on innocent citizens. To that extent, it is safe to say that El-Rufai has long before now gained a reputation as an ethnic irredentist and a governor who is doing so little to resolve the security situation in Southern Kaduna, yet, he publicly calls the people’s outcry a mere “media hype”.
December 2016, Governor El-Rufai acknowledged that he made monetary compensation to Fulani herdsmen who were on the rampage in Southern Kaduna so that they would stop killing.
It would be recalled that in December 2016, Governor El-Rufai acknowledged that he made monetary compensation to Fulani herdsmen who were on the rampage in Southern Kaduna so that they would stop killing. “We took certain steps”, he said, “we got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people (Fulani) in Cameroon, Niger republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing…there are one or two that asked for monetary compensation… as recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger Republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me”, Governor El-Rufai said.
But for the people of Southern Kaduna, no compensation and no justice, worst still, they are still being killed and what the governor has to say is that reports of carnage in Southern Kaduna are “media hype”, how much worse can insensitivity get. This is a governor of a Nigerian state who took the pain and spent a lot of undisclosed public resources in tracking down Fulani people perceived to have been offended and compensate them and begged them to stop killing but cannot even sympathize with the people of Southern Kaduna for being killed and harassed in their ancestral homes by militias.
Again, El-Rufai’s ethnic chauvinist posturing is public knowledge and that is his singular greatest undoing.
Before now, precisely on 15th July 2012, a tweet by Governor El-Rufai reads, “we will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes”. The message of this tweet is unequivocal. Again, El-Rufai’s ethnic chauvinist posturing is public knowledge and that is his singular greatest undoing. Hence the petition against his speaking at the NBA conference decried his human rights records and looking at this tweet, and the fact that Dada a popular critique of his government has been missing for months now with no traces of his whereabouts, there appears some basis to challenge his human rights’ record.
Whether NBA was like El-Rufai alleged, “unfair” in delisting him from their choice of speakers or whether NBA followed like he said, “one-sided narrative” in their decision, is subject viz a viz to whether the killings in Southern Kaduna is a “media hype” and why El-Rufai thought it fair and just, to compensate Fulani herdsmen in other countries for their loss during the 2011 crisis in Southern Kaduna, but did not compensate people of Southern Kaduna who are Nigerians and from the state he governs. And so again, there is a serious burden of proof on El-Rufai that following his conduct towards Fulani herdsmen for their losses and accusation of being unfair against NBA, to show that his loyalty to Nigeria is superior to his loyalty to his Fulani origin. Perhaps, how fair he has been to Southern Kaduna people in his distribution of compensations for losses over crisis in the area.
NBA leadership merely acted, following the wishes of its members
In the Final analysis, NBA’s decision to drop El-Rufai is not a decision by the NBA’s National Executive Committee; instead, it is a decision by the people. The NBA leadership merely acted, following the wishes of its members who vehemently kicked against his choice as a speaker in their conference. At best, it is a win for democracy. So assuming the situation in Southern Kaduna is truly a “media hype” and also assuming it is all fair and just compensating non-Nigerians who are of Fulani origin but not Nigerians who are citizens of the state of Kaduna governed by El-Rufai, assuming also that El-Rufai is more Nigerian than Fulani, members of the NBA can still protest his choice as a speaker in their conference and the outcry must, in the spirit of democracy be respected.
The hallmark of a functional organization is to the degree it respects the wishes of its members. Here, the NBA is unblemished in its action and the people who championed the removal of El-Rufai from the list of speakers acted within their rights as citizens and members of the Nigeria Bar Association. Still, it is left for Governor El-Rufai to demonstrate that he cares about the people of Southern Kaduna just as much as he cares about other Nigerians and foreigners of his own ethnic origin.
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