The former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasir el-Rufai, has announced that he will return to Nigeria in December to participate in the nation’s developmental process.
In a letter made available to NEXT by him, the embattled former aide to erstwhile Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, declared his intention to return home after a period of studies and rest in the United States of America.
According to the letter, his first line of action on returning to the country will be “to continue the pursuit of the raft of cases I have instituted in the courts against the government and I stand ready to pursue my defence in the one case the government has instituted against me.” He added that part of the reason for his return is “to continue my contribution to the democratic process and progress of Nigeria. It is my goal to work with like-minded Nigerians to organise and empower our youths to participate in politics and public service. I believe that such an effort would build the momentum necessary to improve the quality of life and the life expectancy of our people by promoting accountable democracy that turns Nigerians from onlookers to stakeholders in the Nigerian project. Our people have had to endure too many false starts, with every brief dawn swiftly replaced by a long, dark night of incompetence and mismanagement.
“I left Nigeria last year to take up a Mason Fellowship and enroll in the Public Policy Programme at Harvard,” he stated. Mr. El-Rufai alleged that prior to his departure, “the Yar’Adua administration began and sustained a campaign of calumny against my person and my record as a public servant.” He listed such allegations to include “orchestrated and reinforced such falsehoods as the alleged disappearance of ₦32 billion from the proceeds of the sale of federal government houses”. He stated that the administration “also contrived to declare me wanted and has filed criminal charges against me in court. Its agents have repeatedly fed the media with tales of an international arrest warrant and extradition.”
Refuting the allegations, Mr. El-Rufai wrote that “there is no truth to such reports as I have travelled widely to all corners of the globe and continue to do so even as I write you.” He claimed that “the move by the incumbent administration have their roots in its paranoia; that its incompetence may provoke its rejection by the Nigerian people who could look the way of more viable democratic alternatives – looking up to reformers that actually got programmes executed in the past instead of endless sloganeering of the present!”
Mr. El-Rufai has been charged along with Altine Jubrin, former director general, Abuja Geographic Information System, and Ismaila Iro, former general manager of the same organisation, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on an eight-count charge of criminal conspiracy and abuse of office. The presiding judge, Adamu Bello, of the federal High Court had fixed the December 8, 2009 for the next hearing of the case.
Ever willing to serve
Stressing his determination to serve his country again, Mr. Rufai stated that “despite the deployment of its awesome powers, this administration will not procure surrender or a retreat into impotent resignation from me. A government cannot be permitted to abuse its power in resolving political differences. As such I have chosen to return home, and contribute my quota to restoring Nigeria to a path of sustainable change and reform.”
On the risk his return may pose for him, as expressed in the warnings he’s gotten from well-wishers, Mr. El-Rufai declared, “I am persuaded that there is a duty to ensure that no government flouts the guarantees and protections offered by our Constitution and laws of the land as well as the customs of our people. It is my belief that the effort to make ours a truly law-abiding society will not be advanced if I put my personal safety above principles, and stay away.”
To people who are concerned about his safety, he said “my head and heart believe it is the right thing to do.” Quoting the words of Martin Luther King, Junior, he said “Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.”
The former minister added, “I have no illusions that constitutional protections just kick in on their own or that this can be undertaken as one man’s battle. It is the clearly expressed determination of the cream of any society to stand up for what is right that has throughout history safeguarded respect for the rights of all.
“My commitment to an outcome that the next decade actually delivers on the potentials that our resources and endowments as a people, if we give it our best endeavours, is total and unflinching.
“Ours could well be the generation that delivers to those behind us a legacy they will find worthy of emulating. I am convinced that Nigeria needs to be tied to her potential not her past.”
Mr. El-Rufai said he will “publicly announce the date” of his arrival in Abuja when the return schedule is finalised. “And I shall return, in sha Allah, trusting in the benevolence of Allah and the goodwill and prayers of the people of Nigeria that we shall once again overcome tyranny as we seek to entrench democracy and results-oriented governance.”
Click here to view letter
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