JUMADA-AWWAL 3, 1429 A.H.
FRIDAY, MAY 9 2008
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El-Rufai and the Senate probe
By Nnamdi Emeka
“He has a personal issue to settle with Malam el-Rufai. His junior brother, an assistant director in the Federal Capital Development Administration (FCDA), was sacked during el-Rufai’s administration for questionable conduct. Sodangi has put pressure on el-Rufai to reinstate him but he refused.”
--Malam Umaru Farouk, an associate of former FCT Minister Malam Nasir el-Rufai accusing Sodangi of pursuing selfish agenda in the FCT probe (This Day, Thursday 10th April, 2008)
It is curious, is it not, that since the commencement of the probe by the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory of the administration of the FCT between 1999 and 2007, the brains behind the probe have been labouring so hard to convince Nigerians that the motivation for the inquiry is not to witch-hunt any body.
The Chairman of the probe committee, Senate Abubakar Sodangi and the incumbent FCT Minister Aliyu Modibbo Umar have always stressed this point. During the commencement of the inaugural sitting on Wednesday the 9th of April at the Senate chambers, Sodangi talked about this. Modibbo has seized every opportunity to disabuse the minds of skeptical Nigerians that no one is out to get el-Rufai. Some of us find it curious indeed because if any one is clear in his conscience about his motive and motivation, why would he need to reassure people about the intention not being to witch-hunt?
I am sure that some people are troubled in their conscience about this probe because some smart Nigerians are perceiving that the whole intention of the probe is to get at the former FCT minister Nasir el- Rufai who had a most tumultuous and controversial tenure on account of the courageous and well-meaning decisions he had to take to correct some grievous wrongs that had taken place in the capital city. That is why we must not ignore the remark made by an associate of the former minister quoted above. We must seek to question the motives of those who clearly want to ridicule, humiliate and if possible, discredit el-Rufai.
Although the word has been given that the probe is to look into the activities of other FCTA ministers like Architect Bunu Sherrif Musa and Engineer Abba Gana and not only el-Rufai, many are quick to observe that throwing in those other two minister is just a smokescreen. The real target, they say, is el-Rufai. This, they say, is because no one has anything much against the other two ministers because they learnt to live with the rot that had become the Federal Capital Territory administration before the coming of el-Rufai in 2003.
Those other ministers did not demolish any one’s illegal structures or structures erected on sewage lines or under high tension wires or on Green Areas; they did not revoke plots acquired illegally. They did not sack corrupt and inefficient FCDA officials who helped a great deal in creating the chaos that Abuja had become. They did not have any passion for reclaiming the Abuja Master Plan.
It was el-Rufai who had the guts to take the very painful decisions that are necessary for sanitizing the place. In taking some of these courageous decisions, el-Rufai unwittingly offended many powerful and powerless interests. Both the rich and the poor were affected by some of the steps the man took. Although some people had to suffer, some for no fault of theirs, the happy story today is that because of el-Rufai Abuja is a more livable place.
Some victims of el-Rufai’s good measures who are fair-minded even agree that what he did was right. But some can not forgive him because they suffered great personal loss either of property or of position due to el-Rufai’s revolutionary zeal to correct the rot that was the FCT administration. Some of such persons have even prayed some satanic prayers against him. But thank God, because his motive was not to inflict pains or to engage in some unjust deprivation of any one’s possession, el-Rufai is alive today to defend himself at the probe panel in spite of the bad wishes of some Nigerians.
Some of such Nigerians clearly see the probe as a platform for those who have an axe to grind with el-Rufai to do so. They do not see it as an attempt by an arm of government, in this case, the Senate, which is concerned for the public good to inquire into some wrong-doing with a view to amending them or redressing certain injustices that may have been done to certain individuals, groups or organisations. I see it as an incitement against el-Rufai. Some of the senators who will sit in judgment over el-Rufai have one or two things against the man.
What the committee has succeeded in doing largely is to provide a platform for some aggrieved persons to pour invectives against el-Rufai. Some used their immunity there and the opportunity of live television coverage to grandstand and to whip up emotions against el-Rufai. It is all very unfair. And wicked too. Some have stood to utter outright lie or distort the truth, all in the attempt to paint el-Rufai as a callous man who rendered them homeless or sacked them from jobs or who destroyed their property. It has become clear to the perceptive that the whole aim of the probe is more than a devise to provide a platform to smear el-Rufai and to destroy the high profile he enjoys as an achiever.
The rationale given by those who are embarking on this public probe on el-Rufai is that the Senate has received so many petitions alleging some unfair revocation of their plots, illegal sacking from job and many other sins and that there are many court cases against the FCT administration under el-Rufai
While allegations of unfairness and injustices have to be investigated and corrected, the Senate has better things to do. All that the Senate will achieve is to recommend to the Executive Branch what should be done. When those in the Executive sit down to evaluate the testimonies and the recommendations, el-Rufai may be vindicated and not those who have desperately twisted facts to score cheap points during the public hearing.
By the way, Nigerians have not been questioning the wisdom behind the rather expensive live courage of the Senate’s public hearings of some of its investigations. Apart from seeking to satiate the appetite of a few committee members who love publicity, what tangible benefits does they Nigerian tax payer gain from live TV courage of Senate hearings?
If they are organizing a ‘colloquium’ to x-ray the evils of el-Rufai, when are they organizing another one to highlight the many good things he did for the FCT? El-Rufai is without doubt one of the most successful FCT ministers we have ever had, not only in the FCT but in the cabinet of the Federal Republic.
