The Power Disease

The Power Disease: Three Reasons Why El Rufai Can Heal It

M. Dooba

Let me just go ahead and jump: el Rufai is the right person to extricate us from the gnarly tangle that our power situation has become. Following are three reasons why he may be the best person for the job. The first reason is his previous successes. El Rufai’s successes in his previous assignments are so consistent that he makes achieving seem so effortless.

Secondly, it’s difficult to find a Nigerian who equals his fearlessness. Someone that said he didn’t fear death – and we have no reason to doubt him – will not allow anything to stand in his way to success. And in Nigeria of today, lack of electricity is the death and we should let el Rufai at it. The final reason is his arrogance. I don’t believe that’s the right name for the trait but that‘s what Nigerians call it. Whatever the name, all shapers of history – as I’ll demonstrate in this piece – from Napoleon Bonaparte to José Mário Santos Mourinho, have it.

Put together, these raison d'être are enough to show us that he can solve the problem. The only obstacles to his ascending the position where he can lead the war against the perpetual darkness may be those to whom “silence is the best answer.”

Now let’s take these three reasons one by one.

Like Woody Allen, I believe that people don’t change. There are some exceptions – I concede – like someone who is spiritually bankrupt could suddenly swim in a sea of righteousness. But this person is an outlier. Because we’ve seen people who have just been saved from the jaws of death go back to their evil ways.

That’s why the easiest way to tell the future performance of an individual is to study is history or CV if you like. El Rufai did well in private practice, in BPE, and as FCT minister. I’ll take only a few examples from his most recent office, the FCT.

There was a time when the Okada people (commercial motorcyclists) were the kings of the road in Abuja. Any unfortunate soul who paid them for a ride had no say in how or at what speed to run and they often change the agreed upon price as fast as they rode. Traffic lights were for the ordinary folks and an Okada man was beyond ordinary: he’s immortal.

They rode dangerously and roughly. And because of that, were often involved in accidents. Whenever that happened, other Okada riders converged at the scene, form a mobile court right there, weighed the evidence and decided in favour of their colleague. It didn’t matter what the evidence said or who was really at fault because an Okada man could do no wrong. And heavens help any motorist that challenged the decision of the court or tried to appeal it – he’ll be mobbed without pity. They also committed other crimes. Ideas to reform them were mooted but even the police hedged. They became a giant marauding cat who no Abuja rat (the general population) could bell.

Then el Rufai announced a ban on the Okada business in the city of Abuja. He also gave them generous time in which to move out. It was in that period that people thought the announcement was a joke. Even the Okada men expressed their invincibility. Personally, I had a bet with a friend who believed el Rufai could not ban the Okada, nobody could, he said.

I told him a government could do ANYTHING and that el Rufai was the government in Abuja with a political will to boot. But my friend wanted to win an easy bet, convinced that ridding Abuja of the Okada monster was an unattainable notion.

On the day the ban was to take effect, I went out for my morning jog. Although I had no doubt that el Rufai could swing it and was not expecting to see the streets teeming with Okada, I thought I would see a trickle. But I was completely disappointed; in my one hour of exercise, I saw only one - who was already being grilled by the police.

Let’s take another impossible task that el Rufai discharged effectively: bringing order to land allocation. Before el Rufai became FCT minister, I had a neighbor in my village who worked at FCDA. His position at FCDA wasn’t clear to me; some said he was a clerk others said he was a messenger. What was clear to me about this portly potentate, however, was how rich he was. It was obvious he had no other vocation than working with FCDA. And like all people with ill-gotten wealth from the part of my country, he spent his money in such a way that didn’t inspire good words.

My neighbor was just one thief among several that populated FCDA. Matters of land allocation there became a black box. Something goes in. Something goes out. You, however, don’t know what happens within the box. The situation was that nebulous. All ministers before el Rufai preferred to let the satiated sleeping dogs lie.

But when el Rufai came the black box was replaced with a clear school-type aquarium. Forms became as free as air that even I got my hand on some! Applications and allocations were advertised in the newspapers. Who said Nigeria was difficult to fix? Then el Rufai gave the corrupt hands an option to go quietly but they – characteristic of Nigerian chutzpah – took him to court. The last time I was in Nigeria, that case was still in court.

El Rufai has been accused of high handedness and unfair actions particularly in matters of land allocations. But that just shows how looted of logic the Nigerian mind is. All his successors committed all the crimes el Rufai was alleged to have committed without approximating any of his good works. As recent as a couple of months ago, Aliero disobeyed court order FCT/HC/M/576/2009 (see Leadership of 01 February, 2010)

Furthermore, Aliero demolished houses and so did Dr Modibbo before him. While el Rufai demolished illegal structures erected by even powerful people - ministers, senators, governors and his own party chairman – his successors directed their bulldozers at the hapless, powerless citizens.

Modibbo even rewarded the powerful senators besides facilitating the senate’s probe of el Rufai’s tenure. He gave the probers houses at the time of the probe. Was it a bride? Were the houses advertised and properly allocated? The senators in question didn’t deny that they were given houses, rather, they, as newspapers reported; said the houses Modibbo gave them were not good enough!

El Rufai didn’t seek friends in such unabashed manner. Instead, he made it his business to restore order in our streets, to remove the madness from the markets, to uproot structures that inhibited civilized living – even the so-called houses of God – and planted green spaces in their stead. Without the reforms of el Rufai, Abuja today would have been unlivable as much as Lagos was before Fashola.

To be continued.

M. Dooba is a lecturer and doctoral research fellow at Universiti Technologi PETRONAS. You can contact him at idooba@gmail.com