This reaction by Kaduna-based social activist, Mardi Shehu on the continued incarceration of former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, remains instructive:
There were so many arrogant attitudes and reckless statements (attributed to him) and I think there is a great lesson for people to learn out of Nasir’s current realities. Again, power is transient.
Again, don’t disparage people because you have power. I remember that he went on air at the height of the campaign of 2023 elections.
When northerners were opposing Tinubu’s candidature, Nasir said, there are no elders in the north. We are here.
We are the elders. Who are the elders?
Show them. He said, I’m an elder because if you think you are an elder, go and contest for election, I have contested for election and I won election. And lo and behold now, elders in the north have looked away, have folded their arms.
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They have gone into deliberate silent mode while Nasir is being incarcerated, moving from one court to another, from one decision to another.
I will tell you, I swear to God today, if Nasir had not made that statement of no elders in the north, there is one elder that I know -He will travel to Abuja without an appointment. He will go to the Villa (Presidential Villa) without an appointment.
Anybody who sees him at the gate of the villa will have no courage to stop him. He will go straight into the president’s office and the next thing is they will hand over Nasir to him.
But Nasir disparaged all elders in the North. And many of them are there in their 80s, in their late 80s, in their 90s.
They are alive. And they are alive, active.
And they know what is happening in the polity. They could have helped Nasir.
One of them that I visited, actually he called me when he saw my video on Nasir. As an elder, about 89 years old now.
I traveled to where he was, where he is currently. And after exchanging pleasantries, he called me in respect of Nasir.
He said he wants to share with me, but I should not go public with it; that Nasir revoked his only plot in Kaduna.
He said he got that plot more than 25 years ago. He fenced that plot. And he was paying the mandatory ground rent every year. He brought it out.
He said when Nasir revoked, he said he sent his own son to go and tell Nasir that he has been paying all the dues. And it’s one of the conditions C of O can be revoked when you don’t pay ground rents.
And he told me that Nasir told him that he doesn’t need a plot now. He’s already over 80.
He doesn’t need a plot now. He should give other people a chance to develop.
And that elder said, believe you me honestly, if he had not disparaged us, we would have been of help to him now. But then we are going to watch, let other elders from the South come and save him.
This was the comment, less than three months ago, he invited me and I went, and these were his own words.
So the lesson in Nasir for other people to learn is that not only power is transient, but don’t run faster than your speed.
Don’t assume that people who are coming down the ladder when you are going up will have no opportunity to go up again when you are coming down.
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Don’t also assume that you have monopoly of intelligence or you have monopoly of wisdom or you have monopoly of being disparative or you have monopoly of being irresponsible. No.
Everybody, wisdom, recklessness is just like a goat skin. Everybody has them together with him.
In the mouth here, you spit out saliva, but there is also blood there. You always suppress blood for saliva to come out.
People should learn a lesson out of Nasir’s current day. People should learn a lesson out of Nasir’s current ordeal.
Transcribed by Emiabata Deborah Oluwabusiolami, From A Video Posted By Simon Ibeawuchi
