Weekly Trust: There was a time it was reported that you said Abuja wasn’t meant for the poor. But striking parallels are seen with that position and the removal of fuel subsidy. Have you become less of a ‘government-type’?
Nasir el-Rufa’i: I think you are comparing apples with oranges here. What we did in Abuja was a corrective measure that had to be done. People were doing whatever they wanted and they thought that they could get away with it. It is our common attitude as Nigerians, so we corrected it and the results were clear.
Those who were accusing me of being heartless did not understand what it means when you don’t have anyone in charge. I do not think that what we did was targeted at anybody and I never said Abuja is not for the poor. I said Abuja is not for the unemployed, meaning if you do not have a job, you cannot live here. That was the point I was making, but the media decided to play it otherwise.
People who misunderstood us in the past are now seeing the results of what happens when you do not do the right thing and I have nothing to add there. When you wake up one morning and think that your job as a political leader is to look at the resources in the state and just take care of yourself and do nothing for the rest of the society, then you are really making a big mistake.
WT: But many have argued that during your tenure under Obasanjo, a lot of money was also squandered…
el-Rufa’i: I can mention many projects we executed. This government cannot mention any that it did. In four years, this government got the highest level of oil revenue in Nigeria’s history. What they got in four years, the Obasanjo administration did not get in eight years and they have squandered it all. We all lived here in this country during Obasanjo’s administration, so we all can tell and compare. I can tell you what we did with the money we had. Since we left office, tell me, what have these people have done?
WT: Do you think Nigerians will easily give up after a few weeks of protesting?
el-Rufa’i: Let me do the math for you to show why Nigerians cannot give up. Until the removal of the fuel subsidy, the average Nigerian urban dweller spends 80 per cent of his income on transportation, housing and food. Then overnight, all these will double. Transportation has doubled already and if you go to the market to buy food, you will see the response in the next few days. It is just unsustainable and nobody can bear it. So it is not just if Nigerians will give up. They cannot afford to give up, because they will not be able to support the level of expenses. Only those in government who have access to the revenue will be able to survive. I have done the mathematics and it doesn’t add up.
Even the much-touted N18,000 minimum wage will not even be enough to cover the expenses for most people. For example, the transport fare to Suleja from Abuja has now been increased to N500 naira. Now, there are many people who work in Abuja and live in Suleja. For such people, transport alone is now N22,000 per month that is just transport alone. We have not even mentioned food, rent and other things. So, tell me how can this minimum wage add to anything positive in their lives?
WT: The ‘Arab Spring’ has been bandied about by public commentators. With what is happening now, do you reckon Nigeria will go down that path?
el-Rufa’i: You know, our society is different and you cannot really predict how things go. The ‘Arab Spring’ was a shock to everybody: it just happened, it was unpredictable. Here, we have two already dead in Ilorin and people are bound to lose their lives in the ‘Occupy Nigeria’ protests. It is very difficult to predict human behavior, but I don’t think this is going to be easy. I think the government will be deceiving itself thinking this will frizzle out. People are aware, people are communicating and they are seeing what is happening all over the world, but most importantly people are beginning to understand what the governments are doing with their resources.
When you budget a billion naira to feed the president and his vice and then you are asking us to sacrifice, that is double hostility. These people in government are not ready to sacrifice anything, not even their comfort, they have budgeted 11 billion naira to travel and they are asking us to sacrifice. It is different today, unlike in those days that people were not aware of what is going on. I do not think it is going to be very easy. Any direction it will take, I hope it ends well and peacefully. The leaders think their job is to protect themselves rather than to protect the country. The security agencies are putting all their resources in protecting those in power instead of the other way round by protecting the ordinary Nigerian and I think it is so sad.
WT: Many thought that you would contest in the last general elections but you didn’t. Why?
el-Rufa’i: One of the reasons why the Yar’adua administration went after me after I had left office was because the late president believed I was going to contest in 2011 to challenge him. Jonathan did the same thing because of this suspicion. So I’m a victim of these rumors more than anyone. I don’t know what it is about me that make people think I will run for office. I have never run for any office. Regarding my public service experience, I rose because I was appointed to do certain jobs which were difficult for other people. So, I don’t know why people think I will suddenly run for office. I have not thought about it even once in the last three to four years.
I’m in the CPC and I chose to leave the PDP on my own, because it is a toxic party. It is a destructive organization and I have chosen to be in the CPC because I believe that General Buhari has the best mindset to change the direction of Nigeria’s problems. I made the conscious decision on my own, I could have remained in the PDP, but I chose not to.
Now because I’m in the CPC that is why there are new conspiracy theories that we joined the party to wait for Buhari to retire so we can take over. These kinds of stories are normal in politics and they will continue. No matter what I say, people will still say that I denied running for office. People won’t believe me because politicians are believed to be full of lies already. So, I think we should just wait and see 2015 is in four years to come, Allah willing.
WT: Speaking of 2015, what are your plans?
el-Rufa’i: My immediate assignment right now in the party is to rebuild the CPC. The CPC has a lot of followers and it is a very popular party in all parts of the country, but we are yet to spread and have strong structures which will protect us. We all know that we won elections in many states, but the PDP was able to change the results because they had people on ground that we didn’t have. So, my job as the chairman of the CPC renewal committee is to work with other mandate movers of the party in building solid structures for the administration and I think that’s what I’m going to be doing in the next four years of my life and then we take it from there, one thing at a time.
WT: Back to your tenure as Minister of the FCT, what would you have done better, given the benefit of hindsight?
el-Rufa’i: I don’t like talking on jobs that I have done, because I think it’s unfair to those who are currently doing the job. It will sound as if I am criticizing them, so I have avoided making any comments regarding the FCT or the BPE. However, there are few things that I wish I had done more or earlier in my tenure as the Minister of FCT. I wished I had started the Abuja metro line earlier than at the tail-end of my tenure. If we had started the metro project much earlier and taken it to a point, it would not have been easy to kill. Abuja would have had its rail system functioning by now. I really regret leaving it till my last year in office. We signed the N1 billion for it and they diverted the money somewhere else. I also wished I had put more resources than we did in satellite towns because the city did take a lot.
I will never do this work again, because I don’t repeat assignments. I have never repeated a class neither have I failed my exams. I move forward and let someone else do it. If I have any regrets from that time, I’d say not many. Because being in public service took me away from my family – and I think the recent death of my daughter Yasmin has made me realize what is more important – and family is more important than anything. The nine years I spent in government really reduced the time that I spent with my children and I really regret that. It is too huge a sacrifice to be made. It is only when you lose a child that you will realize that what really matters is the quality time you spend with your family.
WT: You have not really spoken since the death [eldest daughter] Yasmin. How would you describe her, generally?
el-Rufa’i: Yasmin was near-perfect. She was a wonderful young lady who was the pillar that unified our family. She was close to everybody, and she looked after everyone especially all her siblings. Though she was to some extent born with privileges, she believed that the purpose of life is to help others who are not privileged. She lived a simple life and it has been a major blow to members of the family, but Allah knows best and we are taking it as it is now and we are hoping that her memory will make our other children better.
For me personally, what her death has done is to remind me of my primary responsibility which is to be there for my children, because I don’t know for how long I will be with them or how long they will be with me, so that is the most important lesson.
WT: What do you see as the way forward for Nigeria amidst the Boko Haram imbroglio, among others?
el-Rufa’i: I wish I have any solid answer. We all know Nigeria is not in a good position now and the level of insecurity is high. The government seems to be separated from the rest of us because for Jonathan to just announce the removal of fuel subsidy shows that. A week earlier, the government had said it was still consulting and we just wake up one morning and hear fuel subsidy has been removed, it is just unbelievable. It’s a level of disconnect, so I don’t really know. I think that until we find a way to connect citizens with those who govern them, we will continue to go the wrong path. We have a weak government, one that drives on division and looting the treasury.
But my prayer is that those in power will realize the danger that we are into and begin to retrace their steps and try to be accountable to the people and not be greedy to think that they if they take everything, things will continue well.
WT: The mass-transit buses brought during your tenure in the FCT have been named after you. How does that feel?
el-Rufa’i: I don’t know why they call the buses ‘el-Rufa’I’. In fact, there was a time somebody thought the buses belonged to me, that I will be probed after I leave office, because I privatized all the vehicles. It is amazing how people come up with these names. My hope was that the bus scheme will continue to be sustained, but they seem to be disappearing one by one, day by day. The policy framework we had put for it to continue was that the operators at least need to be acquiring 500 new buses, but somebody lost the ball somewhere.
Maybe because I was the longest-serving Minister of the FCT – the only one who has served a full term – maybe that is why my name has been engraved in the minds of FCT citizens.
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