EL-RUFAI'S TEMPLATE OF LEADERSHIP - Maiwada Dammallam

Ordering the arrest of the Arewa Youth that gave ultimatum to Igbos to vacate the North was quite a patriotic and laudable move by the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai. Lawlessness cannot be an option in our quest for peace and nationhood.

I totally disagree with those condemning El-Rufai for taking such an action on the pretext that youth in other regions are having a field day fashioning private laws to govern their real (even imaginary) aspirations without a word of caution from their political, traditional or spiritual leaders. That may truly be the case but, still that shouldn't form the basis of response to such issues by every Nigerian privileged to be charged with the responsibility of keeping Nigeria one in whatever capacity and from whatever elevation.

That Ganiu Adams achieved prominence and national recognition by wanton abuse of legitimate rights and privileges of Nigerians (particularly northerners) not captured in his 'Oodua Peoples Congress' (OPC) map of what Nigeria is suppose to be, shouldn't encourage other right thinking Nigerians to descend from their lofty elevations and join ranks with an opportunistic school dropout-cum-carpenter even if the prize is a seat of honor among those who should ordinarily kick wayward heads to straighten thoughts processes to align with the reality of the day.

That Ganiu Adams achieved the provincial title of 'Otunba' by spilling the blood of innocent Nigerians while the so called educated and politically sophisticated citizens of his 'Oodua nation' watched with less concern they exhibit while supervising the fumigation of their exotic gardens shouldn't, by any means, provoke physical reprisal or even a political 'return match'. Certainly El-Rufai did well by showing the world the huge gap between the mindset of a fluctuating 'Femi Fani Kayode' (regrettably a former Minister) and your average Northern citizen of same category.

It's quite unfortunate that in the last decade people like FFK and Ganiu Adams were the thermometer that gauges the political temperature of a region holding the trophy of political sophistication in Nigeria. That may even explain why standoffish characters like Ayo Fayose are having a field day dragging the title of a 'Governor' in the mud.

When you have people like Ganiu Adams and FFK setting the rules of politics and politicking, definitely what you would have couldn't be more than an 'Ayo Fayose'. Fayose would have closed the Kaduna deal with a dinner in the Ekiti Government House with honorary awards to the renegades. Thanks to El-Rufai for saving us that embarrassing reversal to primitivism.

The 'jungle culture' ruling other regions shouldn't be a thing of envy by the rest of the civilized regions. El-Rufai displayed an excellent ability to rise above parochialism, pettiness and narrowness by suppressing the 'return match' instinct. He had the option of playing it the 'Nyesom Wike' way and go home with a beautiful trophy from the dormant congregation of Arewa's version of Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force (NDPSF) which would effectively transfer power to an ill-motivated clan of frustrated youth - a certain recipe for a bigger disaster. We were saved that!

By just remaining silent, El-Rufai would have inadvertently signed the death warrants of thousands of innocent Nigerians whose only relationship with Nnamdi Kanu is either geographical or ethnic and far from ideological. His silence could have signed the warrant for the destruction of the N44trn claimed to have been invested in the North by the enterprising 'sub-clan' of the Igbo community. Kudos to El-Rufai for not succumbing to ethnic sentiments in his approach to purely national issues. Such could not be said to be the case with his colleagues in other regions.

Despite the glaring disadvantage of dragging the South East into another needless war, Governors in the region are maintaining an undignified silence about the rising profile of Nnamdi Kanu. Kanu is now a hero - almost a deity - among misguided Igbo youth who sees in him a solution to their inability to be as enterprising as required by Igbo traditions. Kanu offered the youth an easy window out of unemployment, poverty and communal irrelevance while on the hand he offered the political leadership a bargain chip to negotiate individual relevance in the national scheme of things. I can't find a better reason why Governors in the region beside not making Kanu a regional security issue that may mature into serious national security issue even went a step further to defend his excesses.

In an article "South East governors’ quest for Nnamdi Kanu’s release" written by one Samson Ezea, the author celebrated the effort of governors in the region to address the flight of Nnamdi Kanu.

Except:
"Surprisingly, the South East Governors Forum that went comatose after the 2015 polls has not only staged a comeback, it has expressed its plan to meet Federal Government over Kanu’s release. The governors, who met for the second time in 2017 at the Government House Enugu recently, announced their resolve to engage relevant authorities at the Federal and the regional level to address the issue."

I was left dumbfounded trying to make the connection between chief law officers of the region and the release of a prominent law breaker who excesses were established beyond reasonable doubt. It was the author's opinion that the 'who's who' of the region should join the crusade for a waiver in favor of Kanu's criminality. He wrote:

"Upon Kanu’s arrest and continuous incarceration, it was expected that leaders, politicians, professionals, entrepreneurs of Igbo extraction would join the clarion calls for his release."

Though he refused to mention the source of "expectation for Kanu's release", from the authoritative tone of his language it could be guessed that "expectation" had the blessings of the region's leadership class especially, with nobody coming out to disclaim such an outrageous disregard to the extant laws ruling the corporate existence of Nigeria.

It has always been the case. Wayward youth would engage criminality to settle real and imaginary socio-economic lapses and when the law catches up with them, regional leaders would cash on the situation and negotiate their political relevance and economic emancipation outside the regular terms on which Nigeria is being operated. It takes people like Malam Nasir El-Rufai to highlight the dangers of leaders following their sentiments to deal with national issues. However, we are pushing our luck too far. El-Rufai isa terminal Governor who may not be around the next time Northern youth decide to play the game by the newly improvised rules. The next governor may be a student of the reckless Wike/Fayose school of thoughts. The earlier we encourage leaders to keep to normal ideals the better for all of us.