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When the former minister of the Federal Capital territory, Abuja, Mallam Nasiru el-Rufa'i was gallantly toying with the tail of a serpent which the former civilian dictator Obasanjo had held down its head in his grip for him; little did the former minister know that he would one day reap what he had sown. On the Mantle of power he regarded armchair critics, those who tried to draw his attention especially as against the background of democratic platform upon which he rise. In one of his usual arrogant utterances el-Rufa'I had once stated that Abuja was never meant for the poor and which said statement in itself was against the spirit upon which the city of Abuja was founded. Similarly, in his usual 'I know it all' policies he engaged into serious exercise of revocation of allocation of lands issued by his predecessors and massive demolition of what he called illegal structures that had distorted the Abuja Master plan; thereby rendered thousand of people homeless. At almost the same time, in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, the Government had also embarked on the exercise of massive demolition of what the Zimbabwe Government referred to as illegal structures all in the name of sanitizing the nation's capital city. The Government's action also rendered tens of Thousands of people of Zimbabwe homeless. The West in its infamous hypocritical stance heavily descended on Mugabe's Government, condemning the actions of his administration as offences against human rights and called upon the African Union (AU) to intervene on what America called Human Rights violation going on in Zimbabwe. The African Union (AU) initially referred to what had been going on in Zimbabwe as relating to issues concerning internal affairs, hence A.U would not intervene. But when America retorted back at AU that any issue which bothers on Human Rights is within the confirm of international affairs and not internal, A.U hurriedly sent a high-powered delegation to Zimbabwe to inspect how the demolition exercise was being carried out. On the other hand in Nigeria under Obasanjo, there were serious cases of Human Rights violations being carried out by the former FCT minister Nasiru el Rufa'I, but the West, particularly America chose to shut it eyes and ears at what was going on in Nigeria. Probably, because Obasanjo as the president had been doing the West's bidding properly. As such the rights of many people living in Abuja were violated with impunity and contempt in most cases with absolute disregard of court's order. No matter how intoxicating it is, power like any other worldly mundane else, is transient. The everlasting power belongs to God. The statesman credited to the legendary Michael Jackson in his interview published in Sunday Sun newspaper of November, 18th 2007 is impressive. When he was asked about the next American president between Hillary and Barack, Michael said: "To tell you the truth, I don’t follow that stuff. We were raised not to. We don’t look to man to fix the problems of the world. We don't. They can't do it. That's how I see it. It's beyond us….. We're all in God's hands". The problems with our leaders is that most of them employ absolute power to rule the people as if they posses the monopoly to fix the problems of Nigeria. They do not lead with the views and aspirations of Nigerians, but with their own whims and caprices. This is the reason why they always have their successors reversing most of their policies and Programme whenever they leave thee position they occupy and this of course has adverse effect to nation's building, because it negates the concepts of continuity in governance. The former FCT Minister is one of those leaders who took relish in executing unwritten laws at the expense of Human Rights. He deprived the motorcycle commercial riders popularly known as 'Okada riders', the rights to economic living in Abuja under non-existing law. If this had happened in Zimbabwe, America would have called it human rights violations of ' Okada riders'. Even where the law existed el-Rufa'i regarded it as an affront or obstacle that had restricted the exercise of his sweet will as the Minister of nation's capital city. Hence he violated some Courts’ orders at will, regarded some Courts incompetent to issue orders against his actions and referred to some of these Courts’ orders, Shariah or Customary Courts’ orders which he was not bound to obey. However, it was a High Court's order el Rufa'i violated to throw an erudite Scholar and the first Grand Kadi of Abuja Justice Bashir Sambo of blessed memory out of his house in Abuja. The Late Justice Sambo had immensely contributed to the development of this country so much so that if the likes of el-Rufa'i were seen demeaning his person the Nation would rise against it. But trust the ungrateful Nigeria. Remember how the Late Justice had been thrown out of his residence together with all his belongings in full glare of disregard of Court's order as if there were personal grudges between him and the former Minister since they all have come from Zaria. There were many other people who shared the same fate with Bashir Sambo under the yoke of el-Rufa'i in Abuja. In the same vein, being the meanest member of Obasanjo's cabinet, el-Rufa'i accepted the task of retrenchment of Nigerian workers which the Head of Service of the Federation could not do. Through this medium again he inflicted pains to many civil servants and their dependants. So the common men in Nigeria have come to know el-Rufa'i' as the messenger of pains through his actions of revocation of allocations, demolition of structures in Abuja and the retrenchment of civil servants. Frankly speaking the former FCT Minister is very unpopular among masses that constitute about 90 percent of Nigeria's population that is why his recent alarming outcry on what he referred to as an attempt by his successors to impeach his integrity was not heard or heed to by Nigerians. Even by that outcry el-Rufa’i has just exposed his double dealings and insincerity as the Minister of Abuja on the issue of revocation of land allocation and demolition of illegal structures. Because he admitted by himself that the lands in question which his successor, Aliyu Modibo forwarded to President Yar'adua for immediate revocation and which the President had recently declared the allocations revoked were lands that el-Rufa'I had already revoked. These were the lands located at Pencham dam Area in Abuja owned by some ex-Governors and some other influential people including 'Yar'adua himself before he became president. According to the former F.C.T Minister, his administration had revoked the allocations of such lands and had even replaced to the owners alternative allocations of lands among which 'Yar'adua had declared his own in his asset when he became president. Unless it was attempt to smear his reputation, el-Rufa'i said there was no how a person could revoke already revoked allocations of land. From the foregoing, it is therefore, obvious that some big wigs whose land's allocations had been revoked were compensated with alternative lands. But the ordinary citizens, who also had their respective land's allocation revoked by the former FCT Minister, were not privileged to receive alternative allocations of lands and have been left to their own mercy. This is a great injustice that portrays the fact that Nigeria can never develop with this kind of preferential treatment being given to some special class of people. Of course, this has also proven the former FCT Minister right when he once said that Abuja was never meant for the poor. |