He has always described himself as unusual and an iconoclast. Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is referred to as the little man, partly because of his height and frame. However, this reference does not come from a position of affection by people who believe they have had a taste of him, in whichever way that could have been. When he was the minister of the federal capital territory during the Obasanjo presidential years in Nigeria, there was a running battle between him and vested interests in his area of influence. El – Rufai trained as a quantity surveyor, worked in the private sector for years and eventually ended up in public administration as a technocrat.
Prior to Nasir El-Rufai’s stint in the federal capital territory, the capital city of Abuja was reputed to have been burdened with maladministration and the master plan for the city having been compromised. These were the verdicts espoused by the people and the media. El-Rufai has the penchant to be easily irritated, thus the Mallam can resort to being quite descriptive when expressing his displeasure at the way things are done around him or in Nigeria generally. When he was in charge at the federal capital territory El-Rufai made it clear that things could not continue as usual, with the influential particularly using their influence to abuse the appearance of Abuja. El Rufai thus swung into action demolishing magnificent buildings of politicians, military officers, and senior civil servants, both serving and retired.
El- Rufai also referred to an over bloated and unproductive civil service. He stated the need to prune the civil service and weed out both unproductive and ghost workers. To push forward his philosophy of reform, El – Rufai resorted to writing in the press and the effective use of the social media. Whilst going about his campaign of reform, there were push backs from civil servants and other interest groups opposed to the ‘‘little man’’. El-Rufai in one of his running battles with the establishment, stated that ‘’the forces’’ resorted to the ‘’use of jazz’’, in Nigerian parlance, voodoo by placing a live tortoise on his chair in his office. Mallam as he prefers to be called, said he was a bit startled but not rattled. El-Rufai was rather more determined to push the boundaries of what he perceived as bringing back order to the federal capital territory, he achieved some success.
When Nasir El-Rufai assumed the reins as governor of Kaduna State, it would not be too long, when he raised the need for reforms in the administration of governance. The quality of governance, service delivery etc, were some of the areas which he felt needed to be investigated, urgently. It must be pointed out that Kaduna state does not exist in isolation, the state is a replication of the larger Nigerian society, where standards in various aspect of life seem to have taken a beaten over the past three decades.
Governor El- Rufai went for the jugular of the fall in education standards. He realised that majority of teachers in primary schools lacked the reading and writing competency of a primary four pupil. To forestall what he said is the danger to primary school education in the state, teachers were made to undergo reappraisals, testing, and retraining. Most of the teachers raised the issue of a witch hunt and protested. El – Rufai gave an option of either getting tested and retraining or being shown the way of the service. In the ensuing struggle with the teachers, some were thrown into unemployment field, however they had a choice according to the governor.
El-Rufai’s reform wars took another direction with the need to increasing Kaduna state’s revenue base. His focus this time around was on the entire workforce, thinking that it was quite big and needed trimming. Kaduna state revenues though required expansion and deepening, for the sake of more funds for capital projects, a trimmed civil service would help in freeing up more funds while exploring other ways of expanding sources of revenue.
Verification would be El-Rufai’s trump card in executing, this requirement. Through verification, the administration believed that areas of redundancies would be identified. The civil service in Nigeria naturally resisting change, cried foul, and decided to go on the war path. Prior to the governor’s move, he had increased the state’s minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000 in laine with the labour unions demand. El- Rufai argued that to maintain the new N30,000 minimum wage, the bloated civil service must be reduced and, in the process, made more efficient and productive. As it is, the struggle between labour representing Kaduna state civil servants and the governor is still ongoing.
Governor El-Rufai’s reform philosophy is not restricted to pushing for changes around or within his immediate area of influence. He has vehemently stated over the years the Nigeria is far overdue for a major overhaul, which includes its politics, economics, and social reengineering. El-Rufai frowns at Godfatherism in the Nigerian political space and has called some politicians out in his party, All Progressives’ Congress, APC, who consider themselves as appointed Godfathers. On one occasion, Nasir El-Rufai went to the stronghold or seat of the country’s prominent Godfather, Lagos State and said the idea was antiquated and he would be in the fore front of demolishing it. It takes some form of guts to go into the eye of the storm and look the devil straight in the eyes.
El-Rufai through his style of administration has raised the standard of governance in Kaduna State, with increased efficiency. Kaduna now seems to be giving Lagos state a due run for its money as the centre of excellence in Nigeria. Over the past few years Kaduna has attracted more foreign direct investment more than any other state. Kaduna state is not overburdened with over politicking, which slows down critical decision making or allows compromise which hinders merits, or acceptable practices. Also, one of El-Rufai edge may be not being a professional politician, whose whole adult life has been immersed in politics without any other source of livelihood to point at. There is a degree of accomplishment attributed to the Mallam prior to venturing into the political space, thus his self-actualization is coming to politics to serve and not to amass wealth.
El Rufai has not been entirely successful as the governor in Kaduna state, with what has been attributed to be his body language with managing some aspects of security and relationships with some ethnic groups. His abrasive reactions to how to deal with security infractions within his state has pitied him against public opinion, sometimes. On the other hand, Nasir El-Rufai is quite worried about brining about positive change though controversial to his immediate space of influence and continues to work towards this.
The Mallam to all intent and purposes, is eyeing the big price, even though from a remote vantage position, without mentioning it presently. His philosophy and accomplishments speak loudly for him. El-Rufai represents part of a small but very influential, vocal, and powerful set of young politicians that have been thrown up over the past two decades, devoid of strong ties with the old and flawed political class. Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign was systematic, quite prolonged with reverberating results, El-Rufai on his part, is just about reaching the midpoint of his political journey with a lot of mileage to cover. Will he finish his race making gains and consolidating his vision and philosophy? Nigeria may have to be on the lookout for he who is called the little man, whom is surely not little in spirit.
© Copyright, Olugbenga Adebanjo.
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