By Yunana Shibkau
The unfolding political scenario in Nigeria with respect to Kaduna State and the need to promptly respond threw up these apt responses.
On Sunday Politics (Channels Television), Nasir El-Rufai, the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, claimed that the Federal Government—via the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA)—was clandestinely paying bandits billions of naira to secure the release of kidnapped victims across northern states.
He dismissed official responses as “fake, predictable hot air.” El-Rufai labelled ONSA’s handling of terrorism and banditry a politicization of security and stressed that media narratives are being whitewashed to cover the true extent of insecurity in the country.
If effective governance had been allowed to thrive as we all strive to sustain it in Nigeria, we wouldn’t have bothered to raise a response or offer any criticism to the baselessness and emptiness of El Rufai’s puerile ranting, but that was not the case in the present dispensation, as the likes of El-Rufai have constituted themselves a nuisance of the first order, which continues to threatens our national security.
After he left office as the Governor of Kaduna State, President Bola Tinubu submitted his name to the Nigeria Senate for screening as one of the ministerial nominees, as a reward for his contributions to the victory of the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) in the last presidential election. But he was duly dropped. Thenceforth, all hell was let loose as he threatened brimstone and fire, exhibiting a sense of entitlement to the appointment and heaping all blames on our dear President.
For instance, in early 2025, he publicly bewailed that President Tinubu didn’t want him in the cabinet, which was false. He appeared on Arise TV insinuating it wasn’t the Senate but rather the President who changed his mind.
Reno Omokri and other commentators, however, argue that El-Rufai was actually nominated, but failed security clearance and was deemed a diplomatic liability, citing both his “body bags” statement in 2019 and his alleged role in various controversies—including the Zaria Shiite massacre and the demolition of opponents’ properties.
No one is spared of his uncontrolled tongue, including the person and office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He painted a sobering picture of Nigeria’s progress under Tinubu and branded the administration the “worst, most corrupt, and most intolerant” since the return to democracy, claiming propaganda masks the country’s security failures, yet, he presented himself as an outsider in a government he helped bring to power. This attitude of El Rufai reveals a troubling contradiction between his words and track record.
He did not stop at that, like a bull in the China shop, he went after the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, descending on the office and person of the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Uba Sani.
El-Rufai, no doubt is bound to continue with such malicious campaigns if not checked, promptly called to order or arrested, hence our patriotic clarion call to for the agencies involved to do the needful.
Today, the Tinubu Administration, which El-Rufai is attacking has performed well above his numerous and infantile criticisms. The administration among other achievements, ended costly petrol subsidies to reduce fiscal pressure on the nation’s financial system, merged multiple exchange rates to attract foreign investments and improve transparency.
The administration also commissioned roads, rail, and port projects (many completed from previous administrations, launched interest-free loans for Nigerian students in tertiary institutions. It Initiated mass housing projects for low-income earners, and strengthened military offensive against bandits and insurgents, especially in the North.
Same for the Uba Sani administration; it introduced the “Kaduna Model”, a community-inclusive security framework combining state actors, vigilantes, and federal agencies to stabilize volatile areas, reopened the once-closed Kaduna–Birnin Gwari road, signaling significant security gains.
The administration also built 62 new secondary schools, over 2,300 classrooms, renovated more than 700, and reduced tuition fees in state tertiary institutions. It upgraded around 250 primary health centers to Level 2, remodeled 13 general hospitals, and enhanced maternal and child health services, attracted over $89 million in investments between 2023 and early 2025 and generated around 20,976 jobs (direct and indirect); built vocational centers and market hubs to boost skills and employment.
There are several El-Rufai attributes that disqualifies him from any ground to accuses President Tinubu-led administration. He is a serial betrayer, an ethnic champion, an insecure and insincere leader, whose leadership in Kaduna State was marked with nepotism, favoritism, insensitivity, recklessness, insecurity, genocide, and underdevelopment.
As governor of Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023, El-Rufai’s tenure was marked not by peace but by accusations of ethnic cleansing, religious persecution and a chronic inability, or unwillingness, to stem violence in one of Nigeria’s most diverse and volatile states. Kaduna, under his leadership, became a flashpoint of ethno-religious bloodshed, and a Killing field, particularly in southern Kaduna where minority Christian communities bore the brunt of incessant attacks.
In 2019, a massacre in Kajuru Local Government Area resulted in the death of 141 people. The Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) reported over 4,000 deaths between 2011 and 2015 from 54 documented attacks in what many described as a campaign of ethnic and religious terror.
In 2016, El-Rufai admitted to having traced and compensated foreign Fulani herdsmen—allegedly to prevent retaliatory attacks, a claim he later denied.
However, the shocking revelation sparked outrage and reinforced suspicion of bias, with the likes of SOKAPU accusing him of encouraging the militias responsible for the killings.
Allegations of involvement in the Southern Kaduna massacres is a serious moral indictment that hangs heavily over El-Rufai’s legacy and leadership.
Moreover, allegations of corruption and abuse of power continue to trail El-Rufai’s political career. From his days as minister of the Federal Capital Territory, where land allocations and demolition exercises were flawed by claims of selective justice, to his handling of public finances as Kaduna State governor, El-Rufai’s record does not inspire the kind of trust and integrity he now appears to demand.
It is therefore hypocritical for him to suddenly present himself as a champion of good governance, particularly when he was reportedly dropped from President Tinubu’s ministerial list due to failing security clearance—a move many interpreted as a silent indictment.
Under his watch as a Governor, bloggers and journalists were incarcerated, protesters were tear-gassed, and opposition figures were characteristically harassed. It is not for nothing that human rights groups frequently listed his administration among the worst violators of civil liberties during that period.
The case of Abubakar Idris, known as Dadiyata, the activist abducted in 2019 and still missing to this day, remains a haunting stain on El-Rufai’s time in office.
He consistently disobeyed court orders and had no respect for the rule of law. For instance, in October 2022, traders and shop owners at Kasuwan Barci market, Tudun Wada area of Kaduna metropolis trooped to the street, asking the state governor, to obey court order by paying them compensation over their demolished shops and stalls.
That protest became necessary after the Kaduna State High Court in September 2022, ordered the El-Rufai led- government to sufficiently compensate the shop owners. To this end, the affected shop owners called on the government to respect the constituted authority by obeying the court order.
In furtherance of his chronic abuse of human rights, on April 28 2016, the El-Rufai-led government ordered the arrest of Jacob Onjewu, a Kaduna-based journalist. The journalist was alleged to have written an inciting story that the governor was attacked with stone at Agwan Gado, a suburb of Malali in the Kaduna North LGA. The journalist was invited by the state Police Command and was remanded for seven days in custody.
A man with such an unsavoury record of leadership lacks all moral grounds to attack President Tinubu, Malam Ribadu and Governor Sani as he is presently doing. This is in view of their great achievements in office, which obviously tower high above his own over-inflated achievements.
For example, unlike his own admission of payments of money to pacify bandits, President Tinubu has resolutely stuck to his policy of not negotiating with bandits.
Since becoming NSA in June 2023, Ribadu has been spearheading series of national rescue operations, resulting in the release of more than 4,600 hostages, neutralization of over 9,000 terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers, with more than 7,000 arrests, and substantial recovery of arms and ammunition.
Ribadu initiated intelligence-driven action and internal security reforms as well as, a program on collaborations with international security agencies such as the UNDP and German to roll out a comprehensive police reforms. Under him, Nigeria has enhanced cross-border intelligence coordination with neighbouring countries. He convened forums like the UK–Nigeria Security and Defence Dialogue and mobilized cooperation with Northern governors and security chiefs to strategize on security in the region.
Since his appointment as Chief of Defence Staff in June 2023, General Christopher Gwambin Musa has strengthened coordination among the military, police, intelligence services, and other security agencies to streamline operations and eliminate unhealthy interservice rivalries. He has been a leading advocate for troop welfare—improving logistics, housing, medical care, insurance, and hazard allowances, while exploring the establishment of the Armed Forces Trust Fund. Certainly, all these security landmarks were the results of the focused leadership, directives and policy thrust of President Tinubu.
Today, and sadly so, El-Rufai is making futile efforts to make the nation ungovernable, he is envious of Governor Sani’s achievements within the shortest period of time; he is ashamed that peace is returning to Kaduna and people see that Sani’s leadership is far better than his and becoming more popular by working to unite the people in the state. He is clearly jealous of Governor Sani’s superlative achievements and thus his frantic efforts to destroy the prevailing peace and stability in Kaduna State.
He betrayed most of his political benefactors for personal gains as has been poignantly highlighted by former President Obasanjo. Here is the exact quotation from former President’s memoir: “My Watch (Volume 2, pp. 110–112),” : “Nasir’s penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological. Why does he do it? He is brilliant and smart. I grant him that also. Very early in my interaction with him, I appreciated his talent and brilliance. At the same time, I recognized his weaknesses; the worst being his inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue consistently for long, but only to Nasir El-Rufai. He barefacedly lied which he did to me against his colleagues and so-called friends. I have heard of how he ruthlessly savaged the reputation of his uncle, a man who was like, in the African setting, his foster father. I shuddered when I heard the story of what he did to his half-brother in the Air Force who is senior to him in age… Characterwise, Nasir has not much going for him. But he is a talented young man who can always deliver under close supervision… My vivid recollection of him is penchant for lying, for unfair embellishment of stories and his inability to sustain loyalty for long. … He was described as a malicious liar. He was more than that; he is a pathological purveyor of untruths and halftruths with little or no regard for integrity… making allowance for the psychology of ‘his petit size and his elephantine brain.”
In early February 2019, during a live interview on Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), El-Rufai issued a stark warning to foreign entities: “Those that are calling for anyone to come and intervene in Nigeria … we are waiting for the person that would come and intervene, they would go back in body bags.” This was hate speech and an incitement to violence.
On the night of April 19, 2019, armed assailants attacked Kajuru Castle—a resort in Kaduna State—leaving two dead, including a British aid worker, and abducting three others. The deceased were identified as Faye Mooney, a staff member of Mercy Corps, and Matthew Oguche, a Nigerian working for an NGO.
The attack sent shockwaves through Nigeria and the UK. The Minister of Information described it as a setback to tourism, pledging that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. Yet, El-Rufai seemed unperturbed and insensitive.
The loss of power and relevance of El-Rufai and the intention to get back to the corridors of power promoting his new alignment and exploring ways to stir unrest and discord by his utterances and unholy mobilization in the northern Nigeria against President Tinubu administration.
His mobilization of coalition and opposition in a country that is fragile and battling with terrorism and insecurity, should be a source of worry and concern to all patriotic Nigerians.
His recent public statements are malicious and strewn with vitriolic vituperation capable of causing disaffection and undermine national security. The international community is keenly watching El-Rufai’s mischievous antics and they are urged to be vigilant. Nigerian government will do well to seize his international passport or restrict his movements.
The facts remain that Nasir El-Rufai’s allegations against President Tinubu and Malam Ribadu with regard to the nation’s security, are baseless, divisive, inflammatory and inconsistent with the administration’s dual strategy of kinetic operations and community engagement.
Nigerians must recognize the political opportunism which he is masking as activism in him. El-Rufai is neither a patriot nor a democrat, but a chronic dictator and an opportunist.
Nigerians must recognize the political opportunism which he is masking as activism. We must stop El-Rufai now, before his dangerous antics cause further instability to the polity!
We must all continue to work to support President Tinubu, Malam Ribadu and Governor Sani, for the success of the present administration and the betterment of all Nigerians.
Engr. Shibkau is President, Association of Arewa Professionals in the United Kingdom.
