Recently, one of the leading lights of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) and Kaduna State
Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, took to his
Facebook page, alleging that the administration
of former President Goodluck Jonathan spent
N64 billion to celebrate independence
anniversaries between 2011 and 2014. According
to el-Rufai, Jonathan’s administration spent N13
billion in 2011, N15 billion in 2012, N14 billion in
2013 and N22 billion in 2014. His post followed
the announcement that President Muhammadu
Buhari earmarked only N70 million for the 2015
Independence Day anniversary.

No doubt the motive was to draw attention to
Buhari’s much hyped frugality and prudent
management of resources in comparison with the
last administration’s propensity for waste and
mismanagement. The governor’s Facebook post
generated a major media buzz and those sold on
change again used it to good effect to amplify
their narrative of a new order. The mainstream
media was awash with the report. In public and
private discussions, and beer parlour gossip, it
was cited as a fact with vigour and authority to
buttress arguments because el-Rufai said it.
It
has now emerged that, that “gospel truth”
according to our irrepressible
el-Rufai was
pure bunkum - a barefaced lie after all.
The information obtained from the Office of the
Secretary-General of the Federation (OSGF) has
caught him out, but the governor has not had the
strength of character or found the need to admit
he was wrong, and that he misled the public.
Instead he has arrogantly carried on as if nothing
happened. What a great guy for idle gossip!â
۬The OSGF in a letter made available to BudgIT
Nigeria, an organisation committed to promoting
transparency and accountability in public
finances, apparently showed that the Jonathan
administration spent N333.60 million in four
years to hold Independence Day celebrations.

According to the OSGF, no funds were released
for the Independence Day anniversary
celebration in 2011. In 2012, N107.60 million was
released for the celebration. In 2013, the sum of
N45 million was approved and in 2014, only N180
million was spent. When you compare the
N333.60 million, which was the actual amount
spent to the N64 billion el-Rufai claimed was
spent, you would freeze at the sheer audacity of
his mischief.
Naturally, the questions that
follow are: where did el-Rufai get his outlandish
figures from that he posted on his Facebook
page? What exactly did he set out to achieve and
why did he deliberately lie to Nigerians about the
independence anniversary expenditure?
Something must be wrong with an individual who
tells a story that is nothing but a pack of lies just
to undermine another person or institution of
government. I think we’ll have to engage the
services of behavioural scientists and
psychologists to unravel the motivation behind
otherwise accomplished individuals engaging in
self-destructive acts, whose benefits are usually
highly short-lived. 

While we await experts’ opinion, we can glean
from former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s
assessment of his former Minister of the FCT in
his book “My Watch” Vol. 2 page110 as a guide.
Although the former president responded to the
missiles hurled at him by el-Rufai on the issue of
his third term bid, it does not in my opinion
diminish the importance of his contribution to
understanding el-Rufai. He described el-Rufai as
follows: “... I should bring up Nasir el-Rufai here
because of the greatest insults he piled on me in
his book ‘Accidental Public Servant’ on the issue
of third term. Nasir’s penchant for reputation
damaging is almost pathological. Why does he do
it? He is brilliant and smart.... I appreciated his
brilliance and acknowledged his weaknesses, the
worst being his inability to be loyal to any person
or issue for long... I believe he can still be used
for public service under guidance, making
allowance for his petite size and his elephantine
brain. He was described as a malicious liar.
He is more than that; he is a pathological
purveyor of untruths and half-truths with no
regards to integrity.....” Wow! That is pretty
damning stuff from one’s former boss.
And
for the avoidance of doubt, a lie is a lie, whether
told a thousand times or not. El-Rufai owes the
public an explanation, nay an apology as his
credibility is heading down a slippery slope that
we would have to check the time properly any
time he says “good morning”.
Just as I was
ruminating over his N64-billion-to-celebrate-
independence lie, I stumbled on a report in the
media credited to the serving overseer of the
Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare.
The cleric expressed worry that key officials of
the APC had started giving excuses why the
promised change might be long in coming.
He
made specific reference to the comments
reportedly made by el-Rufai, on the state of the
nation. Bakare, who sometime ago disclosed that
he was in Daura APC said: “I need to call your
attention to the comments made by my brother
and Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai,
who said Nigeria had sunk deeper than any
human being could redeem. If the people in
government, who promised us change, can say
this, then where does our hope lie?
“So, you
can begin to wonder where the nation is heading
towards.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) couldn’t do
it, the people who promised change have started
saying the nation’s problems are deeper than
human beings could solve. Who do we turn to, to
solve our problems? What they are saying is that
we should turn to God to solve our problems.
What we know is that Nigeria will work in our
own time.” Those were Bakare’s words, not
mine.
But is it not a great failure of the mind
on the part of the people not to be more
skeptical of the message and the messengers?
Suddenly everything is now looking like a
crumbled heap of misadventure on the part of
the people, as these change messengers
increasingly traumatise our hopes and
expectations with excuses.
When did things suddenly sink deeper than any
human can redeem? I refuse to accept that
things have sunk deeper that any human can
redeem.
Now, recall that el-Rufai was one of
the stalwarts of the APC who assured Nigerians
before and after the elections that Buhari and
the APC would solve our problems; and that
Buhari was the right man for the job - a man he
had once dismissed as having “nothing to offer”
and who was “perpetually unelectable”. Seven
months in the saddle, he is now telling the world
that Nigeria had sunk deeper than any human
being could redeem.
What does that mean? Is he now telling the
whole world that he also lied to get our votes for
his party? Is the gossipy public figure now saying
that Buhari can no longer solve Nigeria’s
problems? The APC was elected to find
solutions to the myriad of problems besetting
Nigeria and not to be giving all sorts of excuses.
They told Nigerians they were up to the task and
promised them change and that is what is
expected of them.
But wait a minute! Are we
not missing something here? Obasanjo stated
that the worst of el-Rufai’s weaknesses was “his
inability to be loyal to any person or issue for
long...” Are we now to believe that el-Rufai is
already showing signs of fatigue, loss of faith
and possibly, disloyalty to the issue of “change”
his party promised Nigerians by stating that
Nigeria has sunk deeper than any human being
could redeem? I am still trying to process it.
But I am afraid, el-Rufai may not be alone in the
APC which appears not to know what to do with
power..
Unfortunately, they are giving all sorts
of excuses for their inability to give a definitive
direction to the country. In this, they have found
willing accomplices who are helping to amplify
their litany of silly excuses, while living in
perpetual denial of the obvious reality of the
unpreparedness of Buhari and his party for
power. Now, we hear again and again ridiculous
deniability of responsibility remonstrations
delivered with emphasis and certainty: “If you
see the rot they met”, “ if you see the mess they
met”, “Buhari should take his time”, “he needs
time to clean the Augean stables “, etc. The
irony here is that we don’t have the luxury of
time to wait till eternity. Some people are even
now lying to themselves that things are changing
for the better.
They point to the economy as “doing well”
despite the fact that all the economic indicators
are pointing southwards and people are
increasingly living under the crushing pressure of
economic decline. But as it is said, excuses have
a shelf life that expires very quickly. An article in
Bloomberg last week titled, ‘Buhari Bounce
Becomes Bust as Nigeria Policies Irk Investors’
quoted Jan Dehn, the Head of Research at
Ashmore Group Plc, which oversees almost $60
billion of emerging market assets as saying he
remained unconvinced that Buhari was up to the
job. The fund manager sold all its Nigerian
government debt in the past year.
He said: “So far, the Buhari administration has
done all the wrong things. Not only has he been
incredibly slow in taking any action, when he
finally has taken action on the economic front,
it’s been diametrically opposed to sensible
policy. That is a major disappointment given
expectations prior to his election.” It is difficult
for any observer of this administration to fault
that assessment except he is one of those who
like the Ostrich, has buried his head in the
sand.
From hush whispers, to loud murmurs of
misgivings about “change” and now
consternation and a growing sense of
disenchantment with it as woeful signs of a
broken economy are filtering through.
The ongoing mass laying-off of workers – some
of who ironically voted change, is a case in
point. The atmosphere is enveloped by a mood
of despondency and melancholy that leaves the
people resigned to fate. No doubt Buhari is not
the cause of the problems bedevilling the
country but his lethargic handling of the issues
of state especially the economy has exacerbated
the problems. 
Now, let’s even look at security
which was Buhari’s strongest selling point during
the campaigns. His military background was sold
as a recipe for ending the Boko Haram menace.
His past “heroic” feats were advertised as
evidence of his abilities.
He was feted by all his supporters and the
international community as the man with the
capacity to bring security, stability and hope to
our beleaguered nation. Well, seven months after
he was sworn in as president, things haven’t
turned out as expected. The Buhari magic is
fading; he has not only failed to stamp his
authority on his party, he has failed to show that
the much talked about change is not mere
sloganeering and a hollow strap-line meant to get
votes.
The terrorists are even embarrassing
him with their daring exploits.
The truth here is that Buhari and his generals
are struggling to beat the terrorists just the
same way former President Jonathan struggled
to beat the terror group. The difference here is
that unlike Jonathan who had no military
background, Buhari has a rich pool of military
experience and the support of that critical
northern base plus the support of the entire
South. Unfortunately, his military background has
not counted for much.
His party, the APC -
then in the opposition constantly played up the
exploits of the terror sect to undermine the last
administration. It took advantage of every terror
attack and regaled the nation with how the then
Candidate Buhari would crush the sect. And it
worked. But Buhari’s scorecard so far is spotty.
The brutal killings in the North-east have not
abated. Only recently, according to reports in the
media, the army suffered what may well be the
single biggest human losses in its war history -
the scale of which is enough “to hammer one
into the ground” - 105 soldiers were allegedly
killed by Boko Haram in battle and another batch
of 34 soldiers from 118 Battalion were also
killed, bringing the total figure to 139 military
personnel killed just like that under an APC-led
government. The December deadline set by the
president to crush the terrorists is increasingly
looking unrealistic despite claims that it remains
sacrosanct by the military high command.â
۬Recall that this same APC sent its governors
to Borno, marching up and down in Maiduguri in
solidarity with the Borno State government and
then splashed the photographs in most of the
newspapers the next day just to score cheap
political points with security matters against the
Jonathan administration.
Why can’t they now repeat their solidarity
march? One of the so-called “national leaders” of
the party went to Kano to sympathise with the
victims of terror who were lying critically injured
in hospitals. And just moments after his visit, he
called for amnesty for members of the very
terrorist group responsible for inflicting mortal
injuries on the very same people he had just
gone to sympathise with. Fearing an angry
backlash from voters, he later modified his
position thus: “Those with no blood on their
hands.” He never called for justice for the
victims. They have all lost their voices now.â
۬Senator Mohammed Ndume who is on trial for
terrorism-related offences and the late Senator
Ahmed Zanna were always in the news shouting
that Boko Haram had taken over substantial
number of villages in Borno.
We haven’t heard Ndume lament the ravages of
the sect in his native Borno since the APC took
over power at the federal level. No doubt Ndume
must have known that under Buhari, Boko Haram
recaptured five local governments. But he said
nothing about it. The Borno State Governor,
Kashim Shettima doesn’t say much these days
either, other than to praise Buhari to the skies
for the “progress” the country is making.
Not
too long ago, the federal government released
hundreds of Boko haram suspects. What did
Shettima do? He gave each of the suspects
N100,000 for rehabilitation and reintegration into
society.
Now, is there a mechanism in place to monitor
all those released to ensure that they don’t
rejoin or provide material support to the sect? â
۬There is a saying in the land of my fathers
which eloquently captures our predicament: “To
defeat the darkness out there, you must first
defeat the darkness inside you.” The more the
APC and its supporters shout change, the more
things stay the same or even get worse. Nigeria
- a giant crippled by a yearning desire for
change now finds itself at a crossroads. Any
wonder that from Sai Baba!!! Sai Buhari!!! What
we are hearing now is Chei Buhari!!.. http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/el-rufai-s-changing-tune-of-change/228275/

It is Kai Buhari

50 changing shades of Change

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obayaya:
50 changing shades of Change

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