I have deep sympathy for the duo of Mallams Nasir El-Rufa’i and Nuhu Ribadu. Both are great Nigerians who did their best within the context of their situation and understanding, to make an impact on our polity. They deserved their appointments by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration and had added some verve into it. They have left millions of Nigerians mesmerized and some other millions stupefied, while probably, only a few of us remain just plain sympathetic within the context of not being either in the former or later mix. And the two are in exile.
I sympathize with them for being far away from the warmth of their families and for their inability to freely visit home, for fear of losing what remains of their emasculated freedoms. You can feel their pain, their passion and their purported patriotism when they speak to the press or on other public platforms. I particularly felt these when Ribadu spoke at a Lecture organised by the “Change Nigeria Project Global Conference” in Washington DC to mark Nigeria’s 49th Independence anniversary. He foamed in the mouth while he intermittently slammed his fist on the lectern and with a voice towering above his thin frame, held the audience spellbound like a Pentecostal preacher at his best. He was true to his word when he said he was a preacher, preaching the gospel of “enough is enough.” I felt his deep frustration over what he termed the “corrupt and illegitimate” government we have at home. I felt his undying desire to see justice, fairness and rule of law entrenched in our polity, and felt sad for him, a brilliant and courageous fellow, for what he has to equally carry on his conscience.
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As I sat listening to Ribadu, agape and also sad for the many “sins” that he, along with his comrade-at-arms, El-Rufa’i, have to contend with on their consciences, I reflected back at the way they held sway in their inseparable days. They were the spark in the ignition of the policies of the government that came to power in 2003. This was after an election adjudged to be freer and fairer than only the 2007 election which they participated actively in its planning and execution and which even Yar’adua, the benefiter, has adjudged as a sham. My sympathy must go to them, each time I remember that whenever they speak against the current government, they must, in the deepest recesses of their consciences, have to try to counterbalance their many “sins” between 2003 and 2007, with their present desire, for a government in Nigeria, all patriotic citizens also desire.
While they did well in many facets of their assignments within that period, under an equally “illegitimate” government, they equally disregarded a simple, but absolute paradigm for any sane and democratic society: rule of law. They were the law and whatever they plotted in their “altruistic” efforts; they pursued it regardless of the wider law. But you cannot have democracy without the rule of law.
The EFCC under Ribadu then, illegally detained state legislators from Plateau, Adamawa and Bayelsa states in order to coax them into removing their governors for corruption related allegations. Through its “advisory” published in Nigerian dailies, the commission “banned” some politicians from contesting the 2007 elections just for a pre-determined outcome of the election as we can conclude from El-Rufa’i’s recent dissertation. The case of former vice president Atiku Abubakar, whom El-Rufa’i once spent about an hour abusing on AIT and whom the EFCC, as events later proved otherwise, libeled and plotted against in a case of bribery allegation in the US, is also another clear example.
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“Justice” Ribadu, once pointed from the high table, at the then Zamfara state governor, Ahmed Yarima, who was seated in the audience at a public function in Sheraton Hotel Abuja, and against all decency and rule of law, declared him a thief. In the FCTA, El-Rufa’i was a “bulldozer.” While restoring Abuja to its deserved glory, whatever “judgment” he passed, no court could rescind it. If he said “this building must go,” go it must, even if a court declared otherwise. Regardless of service rules and other extant rules, El-Rufa’i sacked FCTA employees and took away people’s homes. Against the principle of fairness, of not changing the game midway, the duo actively participated in trying to push Obasanjo’s unpopular third term agenda through.
To the group of Nigerians which these guys have mesmerized, it is their “good intentions” that the group sees. But then “good intentions” alone, are not enough in engendering democracy, because democracy is not a stage but a process. And when I juxtapose the El-Rufa’i and Ribadu of 2003 to 2007, against the activists I see since they left power, I feel sympathy for them for the turmoil on their consciences. The turmoil of once being anti-rule of law but now rights activists, of once being autocratic but now preaching democracy and of once being thick-eared, but now yearning for listeners. All, when it serves them best.
The beauty of democracy is that it guarantees that all men, and women too, are equal and this equality is captured in its rule of law. It is through it, and not by fiat, that a people can build legal and institutional frameworks. It is through it that no one can wake up and say you don’t deserve to have a travel passport. It is through it that you cannot be forced into separation from the warmth of your family and it is through it that you know that your freedom as a citizen of good standing is absolutely guaranteed.
In spite of the perceived sins they committed when they held sway, my sadness for them is now being assuaged by their present activism. This is because after testing the two sides now, when the hunter has become the hunted; they would appreciate the rule of law better. I still have sympathy for them and there is a lesson in this, for all to learn. We should hope that they have truly learned their lessons, for it would be a tragedy if these lessons are left to slip by. We should also hope they realize that Yar’adua is not the enemy. If they listen to the truth, their enemies are a few unpatriotic Nigerians out there and probably other faceless ones affected by their dislike for the rule of law when they were in power. This later group might have resigned their fates then, to karma.
Graduate Program in Journalism
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
USA
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