On El-rufai And His Accidental Book By Yushau A. Shuaib

Why should Mallam Nasir el Rufai
reveal so much confidential
information, behind the scene deals
and political melodrama in his
“Accidental Public Servant” book?
The book is not only accidental as
the former Director General of Bureau
for Public Enterprises (BPE) and
Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) wants the readers to
believe. It is acidic to image of some
public figures he so mentioned. The
book is probably influenced by
journalistic instinct of fearlessness,
bluntness and damning the
consequence of a journalist. It
seemingly lacks the finesse of public
relations, which he could have
deployed to convey the same
messages without resorting to the
publish-and-be-damned style and
still become a best-seller.
This writer, like most Abuja dwellers
was a beneficiary as well as victim of
Nasir el Rufai’s policies when he was
Minister of FCT. While I bought one of
the monetized houses, my family lost
legally acquired business premises to
El Rufai’s demolition squad. Everyone
was affected in one way or the other:
the powerful politicians and the poor
civilians have different adjectives to
fittingly qualify his style of
administration.
Before the publication, he has always
been as controversial as his physique
and high positions he held. His
enigmatic disposition is reflective in
his outbursts and battles at various
stages of his life.
In over 20 years of syndicated
opinion writings, this writer had
causes to write to, and on el-Rufai, as
an arrow-head of the government in
attempts to question some of his
controversial policies and decisions.
Some of the articles where his name
appeared in the titles include: “el
Rufai: From Privatization to
Demolition,” “Memo to el-Rufai on
Monetisation of Government Houses,”
“Six el-Rufai in Mummy’s Shop,” and
“Between el Rufai, Ribadu and
Yar’Adua.”
It was obvious that, to some extent
he was tolerant to some of the
constructive criticisms going
subsequent actions he took and
occasional responses. His Special
Assistant, Dr. Abdu Mukhtar once
issued a lengthy rejoinder to my
criticism of the Monetisation policy,
clearly stating government position
and how it could benefit the civil
servants at the end.
My close contact with him came when
I was nominated by his office to be
the Chief Rapporteur and Leader of
the Rapportorial Team of the
International Conference on Abuja
@30 Celebration in 2006. At a close
range, el Rufai is a jolly fellow. He
related seamlessly with all officials at
the weeklong event. Though his style
as an administrator could defer from
what would be expected from typical
Nigerian politicians and top civil
servants, he was focused on the
assigned targets, especially on the
restoration of Abuja Master plan, the
monetization policy concerning
government houses, the initial public
service reform among others would
remain indelible hallmarks of el
Rufai’s time in government.
From the PR practitioner’s
perspective, Nasir el Rufai is a
difficult brand to manage. He strongly
believes in the power of his voice no
matter what others would say. He
admitted this in his book when he
wrote that “certain people hold the
opinion that I am feisty,
argumentative and antagonistic- ….I
just believe in being honest with
myself and with others and in
speaking my mind frankly..”
While it was difficult to recall his open
criticism or opinion on the ‘Third
Term’ agenda of President Olusegun
Obasanjo as clearly demonstrated
then by Vice President Atiku
Abubakar, el Rufai narrated his
behind the scene campaigns against
the project in association with other
members of the then Economic
Management Team, which included
Nuhu Ribadu, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
and Oby Ezekwesili. One of his direct
confrontations angered President
Obasanjo who retorted: “I am looking
forward to May 29, 2007 to go back
to my farm.” At another instance
Obasanjo had to refer to el Rufai as
“coup plotter” for secretly leading
others against the Third Term Agenda
after a consultation with Gen.
Abdullahi Mohammed, the Chief of
Staff.
Although it is difficult to determine
from the book if el Rufai nursed the
ambition to replace Obj/Atiku after
their second term in 2007, it is clear
that he was very bitter over the failure
of Obasanjo to groom a successor.
He said in the book: “The fact that
Obasanjo did not even explore the
idea of grooming a suitable
successor speaks of the depths of his
delusion… he deprived the ordinary
Nigerian of that luxury of making a
real choice.”
While he publicly supported the
emergence of Umar Musa Yar’Adua
and Goodluck Jonathan as
presidential and Vice presidential
candidates of the ruling People’s
Democratic Party (PDP), he
nevertheless writes in his book:
“Yar’Adua and his deputy, Goodluck
Jonathan emerged for no other
discernible reasons than being weak
governors sympathetic to the Third
Term project and therefore,
handpicked as paypack.”
Notwithstanding his scathing
criticisms of his boss, it is obvious
from the book that el Rufai retains
some kind impressions about
Obasanjo when he said “In spite of
all these deficits, President Obasanjo
is an intelligent, hardworking,
dedicated and competent leader. I
consider my experiences working with
him, one of the pinnacles of my public
service career.”
Dwelling on his sojourn at the BPE, el
Rufai justifies his recruitment policy
of favouring friends, associate and
first class graduates on the ground
that he knew their capabilities. While
debunking the allegations of paying a
youth corps member, Aishetu Fatima
Kolo N2 million per month, he
justifies his realistic salaries for staff
in BPE as means of fighting
corruption due to temptation of office
with supports from some multilateral
institutions like World Bank and DFID.
The book unveils a lot of financial
scandals and corrupt practices
involving individuals in high places
from the public and private sectors,
especially during the privatisation
process. El Rufai narrates how one
Nessim Gaon, a Swiss-Jew who was
awarded $320million contract to build
Nicon-Noga Hilton in Abuja
manoeuvred himself to become a
shareholder in the hotel. The project,
according to el Rufai should not have
cost $120million in the estimation of
a quantity surveying firm, yet the
same contractor without injecting any
fund into the hotel claimed to be a
25% shareholder in the ownership
under a very questionable
management contract executed with
NICON Insurance. El Rufai ensured
the man lost the controversial
shareholding after consulting Vice
President Atiku Abubakar as
Chairman of National Privatisation
Council who approved that Hilton
became a 100%- owned asset of the
Government.
Another hanky-panky he exposed was
his alleged rejection of N25,000,000
and $100,000 cash as a ‘thank you’
gift from Mike Adenuga after the sale
of the National Oil (Nolchem) to his
(Adenuga’s) Conpetro. When the
courier of the bribery, a named staff
of BPE was reprimanded by Elrufai
with a threat to report him to NCP,
the staff replied that the Chairman of
the Council (VP Atiku) had been
informed by Adenuga on the ‘Naira-
Dollars’ gift.
El Rufai writes that he immediately
went to Atiku to accuse him of
complicity. A surprised Atiku
immediately put a speaker phone call
to Adenuga and asked: “Did we ever
discuss Nasir Elrufai with you and
what did I say?” Adenuga replied:
“Yes sir. You told me he is a
straightforward person and that I
should not try to give him any money
or try to thank him in any way.”

Yashuaib@yahoo.com

To be continued