How old was General Christopher Musa in the year 2000, when Kaduna witnessed one of its deadliest religious riots, which was primarily caused by the proposed implementation of Sharia? I ask because Mallam Nasir El-Rufai was nowhere near the Kaduna State Government House when that incident occurred.
For me, the attempt to implement Sharia law in Kaduna State, although resisted by the governor at the time, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, marked a significant turning point in the state’s history and contributed to the deepening of the North-South and Christian-Muslim fault lines that have continued to shape Kaduna politics and society.
It was in the build-up to the implementation of the Sharia law that many beer parlours and some other businesses began relocating from predominantly Muslim areas to places such as Sabo, Baranwa, Narayi, Television and Trikania, among others.
In fairness to Makarfi, he tried to prevent the Sharia controversy from taking hold in Kaduna. When that effort failed, he and other stakeholders eventually arrived at an arrangement under which Sharia would apply only in predominantly Muslim areas. That development, rather than anything El-Rufai did years later, was one of the defining moments in the physical and social separation that subsequently became associated with Kaduna.
Even after the Sharia-related crises had subsided, Kaduna experienced the devastating violence that followed the 2011 presidential election. I was a witness to that ugly chapter in our history. Of the deaths recorded across the country, reports said Kaduna accounted for more than half of the national total. Was El-Rufai in power then?
The truth is, Kaduna has a long history of religious and ethnic violence, largely dividing the predominantly Muslim north and the largely Christian south, which predated the era of El Rufai. Even before the year 2000 sharia riots and the 2011 post-presidential election crisis, Kaduna had witnessed other deadly violence such as the 1987 Kafanchan riots, 1992 Zangon-Kataf crisis, and the 2002 Miss World riots. All these had nothing to do with El Rufai and it will therefore be disingenuous of anyone to pin these division and crisis that have defined Kaduna on him.
I recall that in March 2015, during the build-up to the April 2015 general elections, El-Rufai, then the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, had while speaking on Freedom Radio Kaduna’s breakfast programme, ‘Barka da Warhaka’, promised to bring an end to the violence and killings in Southern Kaduna area and Birnin-Gwari axis of the state. If there had been no such killings at the time, would the issue have featured as a campaign point?
Specifically, he said: “this is not play or politics; we are here with serious commitment and determination to serve with all sense of honesty, sincerity and fear of God. How can they be killing our people in Southern Kaduna areas like Kaura, Sanga and Birnin Gwari and Giwa without any action? Who are they and where are they coming from? How can these killers be committing such crime without being arrested and prosecuted?
“Something is wrong somewhere, part of which is negligence and insensitivity, we will not tolerate it and by the power of almighty God, we will crush them for maximum security and stability in the state.”
His position at the time, helped in no small measure, in making most Southern Kaduna people turn their back on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), candidate at the poll, as they had before then accused his administration of doing little or nothing to address the insecurity ravaging the area at the time.
So, again, I ask General Musa: where was he before 2015? Was it El-Rufai who was responsible for the killings in Southern Kaduna before he became governor?
Another reality is that, in many parts of Northern Nigeria, Kaduna included, there has long been a deep-seated animosity between groups who see themselves as indigenous to an area and those they regard as settlers. For instance, in some parts of Southern Kaduna, sections of the Hausa-Fulani community have historically been regarded as settlers. So, often, the issue of who owns the land, and who should be the custodian, have always been at the centre of most of the violent communal clashes in some parts of the state. And where the parties involved profess different faiths, religion inevitably becomes another dimension of the conflict.
Unfortunately too, successive administrations in the state and political appointees from Southern Kaduna have not done enough to win the confidence of the people of the area. This is particularly important in Southern Kaduna, where perceptions of exclusion or discrimination can quickly transform even genuine policy mistakes into what many residents interpret as deliberate actions targeted at their communities. Although I have not seen much of that particular scenario under the current administration, if we are serious about ending the madness, then we must call a spade a spade and not a farm implement. We must learn to separate genuine grievances from criminal acts and hold people accountable for both.
One of the reasons criminal acts committed under the guise of religion or ethnicity continue to persist is that perpetrators are often not brought to justice. One way to break this cycle is to ensure that those identified as perpetrators, sponsors and collaborators are apprehended and dealt with in accordance with the law.
Government must also examine how community leadership structures can contribute to preventing violence. Where there is credible evidence of complicity, negligence or failure to cooperate with law enforcement, community leaders must be held liable and appropriate sanctions should follow. Community leaders must cooperate with security agencies in identifying perpetrators and preventing further attacks. Perhaps, when we start holding community leaders responsible, the spate of violent attacks, including religiously-motivated violence on persons will be minimised.
At the same time, government and its officials must moderate their utterances, both in times of peace and during periods of crisis. Unguarded statements by public officials can deepen mistrust and make it considerably more difficult for citizens to believe that government is acting impartially on some of the raging issues.
I may not have been pleased with everything El-Rufai did as governor. I will, however, not hesitate to acknowledge one of his contributions to Kaduna’s political development by re-engineering the political space in favour of ‘Mayan gobe ‘- the youths and break the dominance of what was popularly described as ‘Club 60’. If not for his retirement of Club 60 in Southern Kaduna, most of the young players in government today would not have found a space, let alone have a voice.
For years, particularly in Southern Kaduna, “Club 60” had exercised considerable influence over the political space, leaving younger politicians largely at the margins. El-Rufai disrupted that pattern.
As governor, apart from having several youths as appointees, he took the bull by the horn by ensuring that all council chairmen candidates the party fielded during one of the council elections were between 34 and 40. And most of them won.
I recall, for instance, that the chairmen of Kaura, Jaba, Kajuru, Kaduna South, Lere and Giwa were in their 30s at the time. He also supported the emergence of one of the youngest members of the House of Representatives in the Ninth National Assembly, representing Kachia/Kagarko. The member was 34 at the time.
El-Rufai did his best in this regard and other areas. He was not perfect, and I do not agree with everything he did. But historical disagreements with him should not become an excuse to rewrite the history of Kaduna’s ethno-religious crisis or attribute to him problems that clearly predated his administration.
General Musa may have his reasons for holding the views he expressed, but history deserves better than convenient political narratives. Mallam El-Rufai does not deserve to be lied about simply because some people disagree with him. Haba!
Omipidan, a journalist, author and media consultant writes from Abuja
