He however needs to know that there should be a limit to how far anyone should go to crave the limelight and pander to a drama-consuming public, seek their attention and gain relevance. His gambits have gone well beyond the scope of political sagacity and gamesmanship and have ventured headlong into the arena of misguided, depraved and mindless machination..
Only a few politicians in Nigeria have a penchant for courting controversy and revelling in the attention that media publicity brings, such as the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai. He relishes the beam of the klei light and attention-grabbing kickers or riders of the national dailies. He has been in the news since last week after his purported failed arrest by the Department of State Security at the airport. After his brush with the DSS occasioned by his attempted arrest, which accused the national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, of being behind it, he granted an interview where he made bold claims of wiretapping the NSA’s phone. He would later go on to accuse Ribadu of procuring Thallium Sulfate, a lethal poisonous substance, which he insinuated is to be used against influential and prominent opposition figures whom the ruling party sees as a threat to their continued stay in power.
No matter what anyone’s reservations and concerns about this government, and this is a government that is deeply unpopular among the majority of citizens, we must not let our bias and sentiment colour how we see and react to El-Rufai’s wild assertions and jarring accusations as he has an unsettling history his making unfounded and outrageous claims that undermine the authority and integrity of those who suffer the misfortune of finding themselves at the receiving end of his vitriol and vituperations.
El-Rufai’s latest outburst and accusation cannot be classified as genuine activism to hold the government accountable; it reads more like a vendetta against former political associates and old friends whom he felt had betrayed and abandoned him. To this end, however one chooses to dabble into the standoff, whatever our political leaning is and whatever sentiment and prejudice we harbour towards the current crop of uninspiring political actors, the position we take in the El-Rufai/Ribadu saga can not be done in isolation or based solely on his recent antics. His latest claim of prosecution must be weighed against his past shenanigans before he became governor in 2018.
El-Rufai has in the past shared and amplified outrageous and shocking narratives about the impunity and depravity of the people and government he does not like. This narrative often turned out to be false. He helped to concoct and spread the “cabal” narrative that dogged the Yar’Adua presidency and was ultimately proven to be false. He also lied that Yar’Adua, before his demise, was planning to forcefully inject him with HIV. He helped manufacture and peddle with glee the allegation that Jonathan was importing Israeli snipers and assassins to unleash against the opposition in 2013 only to turn out to be a ridiculously outrageous lie. He had woven and propagated the spurious and unfounded allegation to discredit and damage the former president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and helped nudge some Nigerians to the opposition’s side.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo was brutally frank about his assessment of El-Rufai. His description of him in his book, My Watch, was uncomplimentary and uncharitable. He said “Nasir’s penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological. Why does he do it? Very early in my interaction with him, I appreciated his talent. At the same time, I recognised his weaknesses; the worst being his inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue consistently for long… He lied brazenly, which he did to me, against his colleagues and so-called friends… My vivid recollection of him is a 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 half-truths with little or no regard for integrity.”
With the full knowledge of his past devious scheme, troubling shenanigans and vicious lying, it is hard to see his standoff with the NSA, particularly the accusation of poisonous substance import, as nothing more than an attempt to revive his primary and old political strategy of mischief and dangerous falsehood to win public sympathy and halt his gradual slide into political relevance. If indeed he was certain that the NSA had imported dangerous substances, all he had to do was take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act which allows him to legally demand disclosure on certain activities and events he believes the government is hiding from the public.
His startling accusations of Thallium Sulfate procurement and bold claims of wiretapping are nothing more than the shenanigans of a rabble rouser who wants to be the centre of attention and wants to remain relevant in a highly competitive and treacherous political space. He understands any move against him by the government over these claims will canonise him and boost his political mileage. He however needs to know that there should be a limit to how far anyone should go to crave the limelight and pander to a drama-consuming public, seek their attention and gain relevance. His gambits have gone well beyond the scope of political sagacity and gamesmanship and have ventured headlong into the arena of misguided, depraved and mindless machination.