₦airaland Forum

There is a popular American political proverb that goes: “Every accusation is a confession.” It describes the tendency for politicians to attribute to rivals the very traits, desires, guilty knowledge, or actions they themselves harbor or have committed.Kperogi book collection

No one embodies this proverb more spectacularly than Malam Nasir El-Rufai. For example, in 2017, he admitted on national television that he used Kaduna State resources to pay bandits who kidnapped and murdered people.

“Yes, we offered [bandits] money,” he told Channels TV’s Chamberlain Usoh. “We said, ‘Look, if we have to pay you not to kill our people, we’re happy to do it.’ Compensation for life and property has foundations even in the Qur’an and the Bible.”

Eight years later, in an August 31 interview with Channels TV, he declared: “What I will not do is to pay bandits,” then accused his political rivals of doing just that. “It’s a national policy driven by the Office of the National Security Adviser, and Kaduna is part of it.”

Both the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Kaduna State government have flatly denied his claims.

To be fair, El-Rufai did tell BBC Hausa in February 2021 that he disagreed with Sheikh Ahmad Gumi’s call for compensating bandits. And in April 2021, he vowed he would never pay ransom even if his own son were kidnapped. But he never reconciled these positions with his 2017 admission that he did, in fact, pay ransom.

In that same August 31 interview, where he accused the NSA of “empowering bandits,” El-Rufai bragged that he had “dealt with” Christian Southern Kaduna leaders and with Shia Muslims of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). “I didn’t take any nonsense from them,” he said. “Go and ask them.”Nigerian history books

What he described so cavalierly about the IMN was the cold-blooded mass massacre of more than a thousand Shia Muslims and the destruction of their place of worship. One of the victims was my Facebook friend, the brilliant young Bukhari Muhammed Bello Jega, who was murdered along with his infant daughter, wife, and sister.

Another was the family of my former Daily Trust colleague (who’s now a lecturer at ABU), Waziri Isa Gwantu, who lost three children in the state-sanctioned mass butchery.

Set aside doctrinal differences or resentments toward Shias for a moment. These were human beings whose governor ordered their slaughter simply to show he “doesn’t take nonsense.” The sheer cold-bloodedness of bragging on national television about mass killings as proof of toughness is beyond what my mind can grasp. Honestly.

Yet this same governor, who boasts of orchestrating a mass massacre, complained bitterly on AIT that the Kaduna State government he helped install sent thugs to disrupt a meeting of his loyalists on August 30.

I don’t condone violence against him or his associates. But apart from his televised braggadocio about mass murder, Senator Shehu Sani, his longtime political foe, has documented, with videos and news clippings, a sordid history of thuggery and violence sponsored by El-Rufai’s government from 2016 to 2021.

The record is damning. In December 2016, gunmen attacked Senator Sani’s constituency office, injuring many. In July 2017, armed thugs stormed a press conference at the NUJ Secretariat, assaulting Senators Sani and Hunkuyi, other politicians, and journalists.

In May 2018, at Ranchers Bees Stadium, El-Rufai cursed Kaduna’s three senators before cheering supporters and urged attacks on them. Just weeks earlier, thugs had invaded a meeting led by Senator Hunkuyi, killing one man and injuring others. And in May 2021, thugs attacked peaceful NLC protesters after mass sackings, an assault Sani says was led by El-Rufai’s aide, who was later freed on El-Rufai’s orders.

Now, in his AIT interview on August 30, El-Rufai lamented: “I’m quite disappointed and disgusted… If the authorities don’t take decisive action to end this reintroduction of thuggery into Kaduna politics, well, God help us, because nobody has a monopoly of violence. Nobody has a monopoly of thugs.”

Did he mean by “reintroduction” the continuation of the very violence and thuggery he normalized while in power?

Few Nigerian politicians weaponize the strategy of accusing others of what they themselves did as effectively as El-Rufai. It is his favorite tool for self-preservation, moral reframing, and political attack. That it collapses under the slightest scrutiny has never deterred him.Nigerian history books

Whenever El-Rufai hurls accusations, my instinct is to check when he himself did the same things he accuses others of, or to assume, if no precedent exists, that it is what he harbors or intends.

Psychologists call this “projection.” Rhetoricians call it “accusation in a mirror,” where one levels against opponents the very charges that could be leveled against oneself, thereby confusing the public and flipping blame.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of “ressentiment” is also apt. It says moral condemnation can become a mask for the bitterness of lost influence, a way to strike at successors or foes who enjoy the power he no longer wields.

So, when I say every El-Rufai accusation is a confession, I am not showing off a witty American aphorism. I am describing what has now become a consistent pattern in his politics.

AMINDA:
These ones are expending too many arsenal on Elrufai in what are clearly sponsored posts. Elrufai is not contesting for any position in 2027. Same Farooq Kperogi who told us that Aisha Buhari is no longer married to Buhari and came back to recant?

CodeTemplarr:
He had the decency to recant his wrong speculation. Can your paymaster do same?

Can he unpay killers he has paid? Can go back in time and raise those his actions/inactions have killed or lead to thier deaths? Can he develop the underdeveloped part of Kaduna? Can he admit the aort of politics he played even up to 5%?
The idiotic thing played God role as a devil in Kaduna. Woow.

AMINDA:
These ones are expending too many arsenal on Elrufai in what are clearly sponsored posts. Elrufai is not contesting for any position in 2027. Same Farooq Kperogi who told us that Aisha Buhari is no longer married to Buhari and came back to recant?

AMINDA:
Yorubaman, do you live in Kaduna? Have you ever set foot in the state? If the APC has any evidence that Elrufai paid killers, he's no longer in the party. Why has he not been prosecuted? There's no governor touching Elrufai's performance as governor of Kaduna in the foreseeable future. The records are there.

He took Kaduna from an average of 9 billion naira per year IGR to over 60 billion naira when he left office. Kaduna became the Northern State with the highest IGR during his tenure. Kaduna was consistently top 5 state that attracted the highest FDI while he was governor. He embarked on the iconic and ambitious KadunaUrbanRenewal drive that transformed the city of Kaduna into a very modern city. You can either visit Kaduna to see for yourself or do your research online. There's no Nigerian alive that can doubt the capacity of Elrufai to deliver in any task he's assigned. He delivered as DG BPE, delivered as FCT Minister (still the best till date) and delivered as governor of Kaduna state.

AMINDA:
Yorubaman, do you live in Kaduna? Have you ever set foot in the state? If the APC has any evidence that Elrufai paid killers, he's no longer in the party. Why has he not been prosecuted? There's no governor touching Elrufai's performance as governor of Kaduna in the foreseeable future. The records are there.

He took Kaduna from an average of 9 billion naira per year IGR to over 60 billion naira when he left office. Kaduna became the Northern State with the highest IGR during his tenure. Kaduna was consistently top 5 state that attracted the highest FDI while he was governor. He embarked on the iconic and ambitious KadunaUrbanRenewal drive that transformed the city of Kaduna into a very modern city. You can either visit Kaduna to see for yourself or do your research online. There's no Nigerian alive that can doubt the capacity of Elrufai to deliver in any task he's assigned. He delivered as DG BPE, delivered as FCT Minister (still the best till date) and delivered as governor of Kaduna state.

AMINDA:
Yorubaman, do you live in Kaduna? Have you ever set foot in the state? If the APC has any evidence that Elrufai paid killers, he's no longer in the party. Why has he not been prosecuted? There's no governor touching Elrufai's performance as governor of Kaduna in the foreseeable future. The records are there.

He took Kaduna from an average of 9 billion naira per year IGR to over 60 billion naira when he left office. Kaduna became the Northern State with the highest IGR during his tenure. Kaduna was consistently top 5 state that attracted the highest FDI while he was governor. He embarked on the iconic and ambitious KadunaUrbanRenewal drive that transformed the city of Kaduna into a very modern city. You can either visit Kaduna to see for yourself or do your research online. There's no Nigerian alive that can doubt the capacity of Elrufai to deliver in any task he's assigned. He delivered as DG BPE, delivered as FCT Minister (still the best till date) and delivered as governor of Kaduna state.

EvilMerodack:
That guy isnt Yoruba. Check his past comments from Day1 and you would see he doesnt even like the t-ribe

You dont have to make untrue assumptions. It makes your entire comment unexciting

AMINDA:
Yorubaman, do you live in Kaduna? Have you ever set foot in the state? If the APC has any evidence that Elrufai paid killers, he's no longer in the party. Why has he not been prosecuted? There's no governor touching Elrufai's performance as governor of Kaduna in the foreseeable future. The records are there.

He took Kaduna from an average of 9 billion naira per year IGR to over 60 billion naira when he left office. Kaduna became the Northern State with the highest IGR during his tenure. Kaduna was consistently top 5 state that attracted the highest FDI while he was governor. He embarked on the iconic and ambitious KadunaUrbanRenewal drive that transformed the city of Kaduna into a very modern city. You can either visit Kaduna to see for yourself or do your research online. There's no Nigerian alive that can doubt the capacity of Elrufai to deliver in any task he's assigned. He delivered as DG BPE, delivered as FCT Minister (still the best till date) and delivered as governor of Kaduna state.

AMINDA:
These ones are expending too many arsenal on Elrufai in what are clearly sponsored posts. Elrufai is not contesting for any position in 2027. Same Farooq Kperogi who told us that Aisha Buhari is no longer married to Buhari and came back to recant?

Zocalite:
Why do you people like downplaying killings

How can raising billions be equated above life

Under his leadership there were deaths every time - fact. That alone has rubbish any achievement

You ask why has apc not arrested him

This same man contributed to the success of tinubu and tinubu is destroying lives daily in nigeria

AMINDA:
These ones are expending too many arsenal on Elrufai in what are clearly sponsored posts. Elrufai is not contesting for any position in 2027. Same Farooq Kperogi who told us that Aisha Buhari is no longer married to Buhari and came back to recant?

AMINDA:
These ones are expending too many arsenal on Elrufai in what are clearly sponsored posts. Elrufai is not contesting for any position in 2027. Same Farooq Kperogi who told us that Aisha Buhari is no longer married to Buhari and came back to recant?