Contemplating a tumultuous week

It has been a tumultuous last week across the globe, no doubt. From the USA, where President Trump is shaking his neighbourhood with his cudgel of America First, to conflict areas of the Gaza Strip in Palestine, to Ukraine and Europe still reeling under what they perceive as America’s betrayal, it has been an amazing week. Perhaps even more amazing was what unfolded within our backyard—the bombshells that kept bobbing and exploding in the polity. Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i, Senator representing Kogi Central Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, and the embattled River State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, have kept us enthralled throughout the week by way of their political antics.

The week opened with an earthshaking pronouncement from Nasir El-Rufa’i, posting notice to leave the All-Progressive Congress (APC) – a party of which he was a founding member. For the past many months, El-Rufa’i has been having a public spat with the government he installed in Kaduna State. When he found out that they were focused on investigating projects undertaken during his tenure with the tacit understanding of the federal government, he must have surmised that it was time to move on.

I was still in bed that morning and was scanning all the Hausa Language radio stations, BBC, RFI, VOA, etc, and I found that El-Rufa’i was all over the radio waves, typically acting the part of the gadfly, haranguing and exhorting. The long and short of what was reported was that El-Rufa’i had shed his APC skin and was rushing to the warm embrace of the Social Democratic Party (SDP. Ironically, El-Rufa’i is hurrying to take refuge in the party where his perceived tormentors made a name for themselves over 30 years ago. President Bola Tinubu was an SDP senator way back in 1992, and many of those surrounding him were also in the party with him.

But by the end of the week, it is becoming apparent that El-Rufa’i is becoming a lone-ranger of sorts. He has made high-profile visits to some prominent opposition leaders and other fellow APC malcontents, but there is nothing yet on the ground to show support for his adventure. Even in Kaduna State, where he held sway for eight years as governor and party leader, citizens have had no frenzy to follow him to his new sanctuary. Admittedly, El-Rufa’i had thoroughly dominated the airwaves throughout the week, but I have had a nagging feeling that it is all a brouhaha which had little or no consequence at the end of the day.

Governor Fubara has been another stubborn presence in our political scene since he fell out with his political godfather, Nyesom Wike, his predecessor and now FCT Minister. All attempts to reconcile them over the last many months failed. Even President Tinubu tried to arbitrate. It didn’t work because Fubara realised that the president was not an uninterested party in the dispute as he was beholden to his minister, who was one of his strongest supporters when he was bidding for the office. The previous week, Fubara had lost his long-drawn battle for River State’s dominance at the Supreme Court with the acolytes of Wike. The Supreme Court blows were stunning: his local government chairmen were thrown out, the majority assembly members he fought so ferociously were made legal, and he was directed to deal with them for appointments and budget matters.

He had to navigate how to engage with the assembly. It must have been in that regard that he reached out to the leadership of the Rivers State House of Assembly and went in his motorcade to where they are presently quartered in his bid to present the 2025 budget. Their rebuff, which we watched on live television, was most unedifying to his exalted office as the door of the assembly was firmly shut to his face. When the governor later attempted to reschedule the presentation of the budget, the assembly spurned his request and went on recess, sine die.

To make matters worse, his unrelenting opponent, the FCT Minister, gave a wide-ranging press conference, indicating that their relationship has crossed the Rubicon and that Fubara might not survive his office. From my perspective, Governor Fubara has been cornered with little room for manoeuvre.

Since the imbroglio between Senator Natasha and Senate President Godswill Akpabio broke out at plenary days ago, the matter has refused to die down. For days, we were inundated with the lurid details of Natasha’s sexual harassment accusations against the Senate President leading to her expulsion from the Senate, and all her privileges were suspended. On Tuesday, last week, Senator Natasha took the matter a notch up when we were surprised to see her making a tearfully passionate presentation at the IPU asking for their intervention in her dispute with the Nigerian Senate. The matter has now gone international.

It is still many months away from the start of the 2027 campaigns, yet if this deeply troubling week is setting the pace for that, then we are up for a very bumpy though exciting ride ahead.