El-Rufai wanted and begged to be arrested, by Rotimi Fasan

2026-02-17 - 23:27

Well before he arrived Nigeria from Egypt, Nasir el-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State and frontline promoter of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, the new political home of the major opposition figures that have sworn to unseat President Bola Tinubu, had announced that he would be arrested upon arrival in the country. More than a mere prediction, it was for him a statement of fact. He looked forward to it. What he wanted, craved and had deeply- desired for about a year was finally going to happen. I will return to this shortly but it’s enough to say for now that El-Rufai knew he had an invitation waiting for him in Nigeria from the EFCC to answer to corruption charges levelled against him by the Kaduna State government. How this transformed into a planned arrest is a matter only he can explain. He had obviously set up the stage for an arrest and was determined it should happen. He not only decided to put a brave face on things by choosing to return to the country fully aware of what he alleged awaited him, he returned to the country very much like President Olusegun Obasanjo did to face the Abacha junta in 1995 or, indeed, Major General Tunde Idiagbon, after the regime in which he was deputy leader was ousted by the Ibrahim Babangida junta in August, 1985. He may be of very modest stature physically but El-Rufai postures as a brave man and often does more than is necessary to prove that he is one. He has no limits both in terms of what he says or does, and it was with the mindset for a showdown with the authorities that he returned to the country to the airport drama that ended with the confiscation of his passport by the DSS. He claimed they tried to arrest him without warrant. He made sure to inform his lone interlocutor, egged on by supporters who had apparently been mobilised for that purpose, that not even the President could make him submit himself for arrest without a court warrant. His needless reference to the President was one of the provocative ways he sought to assert his supposed fearlessness. He made it home in one piece on that day and promised to honour the invitation already extended to him by the EFCC this week. Between the time he returned home on Friday and the following Monday, El-Rufai, set off a publicity blitz characterised by a series of interviews, obviously planned ahead, with major news media, announcing his readiness to go and respond to the charges against him. His main goal was to launch verbal attacks against the ruling administration and its leaders, most especially Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser. Ribadu was his close friend until about two years ago when the Bola Tinubu government came into office. El-Rufai who had been slated for a ministerial slot was unexplainably dropped due to his failure to get security clearance during his appearance before the Senate. For about a year after the Senate rejection which El-Rufai viewed as a presidential snub and took very personal, a raw wound to his outsized ego, he took a break from the public space. He returned a year ago through an Arise News interview with Charles Aniagolu (these must be his favourite or preferred interviewer and news medium) to which, in retrospect, much importance was attached than it deserved. El-Rufai’s verdict from that interview is that the Tinubu government had failed woefully and he committed himself to its ouster. That interview somewhat raised the hope of the opposition that was booted awake. But El-Rufai promised far more than he has so far delivered, because for the buzz around it for a few days, the following six months were without any serious opposition activity. Not by Nasir or others. Nothing until the ADC was launched and ever since the opposition has lost more ground to the ruling party with the defection of about ten governors from their camp, not counting the number of legislators of the two houses of the National Assembly and other notable figures that have also joined the APC. The latest is Ahmadu Fintiri, Governor of Adamawa, the home state of Atiku Abubakar, the main rival of President Tinubu and backbone of the ADC. Beyond its continuing slide into irrelevance due to the loss of key figures to the APC, the ADC has not been able to slow down the momentum of the APC, a party that has emerged as the most formidable since the country’s return to civil rule in 1999. The 2027 election is its to lose, it seems. El-Rufai clearly could feel the political temperature and read the writing on the wall. Silently, he slid back into oblivion after his rallying calls to the opposition yielded no significant fruit. Meanwhile, the corruption charge against him remained. He is being asked to account for some N432 billion, mostly loans incurred in the name of the Kaduna state government. The state legislators, up to the last man, signed a petition demanding the investigation of El-Rufai. He believes the legislators are being teleguided from Abuja under the watch of the NSA. Despite hedging his bet about his political future, especially a possible run for the presidency, El-Rufai loves power and clearly has his eyes on