Obasanjo and el-Rufai

President Obasanjo’s well-publicised visit to Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai  last week looks very much like a poorly-conceived win-win gambit: an attempt to launder Governor el-Rufai’s past on the one hand, and an effort by Obasanjo to pitch for a stake in the future with el-Rufai’s rumoured  ambition to contest the 2023 presidential elections, […]

President Obasanjo’s well-publicised visit to Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai  last week looks very much like a poorly-conceived win-win gambit: an attempt to launder Governor el-Rufai’s past on the one hand, and an effort by Obasanjo to pitch for a stake in the future with el-Rufai’s rumoured  ambition to contest the 2023 presidential elections, on the other. My fairly uninformed impression is that it achieved two basic results. For Obasanjo, it confirmed his place as political scavenger-in-chief, a highly successful hunter of political fortunes and opportunities which he serially abuses with spectacular success. For el-Rufai, it represented a lowering of the bar at the redeeming phase of a political career that hints at an improvement in strategic thinking. The image of a cosy father-son reunion between these two at this time is almost grotesque. Obasanjo is the last person that  el-Rufai, apparently flashing leadership credentials at Nigerians, should dig up as a father; and Obasanjo’ multiple scars at being ‘betrayed’ by acolytes he felt he had created should advise him in favour of the farthest distance between his diminishing fortunes and the burning ambitions of el-Rufai.

Many people must have re-read their books, My Watch by Obasanjo and Accidental Public Servant by el-Rufai, just to be sure they did not misread the things these two had  said about each other a few years ago. It appears that in that poor plot at  mutual laundering, encomiums were pouring out to a point that you will be forgiven for thinking that el-Rufai had forgotten that he had outlined in some  detail, how Obasanjo failed to secure an unconstitutional third term in his book, an episode that has defined his presidency and hurts him more than all things he will be accused to have done wrong put together. Obasanjo’s response to el-Rufai’s detailed narration has entered the annals of political insults.  ‘You are lying, as usual’, Obasanjo responded. For those who did not know el-Rufai well,he wrote: ‘Nasir’s penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological’. He had worked with el-Rufai as Minister and, ‘….I recognized his weakness; the worst being his inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue for long, butonly to Nasir el-Rufai….He was described as a malicious liar…with little orno regard for integrity.’ Obasanjo mentioned other unflattering things about el-Rufai’s treatment of close  relations, perhaps to be certain no one would ever trust a man he had also praised as brilliant and talented young man ‘who can deliver under close supervision’.

This is the type of stuff you publish about someone you will not walk on the same side of the street with. Ever. Nor forgive if it is said of you. Unless you are Obasanjo and el-Rufai, apparently. el-Rufai did not write a sequel to the book which caused Obasanjo so much pain, so we have been saved further savaging from two people who appear to have a lot more in common than even they realize. We know they crossed paths many times on the political turf, parting ways when el-Rufai pitched tents with Buhari, and Obasanjo continued to hope he could baby sit Jonathan. When PDP and Obasanjo dumped each other, he gravitated towards Buhari’s political contraption, but with lifelong enemies like Tinubu as gatekeeper and el-Rufai playing kingmaker, Obasanjo was limited to peddling his wares as a self-styled statesman who wants to be on Buhari’s trip. He lettered Jonathan off and dusted his garb as a non-partisan and sole guardian of all that is good and best for Nigeria. His romance with Buhari was brief, perhaps because the latter’s deep-seated distrust of all things new and unfamiliar had no room for an itinerant politician with a penchant for writing nasty letters to leaders.

The issue of loyalty or lack of it which Obasanjo leveled against el-Rufai is a thorny one which will cut both leaders deeply. It may be the case that  all successful politicians have to cultivate a healthy disdain for loyalty to all except their ambitions.  Obasanjo knew of the tragic end of the  el-Rufai/Atiku journey, and he milked it to his full advantage, throwing the el-Rufai character against untouchables and foes with great effect. It was the height of arrogance to think that a man whom Obasanjo had marked as unrepentantly-disloyal will be loyal to him  at any time.  The irony of it is that when Obasanjo said in Kaduna last week that el-Rufai is a good learner, he was right. el-Rufai did embellish his considerable store of single-minded devotion to self from the master. Obasanjo’s entire political career was a journey to self-actualization, drivenby  an incurable passion that conflated the nation with the person, the journey with the destination. el-Rufai  had also serially taken on ‘Yar’Adua (with little success), lampooned Jonathan into a sorry state,denounced Buhari’s repeated attempts to become President and had even aped Obasanjo’s proclivity to lengthy letter-writing in his attempts to dismantle President Buhari’s formidable Villa intimates.His in-today,out-tomorrow relationship with President Buhari and his tight circle is a popular subject in political gossips.

A mind reader would have been thrilled at the event where Obasanjo praised el-Rufai as a good model of leadership, and el-Rufai said Obasanjo was a model father. Could they have thought they convinced each other, not to speak of a nation already burdened with leaders and politicians who think so little of the intelligence of citizens? For a man putting markers on his rumoured ambitions to run for the nation’s top spot, el-Rufai’s choice of company in Obasanjo at this stage is either an audacious gamble or evidence of unforgivable naivety. Obasanjo is currently in familiar territory, fighting  el-Rufai’s president after making up with, and supporting a former avowed enemy, Atiku, against him. A simple mind may conclude that el-Rufai has no regard for the thoughts of the president and leader of his party in terms of the company he keeps. Or, another thought: el-Rufai does not put much store in Buhari’s inclinations (or lack of them) towards 2023, and has decided to chart his own course early. It is also possible that el-Rufai is foraging for ammo to outflank Tinubu in the Southwest, and sees Obasanjo as a productive route into hostile territory. Obasanjo himself may see el-Rufai as a soft option among potential northern candidates who may be used to block Tinubu’s ambition,  or place himself squarely as a kingmaker for 2023. Or it may be related to something else that happened during their chummy period. It is difficult not to ponder: could it have crossed el-Rufai’s mind to wonder how long it would take Obasanjo to write him a  long, ’Dear  President’ letter if he ever becomes president?

All these could be baseless speculations and projections, of course, and the entire Kaduna visit could have been an innocent mutual indulgence between two people who have enough in common to be properly labelled father and son. But under current circumstances? Not likely. Some friends of el-Rufai ought to have advised him to leave town the moment he heard Obasanjo was visiting, if he had not invited the old man himself. Unless he is actually scraping the bottom of the barrel and the nation can be convinced that both of them have assumed new characters. An attendance of the State Executive Council meeting and an audience with  younger el-Rufais with the fancy title of Kashim Ibrahim Fellows for Obasanjo is political red carpet. The only sad aspect of this drama was the exposure of young Nigerians to the illusion that they engaged with role models in leadership..

 

Abubakar can be reached at [email protected]