By Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi

In recent times, the social media space has been awash with postulations of possible pair of men and women that could rekindle the hope of Nigerians as per the NIGERIA PROJECT. If it were possible, the late nationalists: Awolowo, Azikwe and Bello would have been woken from their graves to come and right the wrongs that Buhari’s leadership has done to our nation. Our desperate quest for a better and greater country is now at any price.

The monumental damage done to our country from 1966 to 1999 by the military, was skillfully managed by intellectuals appointed to serve the nation from across the country without consideration for tribe in the PDP years. Just be the best and you had the job. This was the principle under Obasanjo, which Yar’adua inherited and passed down to Jonathan.

This brought great minds and hands on board. The best were needed and it didn’t matter who was recommending who. The late Prof Dora Akunyili was recommended by Muhammadu Buhari to serve Obasanjo; Atiku Abubakar pulled El-Rufai into the Obasanjo drag net. Ezekwesilli, Soludo, Sanusi did their bits. Also Akinwunmi and Okonjo-Iweala who have proved to be among the best of minds on the planet today, not minding our political sentiments to drag them down, also contributed their quota.

These, however, do not excuse our kleptomaniac experience in the PDP years, but the presence of looters was balanced by those of creators of wealth. This gave some comforting equilibrium in economic performance.

The Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) years were worse hit with looting. Even at that, damage was not as obvious as it is under Buhari, which is grossly due to increased kleptomanic activities and absence of wealth creators.

In 2015, rants of APC’s change mantra rented the air. It was only natural for a people desirous of the content of their hype for an experience to buy into what has become the biggest era of propaganda in human history.

Fight against corruption and Boko Haram were cardinal in our expectations. Buhari was branded and marketed for the job. But not without intelligent de-marketing of PDP, particularly Jonathan in such a dehumanizing manner that his poor old mother wept. She must have been too traumatised to vote in 2015.

It’s however appalling that anybody in APC will wake up with the dream of a quarter of opportunity to be given to
“Jona Mumu,” “the clueless PhD holder whose certificates are not worth Buhari’s NEPA bill.”

The pairing of Goodluck Jonathan with Basingstoke El-Rufai didn’t come to me as a surprise. It must have been informed by the “generosity” to let go of power to the South for as short as possible a time.

The possibility of Jonathan’s return to power is a forgone conclusion based on the recent amendment made to the constitution by the 9th Assembly led by Lawan and Gbajabiamila, which may make it impossible for Atiku Abubakar to also vie for predudency in 2023, except he bags a first degree before then. Let’s leave the interpretation of the amendments to lawyers.

The challenge I will like to put on record is the consequences of considering Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai for the post of president or vice president in a post-Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidency, which of course will be catastrophic, given his antecedents.

I would like to be clear. He is one of the most cerebral Nigerians alive today and qualified for the job. But he is crafty and slimy. The challenges of Buhari years have however taken the job beyond intelligence and qualifications. The need for character profiling as it borders on bigotry and nepotism must be seriously considered before picking our next president.

El-Rufai can lick the boots of any man of influence on his way to the top to get there. But be sure he would turn back to deal with the same person. If you doubt me, ask Akiku.

Obasanjo also can bear witness of El-Rufai “absolute” loyalty when you are the custodian of his dream, and of his ability not to think twice to have you betrayed once you are the one to be trampled to assume the next level of political relevance.

How do these attributes relate to Nigerians, now that we are the custodians of his dream to the Villa? The best of his craftiness will surely be deployed. The mistake of engaging him should only be made in the consciousness of our future betrayal.

Who is Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai? This accidental civil servant became a governor of Kaduna State through deliberate efforts. His leadership of Kaduna State has equally been very calculative before he became the unfortunate lord to administer Fulani supremacy for the establishment of Emirate in the Chiefdoms of Southern Kaduna as governor.

In 2012, our statesman and president in the making told us of his ancestral DNA and its tendencies to be vengeful even in a hundred years. Five years down the line the governor of Kaduna State had the opportunity to correct the impression, but no, like a true blooded Fulani who relishes the drunkenness of power.

El-Rufai gave clarification of the need for his personality not to be mistaken at the Social Media Week held in Lagos in 2017.

He insisted: “The comment made in 2012 is not a threat, but was meant to help avert a crisis.” Nine years later, the “averter” of crisis found fulfilment on Friday, the 19th of February, 2021 at the National Conversation; The Fierce Urgency of Now held in Lagos, where he had remarked: “Pulling back from the brink.” Amazing! Those who drove us to the brink have found reason to engage the reverse gear because of their inordinate ambitions for 2023. Their vengeful agenda can be on the hold for now to continue when they take over the driver’s seat again in 2023.

Back to 2017. According to him: “People are making reference to what I tweeted in 2012. What did I tweet? I tweeted that any person, soldier or not, that kills a Fulani, takes a debt that will be repayable in a 100 years. It’s a statement of fact. It is not a threat.”

We may need to ask His Excellency if the situation in Kaduna under him is a deliberate activation of our paying back the Fulani the debt we owe them.

His Excellency never forgot to teach us a bit of his ancestral history while arrogantly affirming what he tweeted in 2012 in 2017.

He clarified: “Now I know the nature of the nomadic Fulani. My great great grandparents used to be such people. If you kill any of them unlawfully, “THEY” organise, (please note the word “they” and underline the word organise) to take revenge, no matter how long it takes.”

We may need to ask His Excellency to help us unearth the “they” of the present vengeance mission of the Fulani against the rest of the country, given his allegiance to the Fulani blue blood.

He would also do well to let us into how they are ORGANISED against our sovereignty.

He warned us: “Now for me, the danger is that if the Nigerian Army goes and wipes out a Fulani settlement,” I guess like Sanwo-Olu invited them to do to #EndSARS protesters, and also the army mission on the invitation of Uzodinma to wipe out persons of Igbo extraction from their own ancestral forest in Orlu. What a world of revelatory difference between their leaders and ours! We can now see.

2017 was a year of revelation. In line with his discourse, he went further: “Any person wearing Nigerian Army uniform in the 14 West African countries is at risk because these Fulani may have relations in Mali, Ghana, Serria Leone, Guinea, and word will go round that the Nigeria Army has created a genocide against the Fulani and anywhere you see a person wearing Nigerian Army uniform, is a target for retaliation.” Whao!

His Excellency has revealed the modus operandi of the Fulani nation. President Muhammadu Buhari is of course a Fulani. This must have been behind our travails. Their relations in Nigeria have connected to the word going round.

Little wonder Bala Mohammed asked them to exchange their shepherd’s rod for military graded arms of AK 47. How about their relations in the military? The loyalty must have been to their tribe and not the nation. Conflict of interest! Could this be a compromise from within for other tribes in the military?

Would this explain the many ambushes successfully launched against our troops in the fight against Boko Haram? This must explain why bandits are shy and piously treated by Sheikh Gumi; the reason why some bandits are not criminals according to the governor of Zamfara, Matawalle.

Matawalle seems to be saying ‘we are confronted with Fulanis on vengeance mission who are here to draw their debts in blood and money.’

Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, a 21st century Havard graduate, the governor of Kaduna State, must be reminded that he once told us that he went to BEG and PAY his ancestral cousins outside Nigeria when he became governor to stop killings of Southern Kaduna people now that one of their own is the governor. We need to ask him what he meant by this. Would the killings have continued if he wasn’t the Governor?

What difference has his governorship made, given the situation in Southern Kaduna?

We also need to ask ourselves. Could scores killed, countless houses and villages burnt and tens of thousand rendered homeless be what His Excellency paid them to stop or do?

In a post Buhari presidency, we can’t afford a President or Vice President whose loyalty isn’t absolutely to the Nigerian state. I careless of where such person is from.

In the tradition of the Fulani nation, word must go round Nigeria that their relatives must be avoided in power while we strive to clear the mess some of their owns have created.

You already know what an El-Rufai role in any presidency will portend for our great country; a commander in chief whose loyalty will be to his ancestral foreign relations is better left to our imagination.

One who will rather subject 200 million people to the moonlight tales told by his grandparents is unfit to champion a pluralistic society in the 21st century. It is better to let El-Rufai be!

But before we let go of His Excellency, I need to bring to our notice the gift Alhaji Abubakar Kawo Baraje gave the country on his 70th birthday.

We were informed by this uncommon celebrant that Fulani militias were brought in by the APC leadership before the 2015 election. You were principally the arrow head of the APC move in that era. Sir/Ma, you owe it on your honour to clear the public on this allegation. Matters arising for Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje for you sir/ma are:

• Who are the “We?”

Who are the arrow heads; you or Miyetti Allah or….?

• Are southern leaders like Akande, Tinunbu, Fashola or Fayemi part and parcel or they were bystanders or in the dark as usual?

Were they brought in to vote or to cause mayhem in case APC lost the 2015 elections? What exactly was their mandate?

• Were the Customs and Immigration departments facilitators? What were the details of the boarder protocol?
• What of the DSS that was then under Ekpeyong; what was their role?

What was the consideration/ compensation for their actions – Cash, ruga, citizenship?

• Are we doing the NIN registration designed to accommodate the militia?
• Will they now be on the new voters registration list at state levels or what?
• Are they voting in 2023 or will install Caliphate puppets at state levels?
• So who armed them with AK47? Who trained them? Where and for how long?
• Who provides the logistics for bullet supplies?
• Since insurgency must have a sympathetic host community to thrive, are the local Fulanis the host communities?

Sir/Ma, your sincere responses is key to helping us recover our traded sovereignty and will pull our nation back from the brink faster than the rhetoric of a speech so crafty composed and deliberately delivered to manipulate as usual. We wait on you!

Dr Akinyemi can reached via bolajiakinyemi66@gmail.com

Source: The Street Reporters Newspaper