Cheap blackmail by angry losers: A Response to CAN, Kaduna Chapter
Only recently and not too long ago ,the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Kaduna state chapter ,has been wagging tongues, accusing the immediate former Governor of Kaduna state Mal Nasir El Rufai on what is basically attested to his political views concerning just concluded elections in Nigeria.
For anybody who cares to know, Mal Nasir El Rufai who many people describe as a genius, whilst his cold calculating tendencies make him brilliant and smart while taking decisions.
A true Nigerian whose pedigree knows no boundaries when it comes to professionalism, competence and hardwork irrespective of one’s religion or ethnic background.
A private sector czar with his intellectual sagacity and uncommon courage as rightly said in Hausa proverbs: INDA KURA KE WASA BA GURIN WASAN KARE BANE : wheres the Hyena dances, is where the dog fears to dance.
Mal, Nasir El Rufai frequently makes headlines on National Dailies for his position on true Nigerian project and for his visionary strides, ability to take courageous positions into the future even if it may appear unpopular at any moment.
Such are very rare kind of leaders people must consistently and continuously be longing to have.
So to cut it short, let us consider the cheap blackmail by CAN and their few elements whose desire was to tarnish the hard earned reputation and image of one of the finest personalities in Nigeria.
They noise about so called inflammatory remarks by El Rufai and MURIC who boasted that the 2023 elections had proven that Muslims are overwhelming majority in the country.
Regrettably, these are mere cheap blackmail but let us ponder over some a little bit.
During the 202 election campaign season, where was CAN when churches and their pastors were asking their members to rally behind Christian candidate and making different kind of unguarded utterances.
Where was the highly politised CAN, when pastors were making inflammatory speaches of doom for the country.
Nigeria has never seen how such diversionary interests were openly instructed by “men of God” to vote en masse for their faith, which of course they did and at the end lost woefully, this is the beauty of democracy, a game of numbers as well as the will of the people.
How can Nigerians so easily forget the remarks by Orji Uzo Kalu a former Governor of Abia when responding to journalist questions on how and why his political party APC embraces Muslim- Muslim tickets, He said “and of course, we want to win an election, and democracy is a game of numbers not based on religion, ethnicity or regions”.
Let us understand that everyone will always get what they deserve, millions of Nigerians went all out to exercise their franchises without intimidation and harassment. Malam Nasir El Rufai and MURIC never planned any evil machinations against any other religions as alleged by CAN.
Election has come and gone and it clearly shown majority of votes garnered by Atiku -Obi, were from places with high concentration of Christian faithful.
However, a testimony by Reno Omokri in his recent comments concerning the outcome of the general election, where he said and I quote,
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“”The swearing-in of Bola Tinubu as president federal republic of Nigeria proves that many Nigerian pastors of the Christian faith have to go on a retreat to return themselves to God and question who spoke and speaks to them. Many of them behaved so irresponsibly and have, by their actions, undermined the faith of an untold number of Christians. They have also given impetus to the idea that perhaps religious organisations should lose their tax-exempt status the minute they dabble into partisan politics. Once that happens, you stop being a pastor or an imam and become a politician. “
And lastly you exposed the entire Christian to a minority status due to playing dirty religious politics in Nigeria as clearly shown by the outcome of 2023 election.
The remarks by Nasir Elrufai is not new in the dynamic of politics and in the same way as what is normal among those who give religious colouration to politics in Southern Kaduna, Taraba, Plateau and Benue among others.
Let us go into these remarks by Nasir Elrufai one by one, whilst I have never met a man so Machiavellian like a former minister of FCT, a former Governor for 8 years, A technocract par excellence in person of Nasir El Rufai a very articulate and intelligent personality.
Mr, El rufai while addressing a group of clerics in Kaduna after APC victory. He explained the rationale behind picking Dr., Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, explained that if you want to win an election, then you have to start looking for people who will vote for you.This is a purely polical issues and according to him they have done their calculation politically, so I asked what was wrong with this?
The former Governor went on to rhetorically ask, is there any Christian in Kaduna who can prove that we oppressed them? Of course if certain areas voted for us the most, we add something to them unlike those that didn’t vote for us, but certainly we will treat them fairly.
What imams taught us is that leadership in Islam is all about justice and we want to share with our breatheren the such beautiful attributes of Muslims.
Concerning the tenure of the Executive Governor Senator Uba Sani after he finishes his tenure and gets re-elected again after El Rufai term , that will be sixteen, then we will have another tenure which will make it 24 years . These are normal in politics and what is wrong with that,
Politicians use to do that even during the PDP government when they said their target and ambition was to rule for 60 years.
For these and many other reasons , El rufai has proven to be an elder statesman whose leadership and actions make his memoir required to read for anyone seeking to understand the dynamic of power and politics in Kaduna and Nigeria as a whole.
Already, Malam Nasir Elrufai rose to the top ranks of Nigeria’s political hierarchy , As the former minister of FCT he made a profound zeal to FCT master plan and at last he achieved it, as a governor in Kaduna state laudable records are there for any body to see.
It was, therefore clear that while CAN and their agents were acting a well prepared script to dent and distort the real information with facts as well as to diminsh the image of Nasir Elrufai, CAN should understand that democracy is a people’s choice where the majority carry the lead.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, nor misinterpret someone’s comments wrongly. Under any circumstances, take a proper cross examination before uttering a word.
It’s rather too late for CAN and their cohorts to misquote Malam Nasir El Rufai at this material time.
Let CAN understand that Peace can only be achieved when there is justice and adherence to tenet of demographics realities.
Kamaluddeen Sani wrote from the ancient city of Kano, Nigeria.
