El Rufai and politics of endorsement

By Ibraheem Musa

 

In the run up to the last election, General Muhammadu Buhari did the unprecedented in Kaduna state before the party primaries. On October 2, 2014, he graced the gubernatorial declaration of Malam Nasir El Rufai, an All Progressives Congress(APC) aspirant, at the Trade Fair Complex. In addition, Buhari endorsed him as the best candidate for Kaduna state as El Rufai, by his own reckoning, has the attributes of leadership. Specifically, the General mentioned courage, a good education and sincerity of purpose as qualities of a good leader. El Rufai, according to him, has all three in large quantum. Consequently, the General recommended him to the people of Kaduna state, to the applause of party faithful.
However, other gubernatorial aspirants complained in murmurs, especially Hon Isa Muhammad Ashiru, the young Turk with a deep pocket. Conversely, the activistturn politician, Comrade Salihu Lukman, went public with his grouse . Buhari, Lukman had argued, should have ensured a level playing field as a father figure, rather than picking and choosing aspirants. In radio interviews and advertorials, Lukman decried the endorsement, asking people to vote according to their conscience. Vote they did and ElRufai won both the party primaries and the general election. Afterwards, the governor of Kaduna state became a fixture at Aso Rock, strutting around the presidential villa. Before long, tongues started wagging as his larger than life image, in spite of his pint size, loomed over presidential aides. Briefly, the aides shut him out of the close power circuit but El Rufai scaled through their cordon by writing directly to the president. Specifi cally, one of such memoranda was leaked to the media, where he basically lamented the state of the nation.
In summary, El Rufai wrote that APC ‘’has not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance outside our success in fighting BH insurgency and corruption.’ As usual, opinions were divided over the memo as some regarded it as an affront to the president. Behind the scene, the Villa Hawks further put a wedge between him and the president as they dredged up El Rufai’s past, especially his uncomplimentary remarks when he was in PDP, against Buhari who was an opposition leader.
However, others argued that the governor spoke the home truth and according to them, EL Rufai’s love for the president propelled him to write the private memo. El Rufai, they had argued, should be commended for belling the cat, instead of telling Buhari that all is well. After the storm, stories started making the rounds of a rift between El Rufai and the presidency. In particular, the peddlers cited several instances where Buhari, in their opinion, gave the Kaduna governor a cold shoulder . Undaunted, the governor kept soldering on, executing projects and courting controversy as he went. In addition, he dropped the president’s name at every opportunity, claiming he persuaded Buhari to run for the presidency in 2015. Severally, this testimony has been dismissed as a public relations stunt, according to critics, ‘’to boost the governor’s dwindling popularity’’. However, it has never been denied by either the president or the presidency. On September 12, 2017, the president was in Kaduna, where he commissioned the N30 billion Olam Integrated Feedmill, Hatchery and Breeder Farm, the biggest of such projects in Africa. Specifically, it will create jobs, produce 360,000 tones of animal feeds yearly as well as 1.6 million day-old-chicks weekly.
Buhari, at that event, had praised El Rufai to the chagrin of local critics and the Villa Hawks that hover around the president. Momentarily, the rumored rift ceased as critics became tongue tied. On October 3, El Rufai said that he had reached out to Buhari and that the president has endorsed him for a second term. In unison, critics in and outside APC, including The Restoration Group, have been crying foul over the claim.
To some, the governor is just using Buhari’s name as no such endorsement occurred. However, others faulted the president’s penchant for endorsing the Kaduna state governor. Interestingly, other critics are unperturbed by the endorsement as the 2019 scenario, according to them, will be different from the 2015 situation. All aspirants, including the president, will have to run on their records and not on some promissory notes. However, to the masses of Northern Nigeria, Buhari’s persona still carries a lot of weight but whether or no

 

 

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