El-Rufai and His Politics of Religion

Immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, recently came under fire following his alleged promotion of religious politics to advance the cause of his political agenda, Ejiofor Alike reports

Former Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State is not new to controversy as he has always been bold to speak his mind, irrespective of whose ox is gored.

But his recent utterances on the Muslim-Muslim tickets in the 2023 presidential election were viewed by his critics as having the capacity to potentially hurt the efforts of President Bola Tinubu-led administration to heal the wounds of the last general election.

Addressing some Muslim clerics in a video that has since gone viral, El-Rufai insinuated that it was only when Muslims dominated the state government that the administration was fair to all.

El-Rufai also curiously suggested that allowing Muslims to occupy all the major positions is an indication that religious politics has been eliminated in Nigeria.

His claim implies that when Christians demand a fair representation, it is a sign of religious politics.

The former governor, who spoke in Hausa, narrated how he agreed to reconcile with Tinubu for the sake of Islam.

El-Rufai, who obviously spoke with both sides of his mouth, accused others of playing religious politics, while at the same time, boasted that he initiated the Muslim-Muslim ticket in his state because he realised that the APC could win the governorship election without the majority of the Christian votes.

“Whenever people ask me why I nominated Dr. Hadiza Balarabe (a Muslim) as my running mate in 2019, I tell them that, first, I did my calculations and I realised that most of those who are not Muslims will not vote for our party.

“So, why should I give them a deputy? I did my calculations, and I arrived at the conclusion that we could win the election without them,” he explained. 

El-Rufai also claimed that his government had demonstrated between 2019 and 2023 that an administration headed by a Muslim governor, Muslim deputy governor, Muslim Secretary to the State Governor (SSG), Muslim Commissioner for Finance and Muslim Chief of Staff, would not cheat Christians in the state. 

He argued that despite the gang-up against the APC governorship candidate, Senator Uba Sani and his running mate, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, the party won the 2023 governorship election.

“You, Islamic clerics that are here were the ones that worked for our victory, not the politicians. I swear the politicians cheated us,” he added. 

He disclosed that it was the Yan Agaji (Islamic aid group) that protected the polling units for the APC, stressing that the Muslim domination in his state would continue for the next 24 years, and also charged the Muslim clerics to always support Sani “so that we will show to people that Islamic leadership does not discriminate.”

“If we continue like this for 20 years, everybody will understand that we (Muslims) are in charge. If Uba finishes, we will bring another person. After 24 years, everybody will know where he belongs. They will know Muslims will not cheat them and we will live in peace. I swear, this is our agenda since we came out to look for leadership and by the grace of God and your support and prayers, we are on track,” he explained. 

The ex-governor who claimed that the state would know peace under Muslim-Muslim ticket, did not realise that the level of killings under his same-faith leadership was unprecedented in the history of the state.

“What we were able to do in Kaduna has been successfully implemented in the country as a whole,” he added.

According to him, “from now, no liar can come out and say he will play the politics of Christianity in Nigeria and win. Peter Obi did it; see where he is.”

“We have effectively tackled this. Since Asiwaju won the election, CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria) has been very quiet. This is how we will ensure peaceful coexistence in this country,” he added.

To El-Rufai, the only condition for peaceful coexistence in Kaduna and the country is Muslim domination. 

“I agreed to reconcile with Asiwaju and he eventually got the ticket. We know that there is no way he can win without nominating a Muslim as his running mate,” he added. 

El-Rufai further disclosed that himself and his Zamfara State counterpart (Bello Matawalle), “insisted that we must produce Muslim-Muslim ticket to address this problem of religion so that we can give the Southern Muslims a sense of belonging as it concerns the leadership of this country,” El-Rufai added.

The former governor who confirmed that he made a case for Southern Muslims, at the same time, blamed CAN for allegedly playing Christian politics.

To him, giving northern Christians a similar sense of belonging would amount to playing religious politics.

As a political strategist, Tinubu had provided a plausible reason for opting for a Muslim-Muslim ticket but those who play religious politics and nurse hidden agenda are the ones accusing others of playing religious politics.

Addressing the Kano chapter of the CAN before the general election, Tinubu had explained that he would not have settled for a minority in the North since he is also from the minority in the South.

“I am a politician and a politician’s formula and strategy are all designed to win elections. How can I be a minority Yoruba Muslim and I will go to pick an Emmanuel from Sokoto State as my running mate?  I have already gotten the result of the elections. The result is failure,” he reportedly said.

Tinubu explained that as a politician, he was duty-bound to design a formula to win the election, adding however that, “it is after winning the elections that I can change the character, content and approach of governance.”

Tinubu has already started the healing process by insisting that the next Senate President should be a Christian from the South.

El-Rufai has come under fire for what his critics described as his attempt to polarise and divide the country.

A chieftain of the APC in Plateau State and former National Director of CAN, Samuel Kwamkur, fired the first salvo last Sunday, cautioning him against setting Nigeria on fire with his utterances.

He alleged that by referring to Christians in the state as ‘them,’ the former governor cannot be exonerated from “the wanton killings, demolition of houses and places of worship of Christians in Kaduna,” having turned himself into a “confirmed religious bigot with a hidden agenda to destroy the country using religion”.

In his reaction while featuring on ARISE NEWS Channel’s Morning Show, the Chairman of Kaduna State chapter of CAN, Reverend Joseph Hayab, accused the former governor of deliberately setting a trap for Tinubu.

According to him, El-Rufai is playing a game “to confuse people and set up Christians against Muslims; set up Christians against the present government, and then he would stand to benefit from it tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will say to him, he has failed from the onset,” he said.

Hayap argued that with the unprecedented killings during his tenure, El-Rufai’s Muslims-dominated administration was a failure

“With this, he has actually proved to Nigerians that he is not in the first place fit to be a leader and I think that is one of the problems in Nigeria,” Hayap added.

Also reacting to El-Rufai’s failure to clinch the position of the Chief of Staff to Tinubu or the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, contrary to the earlier speculations, a former senator who represented Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, noted that “Tinubu has dodged a poisonous snake.”