KEYNOTE ADDRESS
DELIVERED BY THE EX-GOVERNOR OF KADUNA STATE, MALLAM NASIR EL-RUFAI AT THE LAUNCHING
OF PROFESSOR ISHAQ AKINTOLA’S BOOK, ‘MY JIHAD…’, AT COMBO HALL, LTV 8, IKEJA,
LAGOS ON 9TH JULY, 2023
El-Rufai : “I have
chosen never again to respond to distortions and manufactured falsehoods like
Islamisation and Fulanisation”
https://theshieldonlineng.com/el-rufai-i-have-chosen-never-again-to-respond-to-distortions-and-manufactured-falsehoods-like-islamisation-and-fulanisation/
“ …I grew up in a Nigeria where the ‘Northern’ counter-coup
of July 1966, led by a Muslim, Murtala Mohammed of blessed memory, handed over
power to the Christian trio of Yakubu Gowon, J E Akinwale-Wey, and Obafemi
Awolowo, that ruled Nigeria for the next nine years. No one cared that the top
three leaders were all Christians.”
*Photo: El-Rufai*
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North and South Interdependence and Integration in National
Politics:
Thoughts on Political Stability, Nation-Building, and Progressive Transformation
Keynote address by Malam Nasir El-Rufai at the book
launch/retirement event in honour of Professor Ishaq Lakin Akintola, held in
the Conference Hall of LTV8, Ikeja, on Saturday, 9th July 2023
PROTOCOLS:
1. Permit me to begin by congratulating Professor Ishaq Akintola on becoming
indisputably an old man. Those of us in our sixties often face no danger of
being mistaken as young people but are sometimes considered not to have
attained old age. But, except in jest, nobody accuses a 70-year of being a fledgling.
As he retires from academia, I wish Professor Akintola many more years of good
health and service to our country. I thank the organisers of this event for
inviting me to join you here today to honour Prof and to say a few words.
2. Professor Akintola is a scholar of religion and an
activist. He was a leading and tireless voice in initiating a political
rapprochement between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and I. The initial outreach surprised
me, coming from people who were not politicians and with whom I didn’t have
close relations. I was curious about the approach from Professor Akintola and
his team. I later learnt that they felt encouraged to approach me because I had
gone on the record in 2019 as being in favour of power shift for 2023. As is
now obvious, the reconciliation effort succeeded, and I thank Prof. Akintola
for his role and energetic contributions.
3. For this and many other reasons, I am honoured to be
here today to join in celebrating with Prof Akintola, his family and friends.
The invitation included a request either to speak on fostering national unity
and stability through deeper collaboration between the north and south of
Nigeria or the legacy of Sir Ahmadu Bello to the politics of Northern Nigeria.
I have chosen to speak on the former as I feel better placed to share my
experiences in the last 25 years of active public service, and similar,
previous period of being a passive observer of Nigerian politics.
4. It is my view that a lot has changed in 50 years, and
mostly not for the better. Increased literacy, religious and ethnic awareness,
improved communication technologies and enhanced political sophistication have
sadly led to more intolerance, ethno-religious division using manufactured
falsehood, and overall poorer political, economic and social governance. How
did we as a nation get to this point? How do we reject this toxic mix that has
not served our nation well? These are the issues on which I wish to share my
thoughts today.
5. Once upon a time, I grew up in a Nigeria where the
‘Northern’ counter-coup of July 1966, led by a Muslim, Murtala Mohammed of
blessed memory, handed over power to the Christian trio of Yakubu Gowon, J E
Akinwale-Wey, and Obafemi Awolowo, that ruled Nigeria for the next nine years.
No one cared that the top three leaders were all Christians. In fact, following
persons constituted the top six officials of the Federal Military Government
(1967-1973) were:
i. Major General Yakubu Gowon Head of State
ii. Brigadier Eyo Ekpo Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters
iii. Brigadier Hassan Usman Katsina Chief of Army Staff
iv. Rear Admiral Joseph Akinwale Wey Chief of Naval Staff
v. Colonel Emmanuel Ikwue Chief of Air Staff
vi. Chief Obafemi Awolowo Minister of Finance and Vice Chairman, Federal
Executive Council.
No one cared that there was only one Muslim in the top six. We had a nation to
unite and a civil war to prosecute! Nigeria was the better for it.
6. The makeup of the top leadership in the last two years
of General Gowon’s government, from 1973 to 1975, had a similar look. Vice
Admiral Wey replaced Brigadier Ekpo as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters.
Major General David Ejoor became Chief of Army Staff, replacing General Hassan
Katsina, who had been appointed as Admiral Wey’s deputy at the Supreme
Headquarters. Rear Admiral Nelson Soroh became Chief of Naval Staff.
7. When the five Northern colonels (Joe Garba, Shehu
Yar’Adua, Ibrahim Taiwo, Anthony Ochefu and Abdullahi Mohammed) overthrew
General Gowon in a bloodless coup in 1975, they handed over power to the trio
of Murtala, Obasanjo and Danjuma. The religious or ethnic identities of the
trio and the service chiefs did not matter to the coupists. We had a drifting
nation to save. Again, Nigeria was the better for it. Even after Murtala was
murdered, Yar’Adua deputised for Obasanjo to ensure the creation of the Second
Republic in 1979.
8. The birth of the Second Republic came along with a
presidential constitution, Abuja as a new capital and multiparty democracy with
five registered political parties. The UPN, led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo,
fielded the Awolowo-Umeadi presidential ticket. The NPP’s Dr. Azikiwe had
Ishaya Audu as running mate, while the other three parties had different
religious mixes, but no one – either in politics or media, and certainly not on
any pulpit – called the UPN and NPP tickets anything similar to a
Christian-Christian ticket. As a people, Nigerians were too eager for the
return of democratic rights to care about the religious or regional identity of
the contestants.
9. Alhaji Shehu Shagari won the presidency, with Alex
Ekwueme as Vice President, Joseph Wayas as Senate President and Edwin Ume
Ezeoke as Speaker of the House. Justice Atanda Fatai-Williams was Chief Justice
of Nigeria. Nobody complained about the ‘lopsided dominance of Christians’ in
the three arms of the federal government under the Shagari administration. The
service chiefs were variously Alani Akinrinade, Inuwa Wushishi, Gibson
Jalo, John Yisa Doko and Sunday Adewusi, but no Muslim organization at the time
shouted at what would now be regarded as ‘lopsided’ appointments!
10. My point here is that we were not always like the way
we have been recently. There was a time when religion and ethnicity were
rightly seen as private matters that were only incidental to politics and
governance, and not as the sole definers of a person, and certainly not
negotiating tools in serious national affairs – and this applied everywhere in
Nigeria until the mid-1990s to date, sadly.
11. A shining example of this erstwhile progressive
attitude was exhibited in the Southwest during the Second Republic. It is
perhaps noteworthy that other than all the Southwest states are heavily mixed
in terms of their religious demographics. Yet the people there willingly voted
massively for the UPN. Let’s refresh our memories with the names of the persons
who took the oaths of office in October 1979 as elected governors and deputy
governors of the Southwest states:
i. Lagos: Alhaji Lateef Jakande and Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo
ii. Ogun: Chief Bisi Onabanjo and Chief Sesan Soluade
iii. Ondo: Chief Michael Ajasin and Chief Akin Omoboriowo
iv. Oyo: Chief Bola Ige and Chief Sunday Afolabi
12. Can anybody say that any of these Southwest states
suffered retrogression, paralysis or exhibited unfairness to any religious
group because they happened to be led by people of the same faith? Did their
different faiths stop either Alhaji Jakande or Chief Ige from implementing
their party’s manifesto of free education in their states, allowing the
children of the poor of whatever ethnic or religious identity to enhance their
prospects for social mobility?
13. We can go on and on about the Buhari-Idiagbon-Babangida
junta that overthrew Shagari to wide applause across the country in 1983, with
no one crying that the trio were all Northerners and Muslims. Needless to add
that no one ever accused that regime of favouring one ethno-religious group
over the other. Indeed, the regime arrested and detained all previous political
office holders without regard to partisan, regional or religious identity!
After all efforts to inject religious and regional sentiments in the politics
of transition, the Abiola-Kingibe ticket shocked the Babangida regime in 1993
when it handily won the national elections even though it was tagged a “Muslim-Muslim”
ticket then, defeating the Bashir Tofa-Sylvester Ugoh ticket which was the
“balanced”, preferred one and was therefore expected to win. But Nigerians were
determined to end military rule, and the endless transition of the time, and
didn’t buy into the manufactured falsehood of an Islamisation agenda by Abiola,
and they rejected the so-called ‘balanced’ ticket!
14. However, it is a paradox that it was in the decades of
military rule after the 1983 Buhari-Idiagbon junta that religion and ethnic identity
took on a new resonance. The Babangida regime allowed or even encouraged the
ascendance of religion and region as the allocative principles for power,
position and privilege. That set in motion processes that relegated bridge
builders since the incentive was to stay in your own religion-regional cocoons.
For instance, from 1991, it became a tradition to have a mixed governorship
ticket in Kaduna State, and His Excellency, James Bawa Magaji emerged as the
first Christian to be elected as Deputy Governor of Kaduna State. It is perhaps
a noteworthy coincidence that the Zangon Kataf crises of 1992 occurred during
which ‘indigenous’ Katafs attacked and slaughtered thousands of ‘Hausa
settlers’ shortly after this governance “innovation”. The Babangida government
prosecuted General Zamani Lekwot and a few other Kataf leaders for the violent
crisis, and they were convicted but eventually pardoned.
15. Upon my emergence as the APC’s governorship candidate
in December 2014, I named Architect Barnabas Yusuf Bala of blessed memory as my
running mate. I had known him from our undergraduate days in the 1970s and had
persuaded him to come out of political retirement so that we could be partners
in progressive attainments for our people. Barnabas Yusuf Bala was the son of a
priest, a brilliant man, and an accomplished architect. He was twice chairman
of his local government council before representing Kaura Federal Constituency
in the House of Representatives. An alumnus of Federal Government College
Warri, University of Lagos and Ahmadu Bello University where we met, Bantex was
a gifted politician and a bridge builder who had invested decades of effort in
building understanding and consensus across the ethnic and religious identities
and groups in Kaduna State.
16. Recognising that we were both advanced in age, I
deliberately organised the Kaduna State Government to be led by two partners at
the top – Bantex as Deputy Governor sharing near equal power with me as
Governor. I picked him personally as my running mate with the concurrence of
our leader General Muhammadu Buhari. I trusted Bantex, respected his intellect
and deferred to his judgment based on 30 years of mutual acquaintance and
professional interactions. We were both committed to uniting our state by
bridging the divides and promoting the progressive ideals of providing equal
opportunity for all our citizens.
17. Nothing prepared either Bantex or I for the viciousness
with which he was treated by the constituency he was meant to be representing
by his presence on the governorship ticket. He offered thrice to resign from
office within our first two years in office. Bantex therefore barely made it to
the end of our first term, psychologically battered by the hostility and
hobbled by a resurgence of ill-health. He was a powerful deputy, who acted as
governor whenever I was away, presided at Executive Council meetings, swore in
senior officials and was copied on every document that left my office. No
Deputy Governor in Nigeria’s fourth republic is nearly as powerful as Bantex
was, and this continued with his successor. Bantex lost his bid to represent
the Kaduna South Senatorial District in the 2019 election. We lost him a year
or so later.
18. Bantex’s travails made us in the Kaduna State
Government to interrogate the substantive meaning of ethno-religious balance in
politics, whether that created dynamics that made an elected person or an
appointee to be seen by “his people” not as a servant of the whole or to be
branded as a sellout. We reviewed the long line of persons from the same
religion and same region who had been elected as deputy governor before Bantex:
James Bawa Magaji (Bajju), Stephen Shekari (Bajju), Patrick Yakowa (Kagoma) and
Nuhu Bajoga (Jaba). Had that made for a more united Kaduna State? Had it encouraged
the politics of building bridges? Or had it instead created a sense of
entitlement on the part of the three main tribes in Southern Kaduna, or even
encouraged violent conduct by same to preserve their privileges? Personally, I
realized that making Bantex nearly a co-Governor in Kaduna to unite our state
served as no cure for bigotry from a section of the state, or the predilection
to violence and using victimhood as justification for personal and group
irresponsibility. By every measure, anyone familiar with the political
evolution of Kaduna State will conclude that this was at best, a mixed picture.
19. The hostility to Bantex, I later learnt, arose and
coalesced around multiple grievances. I chose him to be my running mate without
requesting for a shortlist from the self-appointed, so-called Southern Kaduna
Christian Elders; he was from the small tribe of Moroa, not the privileged
Atyap (Kataf), Bajju, Jaba or the Kagoro; and Bantex was totally loyal to our
party and its leadership, as he should have been!! He was not pursuing any
so-called Southern Kaduna or Christian agenda, whatever that meant. He was
therefore tagged a sellout!
20. Something had to change. For the 2019 election, my
choice of running mate followed the established pattern, except in two
particulars: gender and religion. Dr. Hadiza Balarabe is from a minority ethnic
group (Gwantu) in southern Kaduna, but she is a woman and a Muslim. Her choice
met with the usual hostility from the same persons that had so battered and
demoralised Bantex, my first deputy. But it demonstrated that not everyone who
mouths diversity and inclusion is actually interested in those values. The
first woman to be elected as Deputy Governor from the far north of Nigeria was
not seen as a pathfinder, a breakthrough for gender and a reaffirmation of the
possibility of democracy to elect persons from minority and excluded
groups. Only one marker of identity seemed to matter in such quarters.
But the fact that Bantex had that marker – religion – had saved neither him nor
I from opprobrium.
21. Dr. Hadiza Balarabe and I ran a government dedicated to
the equality of persons, resolutely pursuing the policy of common citizenship.
Despite sharing the same faith, we were bound by the injunctions of our Islamic
faith, our oaths of office and our societal values to exercise our duties with
fairness and justice. Electing persons of the same faith is neither a threat to
the rights of others nor a blow to inclusion: it may only have highlighted
other identities that tend to be excluded, as we did in Kaduna State. If we
want our citizens to invest in common causes, to work in mutual endeavours for
progress, to build a society of merit, hard work and fairness, we must
deemphasise religion and region, and their vicious twin ethnicity, in making
political decisions and choices. Let us build a society centred around
citizens, who can live and pursue livelihoods everywhere, with constitutional
rights that apply to all.
22. It is in this context that the recent furore and
hysteria about my pre-inauguration remarks in May 2023 regarding politics and
governance in Kaduna State and the electoral victory of the Asiwaju-Shettima
ticket should be understood. I thank MURIC and many concerned individuals and
organisations that rose to my defence and even offered accurate translations of
my remarks and the key messages contained therein. I have chosen never to
respond to these distortions and manufactured falsehoods like Islamisation,
Fulanisation and the like because those that engage in these deliberate
distortions will do so whatever we may say and they have no regard for truth or
accuracy. They have made up their minds about the message and the messenger
whether I speak or not.
23. To underscore the point above, consider this fact. The
Kaduna State Government under my watch was variously accused by Southern Kaduna
Christian Elders and their cheerleaders of ‘Islamisation’, genocide and
‘Fulanisation’. But we are the same government that confronted, degraded and
prosecuted Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, proscribed his so-called Islamic movement and
prosecuted him for various offences. There are still pending criminal charges
against him being pursued by the Federal and State Governments for which he is
avoiding service. We also launched aggressive onslaughts against banditry which
is dominated by persons of Fulani extraction, killing many of their leaders and
refusing to negotiate with them at any point. Those that quietly kill so-called
‘settlers’ in Southern Kaduna and shout ‘genocide’ when retaliation by the victims
occurs are mere hypocrites.
24. So for those that care about the truth, my message at
the Kaduna event which went viral was simple – leadership based on Islamic (and
indeed, even Christian) principles is fair and equitable – and prescribes that
a leader must be fair and just to everyone – whether Muslim (or Christian) or
not. Let me elucidate with reference to both Christian and Islamic religious
sources.
25. Let me start with the Christian scriptures. Is it not
Proverbs 14:34 that stated “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a
reproach to any people.” It it also not a Biblical prescription
that “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” from the Book of Leviticus
19:18. Both prescriptions in the Bible focus on the ethic of reciprocity known
as the Golden Rule or the Great Commandment. Is the Christian leadership in
Nigeria consistent in preaching these exhortations to guide any faithful in
politics and governance? Were these two principles the basis of the
Christianization of Peter Obi’s campaign in churches during the 2023 elections?
Certainly not!
26. In Kaduna State, and indeed in all my public service
assignments, I am proud to be guided always by the prescriptions of my Islamic
faith regarding the discharge of the responsibilities of leadership. From
the administration of the BPE to the FCT and the governance of Kaduna State, I
am constantly reminded of the writings of the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate
closer to home in his Bayan Wujub Al-Hijra that “a society can thrive and
prosper submerged in unbelief….but shall go nowhere under the yoke of injustice
even in the light of [Islamic] belief.” As Muslims, we are also reminded of the
words of our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that “None of you will (be a true
Muslim) until you love for your brother what you love for yourself.” Even in
the pre-Jihad era of the latter-day Sokoto Caliphate, the Hausa Kings of Kano,
Zazzau and Katsina, among others, were deeply influenced by the works of Ibn
Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, who wrote then that:
“It is said that Allah allows the just state to remain even if it is led by
unbelievers, but Allah will not allow the oppressive state to remain even if it
is led by Muslims. And it is said that the world will endure with justice and
unbelief, but it will not endure with oppression and Islam.”
How can any Muslim placed in a leadership position be unjust to any person if
complying with the foregoing principles?
27. Looking at the Christian and Islamic principles of
public leadership, the similarities are clear and unequivocal. Under the
inclusive leadership of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and the only
Premier of the defunct Northern Region, these became embedded in the code of
governance in Northern Nigeria between 1952 and 1966. It was therefore not
surprising that Northerners of those days – Muslims and Christians alike – were
brought up as part and parcel of this cultural and religious milieu up until
the mid-1990s. Some of us remain guided by these principles till today, while
sadly, many more have abandoned what essentially defined what it means to be a
Northerner – fairness, truthfulness, honesty and keeping one’s words – for
generations.
28. Ladies and Gentlemen, the point of my remarks in Kaduna
and indeed today is that truly religious-guided leadership is fair to all –
whether Christian or Muslim or a combination thereof. We have shown it in
Kaduna where no non-Muslim can point to any treatment different from a Muslim
residing in our state in terms of implementing policies, programmes and projects.
No non-Muslim can point to discrimination in opportunities or political
appointments, employment, access to education, healthcare, scholarships or
other social services. The Muslim majority will always have its way in
democratic contests, while the Christian minority will have its say, and have
its rights protected as Kaduna State has shown. I have no fears that the same
will happen in Nigeria today and always if we are serious about complying with
the leadership prescriptions of our two main monotheistic religions.
29. I am therefore pleased to observe that the much-derided
and opposed Tinubu-Shettima APC ticket not only won the presidential elections
but has shown within weeks that the Muslim-Muslim presidency is capable of
being fair to every one – Muslim and non-Muslim alike. President Asiwaju’s
victory has not only silenced the once-loud religious bigots, but his few weeks
of governance, policy decisions and the diversity of political appointments has
confirmed that he will not be unfair to any ethnic, religious or regional
identity. President Tinubu has shown so far that Nigerians should elect tried
and tested problem-solvers of whatever religious, ethnic and regional
description for righteousness to pervade our nation.
30. For many Muslims, and certainly as far as most
Northern Muslims are concerned, the following words of Hammudah Abdalati
(Salimiah, Kuwait 1978) reflect our regional attitude as a people, and the
outcome of the elections of 2023 confirm that:
“religion is not to bewilder man but to guide him. It is
not to debase him but to elevate his moral nature. It is not to deprive him of
anything useful, or to burden him, or to oppress his qualities, but to open for
him inexhaustible treasures of sound thinking and right action. It is not to
confine him to narrow limits, but to launch him into wide horizons of truth and
goodness. In short, true religion is to acquaint man with God as well as with
himself and the rest of the universe.”
31. Our people overwhelmingly voted for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu
and across the North preferred him over a Northerner and Muslim – Atiku
Abubakar – giving him nearly 64% of the total for the plurality of votes and
25% in virtually all the states. It is my humble view that this North-South
electoral interdependency and political integration is a successful template
for national politics and economics that will provide Nigerians the policy
continuity, political stability and pragmatic leadership needed to propel
Nigeria to the attainment of its manifest destiny of being the leader of the
Black Race. It is an idea that I believe every patriotic Nigerian and concerned
African should key into and support.
32. As I wind down this keynote, let me say it is only
fitting therefore that this event organised to mark the retirement of a
foremost scholar of religion offers a veritable platform to say these few words
about my view of religion and region and their place, in our country. Nigerians
are at least ‘on the surface’, a very religious people. Many others are very
regional or ethnic in their thinking. I will elaborate on the qualification –
‘on the surface’ – subsequently in these remarks.
33. It therefore seems to me that our obsession with
religion is only rivalled by the national fixation on ethnicity. These two
markers of identity are pushed with a fervour that relegates or displaces the
common bond of our humanity and the imperatives of equal citizenship. Those
that are the forefront of advancing these dual agendas merely do so to acquire
privilege, power and prosperity without the hard work of acquiring competence
and capacity, without undergoing the rigours of electoral competition and
without industry and job creation! By pushing these agendas, one can be
wealthy, own private jets and live a life of opulence without any identifiable
education, experience or business investments!
34. I say “on the surface” not only because of the points
made earlier and clearly in these remarks, but when such ‘externally-religious’
people establish businesses, they don’t only employ people from their church or
mosque but the best talent from anywhere and of every faith. When they fall
ill, they never insist on being treated by a doctor of their faith, but
the best available, even if of another faith or none at all. Yet, they wear their
religion on their shoulders to persuade us that they will lead based on the
guidance of our faiths. It is evident from the foregoing that most of our
leaders simply do not practice what their respective religions preach in our
daily lives.
35. Without a doubt, there is a jarring dissonance between
the ubiquity of religion, the apparent sensitivity to religion, the performance
of religious rituals and its glaring absence in informing virtue, promoting
good behaviour, upholding law and order, concern for others or dedication to
the public good, and equitable leadership. It is as if proclaiming religion is
the superior undertaking, not to be confused with having anything to do with
living up to its principles, pillars and precepts. Fidelity to religious
principles should make an individual an ‘omoluabi’ in Yoruba culture or
‘mutumin kirki’ in Hausa parlance.
36. In my view, the intrusion of religion and region into
the public sphere in Nigeria, and their subsequent over-politicisation is bad
news for the country. It is divisive, costly and not conducive to national
cohesion, unity and progress. Parts of northern Nigeria have, since the late
1980s, witnessed at great cost the worst manifestations of the divisions and
conflict that the apparent obsession with religion promotes. In the North, we
look with admiration at the absence in the Southwest of these religious and
ethnic divides that manifest in communal violence and killings. I urge you to
remain the tolerant society you have always been.
37. I am convinced that religion should retreat to the
private sphere where it properly belongs. Region and religion should be
deployed to unite, promote equity and justice and engender human progress.
Faith is a direct relationship between an individual and God. The strength and
depth of that faith may so impact a person’s character, values and respect for
others that such a person may be recognised as an exemplary individual.
Religion is supposed to help us become better human beings but is instead
increasingly positioned as a negotiating platform for the acquisition of
prosperity, power and privilege. Honest adoption of religious teachings in
exercising leadership will remove, not entrench, discrimination and injustice.
That is helpful for any society.
38. Should how individuals worship God or an accident of
birth and geography be construed as bargaining chips for political power?
Should they be deemed as the foremost markers of identity? Should region or
religion be the preeminent feature of diversity and therefore the most
significant measure of inclusion? I think that is a derogation from the purpose
of faith. When construed as an allocation mechanism, religion, either on its
own or when allied to ethnicity or region as so often happens, does not advance
national unity or cohesion. In place of the modern notions of equality before
the law, it creates the specious notion that only someone who worships like you
or speaks the same language with you can treat you fairly and justly. Religion
or region as bargaining tools fossilise division, turning the joyful tapestry
of difference that diversity represents into concrete walls from which people
emerge solely for the purpose of taking their share.
39. It is my humble view that after four decades of
fixation with religion and region, and the atomisations and divisions attendant
to that, we should as a nation, return to worshipping God in private and let
our merits as individual citizens recommend us for elections and appointments.
It is time for us as a people and nation to begin a conscious sprint way from
this toxic mix that has so far not served us well. The election of Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed and the woeful failure of Peter Obi present opportunities for this
retracing of wrong steps and a renewed effort at nation-building.
40. In addition, I believe strongly that the election of
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the president of Nigeria has been an opportunity
to destroy many myths. First, it has ended the widely-held narrative in the
South that the so-called northern oligarchy will hold on to power at all costs,
disregard any commitments and deceive any political partners. Second, Tinubu’s
ascendance and Peter Obi’s rejection to third place in the 2023 election
demystified fake polls and ethnic pundits, and fully demolished the falsehood
that religionising any national political contest by campaigning in places of
worship and in tribal enclaves will lead to electoral success. Third, it has
restored the long-held belief that northern politicians are trusted to keep
their words and stand for fairness to all Nigerians, whether written or not.
Fourthly, the myth that the elected president of Nigeria from the South must be
a Christian, which effectively disenfranchises all Muslims from the South-West,
South-East and South-South has been conclusively settled. Now we can say that
the election of Chief Moshood Abiola of blessed memory was not a fluke, an
aberration and some phenomenon that is impossible to replicate. We have
replicated it in a three-way contest in 2023! Finally, President Tinubu has
surprised all the pessimists by starting on a sound footing, guided by true
Islamic principles of leadership – putting Nigeria first by appointing
generally competent people with minimal regard to region or religion. That is
what fairness and justice demands.
41. I am not surprised that those that opposed President
Tinubu’s presidential aspiration on grounds of being a Muslim, and/or because
of the choice of his running mate, have gone totally silent and failed to
commend him for appointing many more non-Muslims into his government than they
expected so far! As is usual for most of us, as distinct from the loudest
bigots, our preference is to see competent people of any religion than just any
incompetent Muslim! Let us therefore persist in praying for President Tinubu to
make us proud first as Muslims, by continuing to govern along the Islamic path
of fairness, justice and progress for all. Let all our brothers in South-West
pray for him to make you all proud as well. As Northerners, we are often blamed
for the failings of past military and civilian leaders from the North due to no
fault of ours. We pray that this will not be your portion. As Nigerians, let us
not only pray for President Tinubu to succeed beyond our expectations, but
trust and allow him the freedom to choose his governance team without undue
regional, religious and ethnic pressure. Let us also learn the lessons and
failures of the 2023 election season to better plan for future political
dispensations and focused nation-building.
42. Let me conclude by once again congratulating you, my
brother Professor Ishaq Akintola. As you launch your biography today, I join
everyone here and elsewhere to wish you long life, happiness and prosperity.
May the rest of your life be the best of your life. You have done very well in
all your professional, academic and civil rights roles, so far.
43. My dear Prof, we expect you to continue your activism
in retirement. There is work to be done in promoting Islam and our values.
There will still be some unreasonable religious bigots that must be responded
to. Please never be quiet when an Islamic voice is needed, and remain the
activist that you are. I must say I don’t agree with you and MURIC on all
issues all the time, but yours is that voice that needs to be heard from time
to time if we must build a nation where no religion and certainly no man (or
woman) is oppressed.
Thanks for inviting me, and to you all for listening.
God Bless Professor Akintola.
God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Nasir
Ahmad El-Rufai, OFR, CON
Lagos, July 9, 2023
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