By Michael AMAJAMA
As he is wont to do since losing out in the power matrix, former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufa’i, has been playing to the gallery, dangerously. When he is not making wild claims that the federal and Kaduna state governments are paying bandits and terrorists to dissuade them from attacking communities, he is donning a cassock and preaching self-righteously from the pulpit, as he did last week while accompanying his new ally, Mr. Peter Obi.
But for his divisive history and religious bigotry, one would have mistaken the petite former governor as a true man of God in his white suit and near-priestly collar. There he was, like someone rightly noted, “el-Rufa’I didn’t just go to Church in Owerri today, he dressed in a complete suit just like a full-time pastor whose hope is Aso Rock rather than paradise. The man has shifted from TV stations to churches.” Truly, the cassock does not make the monk!
It is interesting to see el-Rufa’i, who brokered no opposition, whimpering about a lawful invite by the police and petitioning the police service commission in this regard. Oga go and answer the police invitation!
In case some have forgotten, on October 26, 2016, Dr John Dan Fulani, public commentator and lecturer at the Kaduna State University, was arrested and detained for 13 days. His offence: he made a Facebook post criticising the government of Nasir el-Rufai as governor of Kaduna State. It didn’t end with Fulani, a reporter with a local newspaper, for publishing a story claiming the governor had assets worth billions of Naira; was also detained for 13 days.
Luka Binniyat, a Kaduna-based Vanguard journalist, published reports on the recent Southern Kaduna killings. For so doing, he was constantly harassed by agents of the state government, and was even tagged “a threat to the security of the state”. Rights activist Gloria Ballason’s radio programme was shut down and reassigned to another person, even though she owned the intellectual property rights. The simple reason was that el-Rufa’i had found the programme “troubling and upsetting.”
It is therefore an irony to see the boastful and unremorseful el-Rufa’i talking about accommodation and democratic rights when he barely had an understanding of them when he was in power. To even imagine that he will take pride in his willful disdain of the people of Southern Kaduna and, in one breath, talk of equity and justice is one of the greatest paradoxes of the time.
It is pertinent to point out that sometime in 2016, the ex-governor admitted to paying killer herdsmen to stop the ransacking, rape and murder of citizens of Kaduna state. He failed in his primary duty to protect the people he swore to protect and defend. He rather invested the scarce resources of the people of Kaduna state to pay their killers. That was an easy way out for him.
For clarity, these were his words on December 2, 2016: “We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going around trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, the 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.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they had forgiven. There is one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to the Republic of Niger to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.”
For all his vaunted brilliance, being out of office appears to have narrowed his vision and thinking to imagine that things would remain the same. Sadly, for him, the present administration has dumped his memo on rewarding criminals. Rather, it is dealing with them in the language they understand –taking them out!
Also, it beggars belief that a man who prides himself as a major stakeholder will spit on the patriotic sacrifice of officers and men of the Nigerian military by his inane politicisation of the fight against banditry and terrorism.
In the event he is playing the Ostrich and needs some reminding, el-Rufa’i should know that on June 24 this year, some of our soldiers paid the supreme price when bandits launched coordinated attacks on military operating bases in parts of Kaduna and Niger states. The attacks occurred in the Kwanar Dutse Mairiga and Boka areas of Niger State, as well as Aungwan Turai in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. And these are people being paid by the FG and the Kaduna state government? Sheer baloney! Our gallant troops did not buckle as they have repeatedly demonstrated and in both land and air components engaged the attackers in several counter-offensives, resulting in the deaths of several bandits.
Also, on June 30, 2025, the military, in a fierce gun duel with bandits at Kurmin-Kare community in the Nariyo forest in Kachia LGA of Kaduna State, overran some bandits, and the operation ended fatally for a hunter who led the troops to the Nariyo forest. So much for payouts!
It is a shame that Mallam el-Rufai is unaware that the notorious bandit commander, Kachalla Sharme, alongside some of his gang members, was killed in September 2024. Within that period, troops killed four bandits and rescued 20 hostages in Birnin-Gwari and Giwa local government areas of the state. Yet the government pays those it stalks and takes out!
These are but a tiny fraction of the unrelenting efforts of the Office of the National Security Adviser, the military and affected state governments in dealing with the menace which he, el-Rufa’i, aided and abetted in his eight years as governor.
Over the course of just two years, hundreds of victims across the North West and East of the country have been reunited with their families by the ONSA after an extensive military onslaught against the very people the embittered former governor alleges are being paid by the government to stop attacking communities.
It is regrettable that anyone, especially an individual like the former governor, will mix national security with petty politics. His animosity toward the present government has apparently blinded him to great gains recorded thus far in addressing insecurity; therefore, the persistent criticisms.
Despite Mallam el-Rufai’s alarm bells, Nigerians are better informed and confident that the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, will keep his eyes on the ball and continue leading the charge in winning the war against banditry and terrorism in our country, as he already is.
Amajama, a public commentator, writes from Abuja, amajamamike@gmail.com
