AFR Business

161 days after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) picked a winner in Nigeria’s presidential election at the beginning of March and 72 days after the inauguration of a new administration, the Senate on August 8, 2023, transmitted to the presidency the names of 45 persons whom it had cleared for appointment as ministers, including some politicians, described as some of “the most violent, corrupt politicians the country has ever seen”.

Azu Ishiekwene –a columnist who is not unsympathetic to Bola Ahmed Tinubu– writes about the in-coming cabinet that “a few nominees…. make the legend of Robin Hood look like a child’s play” and raises informed doubts about the “integrity of the nominees’ list”. This is an insult to Robin Hood who is reputed to have accomplished some good with his plunder.

This raises two legitimate questions about the cabinet list. The first concerns its provenance. On this, Leadership newspaper alleged that an original list of cabinet nominations had been “tampered with”, laying responsibility for this at the feet of the chief of staff and former speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. The new chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and immediate past governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, claimed that neither he nor the president knew anything about a female nominee from his state who was subsequently stood down from the list of nominees, before being replaced.

The second question goes to the strategy that informs the list. For an answer to this, we must look at the composition of the cabinet list. Eight of the 45, representing 17.78%, are women. This is a marginal improvement on the seven women (16.67%) who made Muhammadu Buhari’s 42-member cabinet in 2019 but considerably less than the 13 (31%) in the 41-member cabinet of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. Three of the eight women are from the southeast zone, which gets the least number of ministers. Two are from the north-west, which has nearly double the number of ministers from the south-east.

The final list that returned to the presidency also features eight former governors and a similar number of former or serving legislators. With a ministerial list largely comprising a majority of former elected officials or senior political office holders, the screening felt like a mutual admiration club mostly bereft of both seriousness and purpose. What passed for ministerial screening for most of the nominees was a process of ritualised bowing, after which the senate set them free to go.

In response to what has become known as “bow-and-go”, columnist, Nosa Igbinadolor, complained that the “Senate has turned its screening powers into a laughable jamboree that ensures that incompetent and corrupt former governors and unproductive MDA chiefs walk boldly through the process to become ministers because they are not being sufficiently asked critical questions”.

For playing their part excellently in this ritual, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, himself also a former governor and former minister, announced to the senators with some initial relish at the end of the process, that they were the proud recipients of a “token” to see them off to their holidays. When some fastidious officials called his attention to what appeared to be a faux pas, Senator Akpabio upgraded the token to “prayers”. This was a mere fortnight after he appeared to take equal relish in joking about the contagion of poverty in Nigeria. The appearance of a self-absorbed senate leadership was not lost on Nigerians.

As they departed for their holidays after the screening, some senators at least appeared to share that feeling. Senators reportedly let it out that the “token” sent to them from the Senate President was a mere N2 million. Some of them could not hide their disappointment at the “paltry sum” while others appeared to be clearly upset that the senate president had gratuitously exposed the fact “that they received bribe money from ministerial screening”.

Premium Times computed the sum of money administered among senators for this “token” at N218 million, a figure ostensibly arrived at by multiplying the number of senators (109) by two million. It is claimed that the money was part of a pot of N1 billion contributed by or on behalf of the ministerial nominees to facilitate the screening process. If so, then it seems clear that some members of the senate would have received more than just N2 million and that the sum of N218 million is only a fraction of what got shared out, unless the senate president was overcome by an uncharacteristic affliction of selflessness.

Sources in the senate compare this with the sum of $30,000 which was the reported capitation for each senator after the conclusion of a similar process four years ago. If that figure is correct, it was nearly fifteen times the size of the “token” administered this time around to the senators.

If, however, the suggestion that the screening process was underwritten by a deferred quid pro quo turns out to be true, it could go a long way in explaining why the process felt like a mutual back-slapping festival enacted with parliamentary circumstance. For instance, the senate failed to account for the fact that at least two of the nominees, a male from Lagos and a female from Katsina, do not appear to have done the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. The NYSC Act, which is entrenched in the 1999 constitution, makes national service mandatory for eligible persons. Those who fail to undertake it are ineligible for employment assuredly in public service or political office.

In 2018, Kemi Adeosun, whose NYSC discharge certificate turned out to have been invented, was forced to resign as finance minister. Five years later, the 10th Senate under the leadership of Senator Akpabio appears to have decided to retrench the NYSC Act into a statutory artefact without any need for a formal parliamentary process.

For some reason that remains still undisclosed, however, the senate at the point of voting through the confirmations, failed to extend its forbearance to three nominees. One of the three is the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory and recent governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai. Neither the senate nor the presidency has issued any formal reason for the failure the confirm El-Rufai besides the unspecified claims of delayed “security clearance” or “suppressed animosity” from the presidency.

El-Rufai’s first ministerial screening in 2003 was nearly scuppered after he accused some senators then of bribery. This time around, his nomination appears to have been sunk by “allegations of human rights abuses, unguarded public utterances, and a purported flood of petitions” masterminded by some well-connected persons.

In a quarter of a century in public life, he has got into what has been delicately described as a “romance with controversy”. In 2016, El-Rufai gloated as state governor that he had paid identified killers in Southern Kaduna to stop killing. Ahead of the 2019 general election, he threatened international observers, warning them that they would “go back in body bags”.

Shortly thereafter, El-Rufai went to Lagos, the political home of Tinubu, to attack him as a political godfather who needed to be defenestrated. He has been viciously intolerant of criticism and one of his foremost critics as governor, Dadiyata, has been missing for over four years. This record forced the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in 2020 to cancel an invitation to him to address their annual general conference.

After the senate declined to vote through his nomination, El-Rufai remembered that he is a doctoral student in the Netherlands and stood down so he could return to school. It is not inconceivable that his record as governor will attract attention if and when he reports to Europe to pursue his doctoral research.

In the interim, Muhammad Pate, an accomplished doctor in both medicine and academia and one of the few experts in the world on health systems, emerged as one of the few bright spots on the ministerial list. Another bright spot on the list is the talented Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s current ambassador to Germany. Both Yusuf and Muhammad, coincidentally, are from Bauchi state.

In the 70s, Tony Wilson sang about politicians and in that ballad, he highlighted their antics in ‘I Like Your Style’. Politicians, according to him, are men of many words and in other words, they say much but deliver little. At worst, they renege on their promises with reckless abandon. However, not all politicians are the same and clearly, Malam Nasir el-Rufai is of a different cut. Largely, he walks his talk and oftentimes, he shoots from the hips, firing from all cylinders, taking no prisoners as he does.

In Nigeria, this exception is a double-edged sword and for El-Rufai, it has been cutting both ways, either as a minister or governor of Kaduna state. Indeed, the political class, entrenched interest groups and the upper crust of society see him as a defiant outlier. Conversely, ordinary people, development partners and civil society applaud his consistency, achievements and derring-do.

Significantly, his solid achievements, belling the cat at critical times and taking on difficult assignments, are well documented in his public service career. For example, remodelling the Federal Capital Territory, reengineering governance and the Kaduna Urban Renewal Project stand out in recent times. In fact, in the run-up to the presidential primaries, the 2023 election and the emergence of President Bola Tinubu, his altruism came out in bolder relief. Indeed, El-Rufai’s principled position, insisting on the right thing and patriotic intervention, dates back earlier, when the polls were three years away. At this point, let me share a privileged insight.

In 2020, the Kaduna state government, in early January, organised a retreat for political appointees, where special advisers, senior special assistants and special assistants converged at Kaduna Business School. The team, for two days, listened to experts and bureaucrats, who walked us through the nuances of public service, its code of conduct and defined boundaries. Besides, the appointees bonded and exchanged banter amidst lectures, tea breaks and group tasks. El-Rufai, on the last day, graced the event and shared his diverse experiences, fielded questions from the team ranging from family life, professional career and governance.

Specifically, Malam Nasir El-Rufai was asked, amongst other questions, whether or not he would contest for the presidency in 2023. Point blank, the governor answered in the negative and his argument, without equivocation, hinged on justice, equity and fairness. The north, by the year 2023, would have held power for eight years at a stretch and its leaders, in the interest of national unity, should ensure power shift to the south. The north, he argued further, is known for keeping its word and in any case, power rotation is one of APC’s building blocks. Indeed, follow-up questions were asked but El-Rufai stuck to his guns, rooting for national cohesion, peaceful coexistence and the paramountcy of respecting covenants in politics. The retreat, in the manner of Chatham House, was a platform for frank and honest discourse, so El-Rufai wasn’t playing to the gallery.

However, in spite of his position, individuals and groups started mounting pressure on El-Rufai to run for the presidency. Predictably, he kept a deafening silence and continued serving the people of Kaduna state that voted for him. Undeterred, one Nassiriya Organisation, a northern-based group, instituted a suit in October 2020, to compel him to contest the 2023 presidential election. In fact, its national leader, one Garkuwa Babuga, said that Nassiriya has members in 21 states and overwhelmingly, they had endorsed El-Rufai based on “his track records of achievements”. Unyielding, El-Rufai kept a stiff upper lip over the call, insisting on a power shift to the south.

Regardless, a lot of permutation started making the rounds, from the probable to the ridiculous, aimed at muddying up the waters. At once, the idea of an El-Rufai and Amaechi ticket, El-Rufai and Yemi Osinbajo running together, and El-Rufai and Kayode Fayemi, the former Ekiti state governor gunning for presidency, were all on the cards. In fact, the Aso Rock cabal and its allies, in desperation, reached out to Goodluck Jonathan, the former president and a PDP stalwart to boot, to recontest on the APC ticket. Besides, they pencilled down CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, for the presidential ticket but the whim didn’t fly.

In June, on the eve of the convention, the cabal conscripted Ahmed Lawan, the senate president at the time, for the presidential primaries in 2022. In fact, Abdullahi Adamu, the then APC national chairman, was the enforcer-in-chief of the project. Hurriedly, he convened a National Working Committee meeting and unveiled Lawan as the anointed candidate. Earlier, the Northern Governors’ Forum, at El-Rufai’s prompting, had met and insisted on power shift to the south. Indeed, foisting Lawan on them, as Adamu attempted, presented a fait accompli and they were at a crossroads. More so, the APC helmsman claimed that President Buhari, in a one-on-one meeting, had endorsed Lawan’s choice.

Again, El-Rufai came to the rescue, by leading the calvary charge against the cabal. In particular, the northern governors met Buhari, notified him of their resolution on the power shift and asked for his position on Ahmed Lawan’s anointed candidacy. Categorically, the then-president washed his hands off the phantom anointment and by so doing, cleared the doubt of APC faithful. Thereafter, El-Rufai rallied support for Tinubu, ditching friendship and other political alliances as a result. Afterwards, Tinubu won the primaries on the first ballot and by a wide margin.

Significantly, El-Rufai campaigned vigorously for Asiwaju, and engaged focal groups and the media, to sell Tinubu to the electorate. In the end, the APC presidential candidate won the election and thereafter, Tinubu sent emissaries to El-Rufai, to firm up his commitment to work with him. Specifically, the president-elect promised El-Rufai, in no uncertain terms, the new ministry of energy. Thereafter, El-Rufai mobilised his team and produced a blueprint that wowed Tinubu, about three weeks before his ministerial nomination.

Afterwards, the comedy of errors began, first by a security chief who, in a hurry to nail El-Rufai, breached official communications protocol. First, he wrongly sent a letter to the senior special assistant to the president on national assembly matters, instead of the senate president. Second, the letter was signed by a director of State Security Service and not the president. Third, the issues raised were rehashed political altercations and selective interpretations. Besides, the ban on El-Rufai from holding public office, a recommendation of a house committee, has been quashed by the court. The senate, on mere allegations, refused to confirm El-Rufai as minister.

However, when El-Rufai met with Tinubu, the usually forthright and straight-talking president, according to reports, pleaded for time to deal with the matter. Tinubu, at that point, started being evasive like the politician that Tony Wilson sang about. El-Rufai, on his part, has turned his back on the ministerial nomination, gone back to school, to learn, unlearn and relearn, to someday serve the public in another realm.

Ibraheem was El-Rufai’s senior special assistant on media and publicity