Crucifying el-Rufai

By Josef Chimanugor

AN excursion into the ongoing trial of el-Rufai, former minister of the Federal Capital Terri tory (FCT) reveals the naivety, incoherence and illogical and irrational nuances that define
and determine social practice in Nigeria. The legion of serious and comical reactions is not difficult to discern, describe and analyse the tendencies. However, it has become clear that no other era is worth talking about other than the period Mallam Nasir el-Rufai held sway as the FCT Minister. Other periods appear as blank, full of emptiness, and lacking in any substantial issue that would excite the imagination and elicit animated responses and interventions.

The el-Rufai era, as virtually every observer has noted, regardless of whether they admire or demonize the man, has been acknowledged as indeed the golden era in the life of the FCT, which was characterised by high tempo activities as well as revolutionary zeal in salvaging and re-transforming the city. If we are in a civilised society, el-Rufai should have been rewarded for his ingenious, single-minded, and tenacious determination to restore the city’s abused and violated master plan. He should have been applauded for his efforts at reclaiming Abuja’s integrity and authenticity. Indeed, people should have valued the inner logic of this transformational dialectics, in the context of its far-reaching successes and some of the pains and frustrations that such a radical process must inevitably throw up.

The first thing the civilised world would have done is to celebrate the el-Rufai bold strides in cleaning up the city and redeeming its landscape. He should have been commended for restoring the Abuja city’s green areas, re-shaping its markets and shopping malls, expanding intra-city roads beyond anybody’s wildest imagination, ridding it of ugly, vile illegal structures, shanties and emerging slums and ghettoes, and instituting a modern mass transit system that inevitably led to the welcome expulsion of Okada in the city. I am deeply concerned that the Senate committee members tend to display the tendency of a bunch of fixed brains. They should as a matter of fact clean up their pale minds as well as their loutish and primitive emptiness.

They should be reminded that the acrimonious relationship between el-Rufai and the Senate underscored the political motivations of the Senate probe. The low note of inexplicable empathy for builders of illegal structures and possessors of fake C of Os and the sentimental effusions of the Late Justice Sambo’s son, who was being economical with the truth about his father’s property matter, would definitely lead us nowhere. Nevertheless, they should know that as a living entity, the only right that was abused is that of Abuja City. It was raped, pillaged and violated by serial acquisitions.

Testimonies at the ongoing public hearing have within the last few weeks raised the stakes in the quest for full disclosures. Shocking revelations have been made about the impunity with which the previous administration went about the restoration of the Abuja master plan. However, fresh revelations about the alleged involvement of the Committee chairman, Senator Abubakar Sodangi and a prominent member of the committee in the land grab affair, appears to have introduced a fresh dimension to this search. The acting General Manager of the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS), Dr. Ismaila Iro’s recent revelation that Sodangi and family cornered 20 plots of land is very instructive here. Iro was only able to list three, when the Chairman stopped him in his tracks. Sodangi later turned around to accuse the AGIS director of playing out a script written for him by people who were not interested in coming to account for their actions.

But, that was not convincing enough. Sodangi as a matter of fact no longer has the moral rights to be the chairman of that panel given the allegations that have been made against him. The allegation shows that he has some skeletons in his cupboard and should be facing trial instead of judging people. “If such allegations are found to be true, then he should be prosecuted and jailed. When we hear things like this, it makes us believe that we are going round and round like the barber’s chair and not achieving anything. Sodangi should resign and face the music,” remarks Dr. Okei-Odumakin, a civil rights activist.

The Senators ought to have allowed the acting director of the Abuja AGIS, Yahaya Yusuf to read out the plots’ particulars and their locations in the FCT instead of interrupting and stopping them. Sodangi is supposed to be the custodian of public trust, but that is now in doubt. If there is a conflict of interest, he has to disclose it to Nigerians and ask to be excused. He has to resign, that is what is expected of him as a gentleman. Public interest should prevail over personal interest. Sodangi does not need to be asked to resign; he ought to take the path of honour, as is done in civilised democracies across the world.

However, the continued restriction of el-Rufai from appearing to give testimony gives cause for concern. He should be allowed to appear to defend himself. If they are deferring his appearance without any reason, then Nigerians should know that there is more to it than meets the eyes. el-Rufai should be allowed to appear without delay, because he is the only person that can give answers to many of the questions that are being raised on that panel. His testimony is very crucial because he was the one there at the time and would provide answers to many of these questions being raised.

But, there is this fear that the former FCT minister may not get a fair treatment in view of the reported stripping of Sodangi’s privileges when he was dropped earlier as chairman of the senate committee by el-Rufai administration, and on the weight of the brewing land revelation. Would Sodangi justify this fear by not giving a fair judgment from a seemingly biased and wounded position? Time, they say, will tell.

Chimanugor, a public affairs analyst, lives in Lagos.