Nasir el-Rufai was arrested last week returning home from the United Kingdom by officers of the State Security Service and was later released. It is understood that he may appear in Court this week on charges of sedition and publication of falsehood. As is to be expected, the arrest of Malam Nasir el-Rufai made news, as just about every issue surrounding him in the last few years made news. It is also without doubt that this arrest of el-Rufai will generate intense public interest, not least because it is related to issues he raised in his new column in the newspaper, This Day: matters related to national security and accountability of the leadership. The nation will watch to see his arrest as an impetus to make bigger waves; and an administration which has been offended, but is not reacting strictly in a manner which will limit the damage to itself.
Malam Nasir el-Rufai has acquired a solid reputation as a Nigerian with a massive ego and personal courage, a combination which took him to places very few have been, and landed him in more trouble than many other Nigerians in the public domain. He was both a close confidant of Atiku Abubakar when he supervised quite possibly the largest disposal of the assets of Nigerians under the Privatization Programme, and a very important member of President Obasanjo’s kitchen cabinet as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. His tenure as Minister of the Territory was both hailed for its achievement in restoring a substantial portion of the Abuja Master Plan; and condemned for its assumption that removing Nigerians who are poor or destitute from the FCT will make those who are well-off in it feel safer and more comfortable. El-Rufai was an active soldier in Obasanjo’s imperial rule, and stepped on as many toes as his obligations in this respect demanded. He was consequently involved in many battles, not least with the Federal legislature. The nation will recall his trenchant and damaging dismissal of the national assembly’s posterings and integrity, and the manner he was made to eat his humble pie when it became clear to his boss that he had crossed the line in his bid to serve him.
Predictably, el-Rufai was targeted by the legislature and a whole army of aggrieved individuals and organizations the moment he left office. Although he must have expected some vicious fight back from the many enemies he made as a Minister, even el-Rufai could not have expected the venom and the speed with which his adversaries fought him. Once he was out of the comfort of his office as Minister, and without Obasanjo to protect him, el-Rufai was exposed to attacks over his administration of land in the FCT, by threats and attempts to prosecute him by the EFCC now under a new leadership; and by his old adversaries the legislature which went as far as passing an illegal resolution to stop him from ever holding a public office. He spent considerable time outside the country, fighting one battle after the other, and sometimes simultaneously fighting many battles at the same time. Even his family was hounded and harassed. His return to Nigeria was not without its drama and political insinuations.
El-Rufai was still fighting court cases over his conduct as Minister of the F.C.T when he parted ways with his old Party, the PDP, and pitched his tents with the C.P.C. Some people said it was an unheard-of foolhardiness, to leave the relative comfort of the PDP and a government which is prosecuting you and run to the enemy, or the opposition. Others saw it as a shrewd move which will buy el-Rufai political protection and relevance. He had tapped into the huge avenues for cultivating the popularity of especially young people through the social media, and had established an extensive network of relationships as a critic of government, and a pseudo-intellectual with some claims to the emerging leadership in the north and Nigeria.
But when el-Rufai took up a column in This Day newspapers, and commenced a virulent criticism of the government and a rendition of history as he saw it, he knew he had properly entered the ring. The newspaper which he accepted to write a column for, This Day is itself positively disposed towards the Jonathan administration, and both the paper and el-Rufai must have seen as opportunity to be useful to each other. The paper gave him a national platform, and he in turn brought to it a high profile critic with a solid background in public controversy, who can guarantee wider readership.
Last week, el-Rufai’s column took up the nation’s defense budget, and made revelations which the Federal Government said are fabrications and lies. He was arrested on his return to the country, and it is possible that el-Rufai himself knew that he was likely to provoke the Federal Government with his column. As is to be expected, he has said that his arrest will only make him more resolute as its critic, and General Muhammadu Buhari has condemned his arrest as high-handed intolerance. The government says it will prosecute him, and it now remains to be seen who will blink first in this confrontation.
Whichever way this latest foray by el-Rufai into public controversy is resolved, a number of facts would have been established. First, el-Rufai’s popularity as a columnist is now more solidly guaranteed, and more Nigerians will now read him with greater interest. Second, his profile and standing in the opposition will rise, and his claim to some leadership position in the CPC will receive a boost. Three, his legal battles will now acquire political undertones, and it will be difficult to prosecute or convict him without massive political quarrels. Finally, the administration has boosted the ranks of its opposition, and would appear to have played into the hands of a rather wily opponent.
National security is now a matter of the highest concern for Nigerians. Just when it appears that the insurgency in the Niger Delta is being contained, at great cost to the nation, we are being confronted with the effects of the post-election violence, and even more worrisome, with the violence being unleashed by the Yusufiyya Movement, or Boko Haram. Nigerians want to feel safe and secure, but they also want to know how much it will cost to make them safe and secure.
The Federal Government has every right to take el-Rufai to court if it believes that he is deliberately peddling falsehood around national security. No individual has the right to compound our worries by distorting facts about the cost of our security. Government could have taken up el-Rufai by disclosing the exact cost of securing Nigeria, and showing him up as a liar, which is what it says it will do before the Courts. That it chose to prosecute him instead indicates that it believes he has sinister motives for misrepresenting facts, or misleading the public. It is important that this issue is handled with the sensitivity and responsibility it deserves, so that our security does not become another issue over which politicians will fight.
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