El-Rufai’s Democratic Credentials

By declaring recently that he can only function as a governor whose word is almost law as he lacks the patience to serve as a federal lawmaker, the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai may have unwittingly played into the hands of his critics, who accuse him of being autocratic, intolerant and high-handed, Ejiofor Alike reports

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, did not shock his critics last Monday when he declared he would never retire to the National Assembly because he does not have the patience required to lobby other lawmakers to implement legislative functions.

In his remarks at the second edition of the “Distinguished Parliamentarian Lecture” organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Abuja, the governor said: “The legislature is one branch of government I know I can never function. The hard work needed to convince people to support even your motion is something some of us have no patience for.

“You know management in the executive is very straightforward; it is very hierarchical and once you are a governor, your word is almost law. But in the legislature, everybody is equal and there is no management that is more difficult than managing your equals,” the governor explained.

The governor argued that managing colleagues in the same political arena is a herculean task unlike the executive arm where he is superior and can hire and fire at will.

“I don’t envy Mr. Speaker and the Senate President at all because their job perhaps is the hardest job in this country. Managing equals is difficult.

“For the executive, you can hire and fire. I know that many of our colleague governors are retiring to the Senate. But I can assure you that I will never retire to the legislature because I don’t think I can function there,” he reportedly added.

By publicly declaring that he lacks democratic qualities which include lobbying, consultations with all shades of opinions, as well as patience and tolerance of divergent views, the Kaduna State governor may have unwittingly validated the claims by his critics that he is dictatorial and intolerant of opposing views.

Any true believer in democracy and the rule of law who can function effectively as a governor can also function efficiently as a lawmaker. But El-Rufai stated that he can only serve as a governor whose word is almost law and yet lays claim to being a democrat.

As governor, El-Rufai has been accused of deploying state powers to fight the opposition elements and run them out of town.

Indeed, the governor is not known to accommodate dissenting views, be it from within or outside his state, including his fellow governors.

The Kaduna State governor is known to have hounded those who held opposing views.

His subtly threat to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi with state power, when he boasted that he has 1 Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army in Kaduna, Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police to arrest and detain anyone in the state if he wished was one his public utterances that showed his appetite to crush dissent voices.

Many, including journalists, teachers, labour leaders and fellow politicians have fallen victims of the governor’s alleged arm-twisting tactics.

To show his intolerance, he has deployed the instrumentality of the law to brutally persecute many of his critics. 

Simple posts on WhatsApp platforms which other leaders ignore in the spirit of freedom of speech in a democracy attract severe punishments to the governor’s critics whom he accuses of spreading falsehoods against his person or his government.

For instance, following the comments he allegedly made on a WhatsApp group created to mobilise assistance for victims of Southern Kaduna massacre, Barack Zebedee, a PhD student in Fisheries and Hydrology in Biology Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was arrested in May 2017. 

Also a journalist, Gabriel Idibia was dragged to court for allegedly asking the governor to declare his assets.

Another journalist, Jacob Dickson, alleged that he “was arrested, detained and charged with incitement in May 2016, after reporting that youths had pelted el-Rufai with objects.”

Also another journalist, Luka Binniyat, was arrested in February 2017 and allegedly detained for over 120 days without bail for a report under his by-line in a national newspaper. 

Another journalist, Midat Joseph, was also arrested for a post in a WhatsApp group. 

The list of journalists and other critics allegedly arrested on the orders of the governor is endless.

Many Nigerians believe that if the Kaduna State governor were to be President Muhammadu Buhari who faces all manner of criticisms in the media, many Nigerians would be languishing in jail.

The governor had also attempted to extend his sphere of influence beyond his state when he challenged the southern governors for making laws in their states as obtainable in a true federation.

He had once audaciously declared that the anti-open grazing laws enacted by his southern colleagues were not implementable.

Speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) secretariat in Abuja on the killings of farmers by herdsmen across the country, the governor reportedly chided the southern governors for enacting Anti-Open Grazing Law in their states. He also reportedly said the law was “not implementable.”

He further argued that it was “not a matter of populist legislation or saying tomorrow this or that. It is not a solution”.

He accused them of “politicising” the killing of farmers by the herders, which led the states to make the laws.

 “What is unhelpful is the politicising of the situation and passing legislation that you know that you cannot implement.”

Many believe that it is only in a lopsided federal structure that the head of one federating unit can make comments to interfere in the laws made in other federating units to protect lives.

They also believe that only a non-democrat can make the pronouncements made by the Kaduna State governor against the other federating units.

El-Rufai’s declaration that he was not considering retiring to the National Assembly because he does not have the patience to be a lawmaker does not portray him as a true believer in democracy but as an impatient and intolerant leader who abhors any form of opposition.