Parents fear for their children. They
can do every little thing in their power to protect them. A junior agaric staff
at rural Daudawa of Katsina State, realized that education was the only future
for his kids. Knowing he had no ample wealth, he bequeathed words for the little
kids as real inheritance.
Like many public figures, El-Rufa’i
started from a humble background, orphaned at eight, nearly trekking elementary
school shoeless. Looking back, it is this upbringing El-Rufa’i reminds his
children while flying home from London summer vocation.
A tiny figure, who despite his little
size, was standing up to primary school bullies. This is a person who would
grow up to spearhead one of the crucial transition programs in the nation’s
history and got actively involved in radical economic reforms as CEO Public
Bureau of Enterprise under Obasanjo regime and later FCT Minister. Apart from
other business and political activities he variously dabbled into, he is the serving
governor of Kaduna State.
Accounts from public servants are very
interesting. They offer insights into the world we thought we know. When we read them, they make us feel naïve. We
feel we are children all over again. Real things happen behind our eyes. We
read news every day and pass but only come to realize how much eluded us. When
someone decides to give account of their work in government, we begin to wonder
where were we when all the things happened. Were we really around and in the
country?
El-Rufai’s The Accidental Public Servant entails political intrigues,
childhood adventures, adulthood and series of events that landed him into
public service. Everyone has their eye-opener experience. El-Rufa’i met his during
his NYSC days where he was to work with a construction company that did overmeasurements
and pay excess. It is a peep into Nigeria’s public life, a place rife with
coordinated, flourishing culture of corruption and impunity. His NYSC days,
however, dispelled his earlier notion of the south.
The book also offers a window into the
thorny issues between the north and south. The south holds the north in
contempt while the north resents the south.
A further thrust into the book reveals how
Obasanjo’s Third Term attempt opens an analytical window into Nigeria’s politics,
coloured with religion and ethnicity. Some southerners supported Obasanjo’s bid
(despite its being unconstitutional) on the belief that northerners have been
ruling the country for long. Although the some in south are fixated on irredentist,
bigoted sweeping generalization on the north, we should avoid the mistake we
set out to condemn. However, it is clear this notion of northern-dominance has
been prevalent among the vast majority of southerners. Not merely among average
citizens, it is also held by people with pedigree and caliber like of Ngozi Nkwojo-Iweala’s, who ought to know
better, which makes it all the more nauseating.
This pattern of thinking refuses to see that it is very simplistic and ethnically-induced
inanity to put blame on a region.
El-Rufa’i skids off balance to come
scornful of the north. At certain points
he evades, dodges and vaguely casts words in the air where the south is at stake.
What sums up El-Rufa’i’s complete disdain
for the north is his insinuation that he is the only best, capable hand throughout
the region; this despite so many successfully high-flying individuals whose capacity
could easily eclipse his, unsung because they lack political connection that
will “accidentally” get them to the high management hierarchy of public service.
What is so disturbing is the brazen lies
told about his religion, which he hopes will, by omission, silently pass. Children
have acute sense of truth to disbelieve and defy a lying elder.
How could El-Rufa’i say were Abubakar
Gumi was alive the Sharia movement spanning the 2000s would have died earlier
than it did? He also made a suggestive remark at legitimizing bank interests for
Muslim communities. I have never thought El-Rufa’i could go as far as fabricating
such epic lies unashamedly.
“Of course, Ahmadu Bello, who was great
grandson of Sheik Usman Dan Fodio, the great Islamic reformer and founder of the Sokoto caliphate, did not
accept some of the extreme views held by Islamic establishment at the time
either. Under his leadership, the northern regional government established a
hotel that sold alcohol, and the Bank of the North which charges interest on
loans.”
And so, a Muslim will get rewarded for
selling alcohol and accepting bank interests? Could you believe that? Everyone
knows what he’s saying is untrue.
Let’s assume Ahmadu Bello was spiritual
and not political leader he was, does his pronouncement make such practices
lawful in Islam? It is like saying your fasting is okay after drinking water.
Of course when you profess such views the world will praise you. It is evident
why he told of his one-time drinking habit, and apparently, to stop it was not
in respect of Islamic injunction.
I hope not a single person is fooled
into believing this. To be honest, even non-Muslims would not take a Muslim seriously
who can tell such blatant lies against his religion. This is cheap mendacious
adventurism. We assume his religion is a sacred entity, and by these lies, he
leaves no doubt that he can tell lies to anyone and on anything else.
He should have explained, but refused.
That the spirit of Sardauna’s idea was to encourage Muslim communities engage
in business, protect their interest and stay relevant. It seems El-Rufa’i has
other ideas on whose virtues call for him to answer some questions: what do you
want Muslims to do? Keep away from the economy? Hurt economically and suffer
monumental consequence? There is no wisdom in that.
The crucial point is that in the face
of two evils, the lesser is the alternative. The endowment funds and holdings
of the government of the Northern region were to be considered as such.
Even now that Islamic banking system is
fully operating, it is impracticable to think that Muslims should not do
business in conventional banks. This is why the increased convergence of people
of different faiths to transact financially led Islamic scholars to create
rooms and discussion on the status of Muslims businesses in secular environment.
This brings us to the point that while there is room to engage in conventional
system, there is no ground in any stretch to make interests and alcoholism lawful
in Islam.
In another place he talks about Sharia
and portrays it as failed and impracticable attempt. “I firmly believe that if
people like Gumi were alive in 1999 when the political Sharia movement started,
it would have gone nowhere…it would have died faster than it finally did.”
Granted, in some instances Sharia was
political. It is also difficult to actually catch someone with enough evidence
as Shariah indicated, but that was not his intention. I am unkeen with what he
said but what motivated his saying. There is an added layer buried in his
submission.
Beneath the surface lay hidden another
El-Rufa’i carefully speaking against Sharia and imputing negative meaning to
it. This El-Rufa’i, despite what he pretends to say somewhere, views Sharia as barbaric
and shameful. In whatever form, even when the type of Sharia he pretends to see
were to be implemented, he would still find fault with it.
If El-Rufa’i is real, he should start
calling the scraping of the system he had been benefiting from, which is full
of manipulation, loops and politically motivated acts. The international
justice system has been mired with bias and unfairness. What has he said so far
on this? The world does not entirely reject or dismiss democracy or these
institutions and concepts outright on account of their shortcomings. Instead,
they invest energies in upholding and perfecting them. So why not giving the Muslim
communities a similar chance?
For the capitalists, profit is placed
to anon-negotiable heights. For the hedonists, pleasure is the most important
thing in life. Then it would be a double-stand to deny Muslims the same right
when they put Sharia as the most important thing in their lives.
It is a crucial issue that has been
avoided. Talk in clear terms. What do you really want?
Which brings us to the point, certain
group of people are determined never allow Sharia to happen. People are fixated
on ideological control and policing the Muslim world. This thinking would remain in the orientation
of several other mindsets even when the Sharia is only for the Muslim ummah,
communities of believers who choose to willingly submit themselves to the
provision of Sharia.
What are the criteria and standards
used to determine what is best for the Muslims? Where and how those people dictating
for Muslims get the right to be deciders of the affair that is not their own? How
would these people just wake up and arrogate themselves the right to make decision
for Muslims? For us Muslims, no other thing is our role model except what our
religion says. Modernity starts and ends with strict adherence to Allah.
I hate it to encounter narrow-minded
individuals who believe that you must do away with your faith before you are considered.
I have a heart for everyone irrespective of their creeds or the belief they
professed. To work on common ground and mutual respect for the larger good. But
we can only do that without insinuating I must part with my ways.
As for El-Rufa’i, however, there is no
need for lying to prove post-ethnic spirit and patriotism to Nigeria. Others before you have set beautiful
examples. Mudi Sipikin joined Action Group at the expanse of his home political
party in the struggle for independence. His reason was to bridge up ethnic and
religious gap between the north and south. Mallam Aminu Kano invited author
Chinua Achebe to join his political movement. These are individuals wholly
committed to social justice and fairness, bereft of ethnic and religious
prejudices without lying against their faith.
It is my belief El-Rufa’i has lived
with a terrible conscience ever since. He
should remember that he will stand with these men he told lie against before
his Creator. As for lying against Islam, it is never too late for him to repent.
Allah is All-Forgiving and Merciful. What I fear for him is these people.
