|
El-Rufai And The Night Club Pledges By Isa Sanusi
“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable”- Adam Smith After a bout of dance alongside his wife in an elite night club in Lagos, the FCT minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai shows that he is a kind person who reciprocates every gesture. He shows it by making made pledges and revelations. First, he pledged to give a plot of land to his host (that joyous night) for a version of the night club to be built in Abuja. The revelation was that, he revoked President Obasanjo’s land allocation in Abuja. He also promised to address the injustice done to Chief Obafemi Awolowo by the builders of Abuja who named after him an obscure street instead of what obtained for his peers like, Sir Ahmadu Bello Sarduana and Mallam Aminu Kano (all of blessed memory). There is nothing new or strange in the pledge, the promise and the revelations made by a powerful person in the stature of a minister in the presidency, with a mandate of running the affairs of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA). No one, not even the land dealers and habitual violators of laws of the nation will take away the credit due to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai for the good work he has been doing in giving Nigeria at least one and only city where things work. Living in every other city for only a day tells one that indeed the nation needs people like el-Rufai to make cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt, Maiduguri, Kano, Enugu, and Kaduna safe for human habitation. Years of violation and deliberate disdain for law and order have plunged these cities into crises waiting to explode. But these cities may not change for better because they are not willing and may not have people like el-Rufai to take them out of their mess. He who knows what Abuja was in 2002 will never deny the fact that, if not for the courage of el-Rufai, in the next ten years another President will have to start thinking of setting up a committee to scout for another federal capital. But these courageous acts came with pains, especially for the poor who may see the clearance of slums as an act of wickedness aimed at pushing them to a far distance from the abodes of big men and women. That no one is perfect may have been turned into a reality by the minister’s night club pledge, revelation and promise. One may not believe the assumption that the minister was over excited by the opportunity of having the whole dancing floor to him and his wife to the extent that he lets the cat out of the bag without knowing it. I doubt if the minister can be carried away by rhythm of lyrics and the vibration of a dancing hall to let down the first class side of his thought by telling the public that he has the temerity of revoking the land allocation of his master, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Whatever that revelation was intended to achieve, it rather only reveals how those on the high horse of power Nigeria rate the people they are ruling. The top government officials may have been thinking that we are all fools waiting to swallow every lie and deceit they dish out now and then. The minister was also not as exact as he used to be by skipping such information as: where the revoked land is located and to whom it was reallocated? We were not told how the president responded in view of his reputation as a retired general! And shall we be surprised even if it was the president himself that ordered the minister to revoke the land in these good times of his life? What is a piece of land to a president who has the unwritten power to withdraw from the federation account without the consent of the National Assembly? El-Rufai’s pledge of a land for the night club revealed that nothing has really changed in the way government do business. Mass people have been applying for a piece of land in Abuja for years and purposes more reasonable than that of a night a club, yet they never get the courtesy given to that night club. By that act, el-Rufai says that, we shall demolish houses and at the same time squeeze space for a night club. On the promise to address injustice done to Awolowo in naming streets, one will wonder what the minister thinks of doing about, or how those who harp on the issue will want him to redress the case of the originator of the Abuja idea, late General Murtala Muhammed? Whether there is any street in his name in Abuja or not, the fact is he deserves redress much more than Chief Awo who had he had his way there will not even be the Abuja whose land the minister is dolling out even from a dance floor. Those who felt offended by the minister’s show of power in the night a night club honoured him have no reasons to do so. Nobody has the right to question the discretion of a minister. Afterall, he is not elected and has nobody’s mandate except that of the president. Sometimes he proved this by calling the nation’s highest lawmakers ‘fools’, and having the president apologising on his behalf. Even if mischief makers want to dismiss the minister’s pledges as something akin to beer parlour jokes, they will be doing so at their own peril, because power comes from the government and belongs to government. Nigerians, it seems need to be educated on the inevitability of obeying rules and carry the burden of their leader’s intelligence, foresight and sacrifice for a better nation. Abuja is working and it shows that Nigeria can get it right with people like el-Rufai at the helm. The problem seems to be that there is failure in the management of perception of things and differences of priorities between, we the people and our exalted leaders. The poor people assumed that their priorities should also be the priorities of their leaders who may have conquered all the basic needs. How can this possible? An ordinary man may think that instead of beautifying the city with gardens and parks the land should have been used for housing. This was because the ordinary man may not know the value of a garden to even his health and the environment. Or why should some people be complaining about the N53 billion to be spent on building a millennium tower? Maybe these noisy people have never been to Paris or London; therefore they will never be in the position of knowing the value of giving a city an identity? Yes an identity that will impress foreign visitors. But let us talk about priorities and realities at the ordinary level. Sometimes the common sense makes no sense at all, especially if you are not on the tall and mighty side of the divide. Of course, water they say is life, but it will have waited until all other vital glitters are finished and perfected. The ordinary man may bother about having to be buying water everyday, just because he doesn’t have the means to afford a bore hole within the premises of his house or rented abode. If water flows from the taps then all those thriving in the business of drilling bore holes will have no contracts to take from government. There will not be an occasion on which minister poses for signing contracts over tea and biscuits and with the privilege of seeing the show on TV. There is nothing wrong with talking about screwing law and order into the heads of ordinary Nigerians as long as doing so will help in making the city neat and keeping away the ordinary far from the sight of the very important. The ordinary Nigerians, those who are not fortunate enough to find themselves in the corridors of power will have to blame their destiny and not people like el-Rufai for their endless suffering. We should all keep faith in possibilities. Of course it pains to have been bearing the brunt of the recklessness of those who found themselves in positions of steering the affairs of the huge cake we euphemistically call government. Indeed it saddens when after so many struggles and the help of God that rescued us from military brutalities, only to end up in another near eight years of harsh economic policies that pride in paying dubious debts. What else can be more vexing than permanent darkness justified by wild claims of expending billions in the power sector? However things may look like we have every reason to be happy with our situation. Particularly, el-Rufai cares for Nigeria and particularly the residents of Abuja. As part of the elaborate celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the creation of Abuja, the minister in his usual compassion told The Sun of August 21, 2006 that “his administration will distribute condoms to over 500 hotels in the capital city.” Let us all hail the minister and his administration for this great effort. Indeed, there is need for more condoms, and more and more in the capital city. Those living in the slums called satellite towns should either afford condoms or risk HIV/Aids. The FCT will not waste its precious condom on unimportant citizens. He who has any complain on this matter can take his case to the Public Complain Commission! Isa Sanusi lives in Abuja. |