Malam Nasir el-Rufai is about the number one topic in the news this weekend. The former governor and one-time minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was one of the 48 persons nominated by President Bola Tinubu as ministers in July.
El-Rufai’s name had emerged in the first batch of 28 nominees forwarded to the National Assembly for approval on July 27, but the senate deferred his confirmation alongside that of two other persons. Subsequently, he informed the president that he had lost interest in being a minister.
El-Rufai who spoke on a wide range of issues and gave reasons why he did not want to be minister again.
When you budget a billion naira to feed the president and his vice and then you are asking us to sacrifice, that is double hostility. These people in government are not ready to sacrifice anything, not even their comfort, they have budgeted 11 billion naira to travel and they are asking us to sacrifice. It is different today, unlike in those days that people were not aware of what is going on. I do not think it is going to be very easy. Any direction it will take, I hope it ends well and peacefully. The leaders think their job is to protect themselves rather than to protect the country. The security agencies are putting all their resources in protecting those in power instead of the other way round by protecting the ordinary Nigerian and I think it is so sad.
However, there are few things that I wish I had done more or earlier in my tenure as the Minister of FCT. I wished I had started the Abuja metro line earlier than at the tail-end of my tenure. If we had started the metro project much earlier and taken it to a point, it would not have been easy to kill. Abuja would have had its rail system functioning by now. I really regret leaving it till my last year in office. We signed the N1 billion for it and they diverted the money somewhere else. I also wished I had put more resources than we did in satellite towns because the city did take a lot.
I will never do this work again, because I don’t repeat assignments. I have never repeated a class neither have I failed my exams. I move forward and let someone else do it. If I have any regrets from that time, I’d say not many. Because being in public service took me away from my family – and I think the recent death of my daughter Yasmin has made me realize what is more important – and family is more important than anything. The nine years I spent in government really reduced the time that I spent with my children and I really regret that. It is too huge a sacrifice to be made. It is only when you lose a child that you will realize that what really matters is the quality time you spend with your family.
We all know Nigeria is not in a good position now and the level of insecurity is high. The government seems to be separated from the rest of us because for Jonathan to just announce the removal of fuel subsidy shows that. A week earlier, the government had said it was still consulting and we just wake up one morning and hear fuel subsidy has been removed, it is just unbelievable. It’s a level of disconnect, so I don’t really know. I think that until we find a way to connect citizens with those who govern them, we will continue to go the wrong path. We have a weak government, one that drives on division and looting the treasury.
But my prayer is that those in power will realize the danger that we are into and begin to retrace their steps and try to be accountable to the people and not be greedy to think that they if they take everything, things will continue well.
