The Accidental Public Servant

by El-Rufai, Nasir

  Amina Bala Zakari to join me in Dakar to interact with the mayor and his team. Amina made it to

  Dakar, my administrative assistant Peter Akagu Jones flew in from Canada, and we spent the next few

  days meeting with the mayor’s staff and touring parts of Dakar. We then had sessions with the mayor,

  his deputy and staff on their key challenges and gave them our initial thoughts. We promised to submit

  a report containing our policy suggestions and recommendations for action within a fortnight.

  The night before our departure after spending a week or so in Senegal, we were hosted to a dinner in

  the residence of Naye’s father, a leading opposition politician, Abdoulaye Bathily, with Mayor

  Khalifa Sall, and other key political figures in Senegal attending. The week before I arrived in

  Senegal, the president Abdoulaye Wade had given a briefcase containing two hundred thousand euros

  to the outgoing head of the IMF as a parting “African traditional gift.” The hapless IMF chief was

  uncertain what to do but handed over the briefcase on arrival in Europe to his superiors. Wade did

  not deny the gift, but justified it as a Senegalese tradition. The media were awash with the stories of

  the scandal and the opposition took advantage of Wade’s deteriorating moral and political standing

  well before the next presidential elections scheduled for 2012. We had vigorous discussions about

  the future of Senegalese politics, the elections and the prospects of a united opposition against

  Wade’s increasingly corrupt and incompetent government. We left Dakar for our separate

  destinations, and some weeks later turned in our report to the mayor. It was a most enlightening

  learning experience in urban management and opposition politics.

  November 2009: Yar’Adua Collapses and is Flown to Saudi Arabia

  Yar’Adua’s manifest infirmity changed everything about our well-structured political plans and

  timelines. Activating several of our contacts in Saudi Arabia, we got influx of information about his

  condition, until it became a trickle with the tightening of security around Yar’Adua from December

  2009. We shared the information with our 3G leaders in Nigeria and some of our media contacts.

  Yar’Adua left the country suddenly without transmitting the letter required under the constitution for

  the Vice President to take over as acting President. This created a constitutional lacuna that was

  effectively used by the Yar’Adua loyalists – Turai Yar’Adua, his CSO Yusuf Tilde, ADC Colonel

  Mustapha Onoyiveta, Economic Adviser Tanimu Yakubu, the NSA Major-General Abdullahi Sarki

  Mukhtar, the Abuja Minister Adamu Mohammed Aliero, the Principal Secretary David Ediebvie,

  Attorney-General Mike Aondaokaa, Umaru’s childhood friend, business partner and member of

  House of Representatives Shehu Inuwa Imam, protocol officer Inuwa Baba, Agriculture minister

  Sayyadi Abba Ruma, Governors’ Forum chairman Bukola Saraki and former governor James Ibori,

  supported by Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, the National Vice Chairman, North-West of the PDP - to

  hijack presidential power and refuse its timely and orderly transfer to then VP Goodluck Jonathan.

  Meanwhile, Bukola Saraki was in touch with the US Embassy, feeding them what was clearly

  incorrect information about Yar’Adua’s health. He had informed Ambassador Robin Sanders on 30 th

  November that Yar’Adua was no longer in the intensive care unit. He was then in coma. [150]

  Yar’Adua had been to Saudi Arabia thrice within five months, yet his inner circle remained in denial

  about his terminal medical condition. From our contacts working in the hospital in Jeddah, we

  gathered that Yar’Adua was incapacitated and had been in coma for weeks since arrival in Saudi

  Arabia, yet some newspapers were awash with stories quoting the Nigerian ambassador in Saudi

  Arabia Garba Aminchi[151] that Umaru had recovered and was eating tuwo da mi yan kuka, a

  traditional northern dish that was rumoured to be the president’s favourite. It was all false. Nuhu and

  I, therefore, concluded that these people would stop at nothing to sustain the deception about

  Yar’Adua’s medical condition to hold onto power even if a national constitutional crisis resulted. We

  were concerned about avoiding any such occurrence that might derail our democratic continuity, and

  decided that we must do something as a people, as a group, and as concerned Nigerians.

  December 2009: G53, G57 and Save Nigeria Group Emerge

  That was when we began to network with other individuals and groups to form G53 which then

  became G57 that subsequently metamorphosed into the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) under the

  leadership of Pastor Tunde Bakare. The brain behind the formation of G53 was Yinka Odumakin,

  who was the publicity secretary of ARG, and a member of the 3G steering committee. I did not meet

  Yinka in person until February 2010, but had maintained regular contact with him by email and

  telephone from the moment we were introduced in September 2009. Yinka felt strongly that based on

  all we knew about Yar’Adua’s incapacitation, we should issue a press statement calling on him to

  resign or require the national assembly to remove him from office forthwith for various constitutional

  violations.

  I agreed, and we both began calling up people that would consent to add their names and backing to

  such a statement. Yinka did the first draft which I sent to a couple of people in Nigeria and the USA to

  comment on, expand and improve. The final statement was issued on 2nd December and made front

  page headlines in virtually all newspapers in Nigeria. Prominent among the signatories were the 3G

  leadership – Senator Ken Nnamani, former speaker Aminu Masari, former minister Adamu Maina

  Waziri and myself. Political and civil society heavyweights like Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade, Admiral

  Ndubuisi Kanu, Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Femi Falana, Colonel Abubakar

  Dangiwa Umar, Festus Okoye, Uba Sani and Joe Okei-Odumakin, Yinka’s understated but strong-

  willed spouse and leader of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), joined her husband and many other

  patriots to put their names on the statement.We experienced an initial set-back within 48 hours, when,

  under pressure from the NSA Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar, some of the people dissociated themselves

  from the statement, claiming that “they did not sign” any statement. In fact no one signed anything, it

  was all circulated via email and had the knowledge of all the people named. Festus Okoye, Col.

  Dangiwa Umar, Shehu Sani and Senator Ken Nnamani fell into this class for a variety of personal

  reasons.

  We were not deterred by the setback and within barely another fortnight, we had recruited others to

  join the list including Femi Fani-Kayode and social media activist Roz Ben Okagbue. Nuhu Ribadu

  requested exclusion from the list because he was still in litigation with the Police Service

  Commission over his dismissal at the time, and made the argument that including his name might be

  prejudicial to the case in court. On 20th of December 2009, we issued another statement this time

  signed by Buba Galadima, Yinka Odumakin and Osita Okechukwu, on behalf of the expanded group –

  called G57- restating our call for the immediate and orderly transition of power to then Vice

  President Jonathan.

  At the 3G end, we convened another steering committee meeting in Dubai for the 3rd of December

  2009 where we considered what our next steps
would be bearing in mind the developments in

  Nigeria. We evaluated the options of operating within an existing major party, merging with other

  groups towards forming a new party, establishing our stand-alone party that will then seek to merge

  with other parties, or taking over and restructuring an existing party. At the time, there were several

  political movements like the NDM process, Bola Tinubu’s CODER, the Mega-Party group and so on.

  CPC had not been registered then. We agreed to initiate discussions with Action Congress (AC) and

  Labour Party (LP). We also agreed at that meeting to reach out to personalities like Donald Duke,

  Olusegun Mimiko, Prof. Jerry Gana, Brig-Gen. John Shagaya and Professor Wole Soyinka, among

  others, with a view to forming a broad-based political platform.

  There were discussions too about my plan to return home on 26th December 2009. The group

  members were unanimous that as an opposition linchpin at the time, the decision to return to Nigeria

  was not personally mine, and insisted that I called off my plans to go home. Nuhu was absent at this

  meeting, but I could see that he had worked on some members of the group to convince me not to

  return home then. The next day, the Sultan of Sokoto called and instructed me, as a Barewa

  senior,[152] not to consider coming home immediately. His reasons were simple and straightforward.

  No one was in charge in Nigeria at that point in time, so should anything untoward happen to me, it

  would be difficult placing responsibility on any person or authority. I had been successfully

  ambushed by the combined effort of Nuhu, my friends in Nigeria and some of my close family

  members. Rejecting their collective, near unanimous counsel would be simply unreasonable and

  insensitive. I was compelled to postpone my scheduled return in December 2009 to a future date.

  January 2010: Save Nigeria Group Marches for Nigeria’s Democracy

  Yinka Odumakin called me again in the New Year. Yar’Adua had not returned. The ‘Yar’Adua

  Cabal’ kept planting mythical stories about his remarkable improvement and imminent return to

  Nigeria, but we knew better. Yinka suggested that G-57 organize a public protest in Lagos to push the

  cabinet to declare Yar’Adua incapacitated or the national assembly to impeach him. I concurred with

  the idea though I confessed to him that neither of the two paths would be taken by the two

  constitutional bodies anytime soon. Nevertheless, I had a personal challenge. Tucked away safely in

  Dubai, I felt unable to ask any person to protest on the streets and risk being assaulted, tear-gassed or

  shot at by the police or the army. I suggested that Yinka finds someone willing to lead the movement

  and protests, both materially and spiritually. He then asked me what I thought of Pastor Tunde Bakare

  leading the effort. I had heard of the name, read some statements credited to him, and remembered

  clearly that Obasanjo did not quite like him for reasons that I never explored while in government. I

  opined that Pastor Bakare is well known for his views about the state of the nation and I believed he

  had the courage to lead the G-57 effort onto the streets.

  Immediately the first G-53 statement was issued, I was approached by a Nigerian in the diaspora –

  Dr. Baba Adam – who wanted me to contact him by telephone for ‘an urgent message’. He turned out

  to be an emissary of the First Lady, Turai Yar’Adua. I ignored him until Turai directly emailed me a

  number in Nigeria to contact so we could speak. I did not call the number. She then concluded that the

  only way we could communicate was by email, and an exchange of messages (and signals) ensued

  between 15th December, 2009 and 17th January, 2010. Turai was aggressively engaged in an effort to

  disarm me and rally support for her incapacitated husband. She probably suspected that I was playing

  a substantial role in the organized opposition that G-53 became, or was perhaps just reaching out and

  offering carrots to those previously declared as Umaru’s enemies.

  For me, Turai’s strange attempt to reach out confirmed that Umaru’s condition must be so bad that she

  felt the need to make up with people she knew he had been unfair to. [153] Then on Christmas Day, a

  young Nigerian, a secondary school friend of one of my sons, Umar Farouk Mutallab, attempted a

  suicide bombing of an American airliner headed for Detroit. It was the first time a Nigerian was

  involved either in suicide bombing or international terrorism. Nigeria had no president to speak or

  engage with an angry US government. When Nigeria was placed on the US terror watch list as a knee-

  jerk reaction to the Mutallab incident, I wrote a widely publicized letter on 8th January 2010[154] to

  President Obama, appealing for it to be reconsidered. I was also compelled by the circumstances of

  the time to follow up with a piece in Foreign Policy titled “Time for a New Nigerian President” [155]

  to articulate the dilemma of our country. Our nation was facing an unprecedented leadership crisis

  and it looked like primordial sentiments had taken over the minds and bodies of our political and

  economic elite. Sitting in Dubai, I kept reaching out to our friends, associates and 3G compatriots in

  search of answers.

  It was in the midst of these efforts of organizing the protests in Nigeria to promote constitutionalism

  and orderly succession that I became further blessed with the friendship and brotherhood of a truly

  remarkable and gifted man – Pastor Tunde Bakare. We first spoke on the phone and worked together

  over the next days and weeks coordinating street protests in Lagos, New York, London and Abuja.

  Pastor Bakare demonstrated the altruistic and impeccable leadership that made the various marches

  successful.[156] Those January protests along, with a mind-blowing piece of investigative journalism

  b y Next on Sunday[157] about Yar’Adua’s brain-damaged condition in Saudi Arabia, constituted

  tipping points that changed the entire mood of the country, leading to the intervention of former heads

  of state and chief justices that persuaded the national assembly to invoke some ‘doctrine of necessity’

  that finally catapulted VP Jonathan to the acting presidency in February 2010. In between these, we

  closely monitored Yar’Adua’s condition in Saudi Arabia and shared the information with our

  contacts in Nigeria.

  February 2010: Jonathan is Acting President, Yar’Adua Returns

  In February, my daughter Yasmin, Jimi Lawal and Chinelo Anohu worked together to organize a party

  to mark my 50th birthday. My mother, Bashir, sisters and children that could take time off school all

  made it to Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai for the dinner. It was a night of reconnecting with friends,

  family and political associates. Dr. Aloy Chife flew in from New York; Roz Ben Okagbue flew in

  from London.Yinka Odumakin, Babafemi Ojudu, and Dr. Tunji Olowolafe surprised me by flying all

  the way from Nigeria, with fraternal greetings from Governor Raji Fashola. Pastor Bakare was

  unable to make it, but sent his best wishes. The organizers invited all my known close friends, former

  staff and associates. It was well attended and I was quite touched. Yasmin was in school so she

  called in from London, and wished me the best birthday on behalf of her siblings with a short speech

  broadcast on an amplified cellphone speaker. Mohammed Bello flew in from Massachusetts and was

  equally outstanding. The famous Nigerian comedian, Ali Baba, made
us laugh all night, thanks to

  former BPE staff, Chinelo Anohu who flew him from Nigeria.

  It was also on that day I had an email interview with Matthew Tostevin of Reuters in which I

  expressed my views about zoning and my personal attitude towards Goodluck Jonathan running for

  president. This is why I am amused when some of Jonathan’s sympathizers who hailed my position as

  ‘patriotic and nationalist’ in February 2010, turned round a year later to call me a ‘northern

  sectionalist’ when I was unable to support the dual disappointment of an unreformed PDP and what

  turned out to be Jonathan’s incompetence and incapacity to provide decent, inclusive leadership. I

  said then about leadership choices, and I meant every word, that:

  Yar’Adua is from the North but did nothing for the region, just like

  many before him. If Goodluck shows real leadership over the next

  few months, many of us will campaign for him to be our president.

  I think Nigeria and the West African sub-region will be the better

  for it[158]

  In the same interview, I made it clear that I intended returning home soon, but not to contest for any

  office, be in any government or be Jonathan’s running mate as Reuters claimed was the speculation all

  over Abuja at the time. I started active preparations to return home and over the next month quietly

  went round to my bank in the UAE and donated a power of attorney over all my accounts. I did this so

  that just in case I returned home and I was unable to travel or be otherwise incapacitated, Yasmin

  could operate my bank accounts in Nigeria and abroad and keep our family going without any legal

  hindrance.

  About a week after the interview was published, Umaru Yar’Adua and his entourage had to depart

  hurriedly from Saudi Arabia. He had spent three months in hospital without any sign or hope of

  improvement. Indeed, his continued presence in the Kingdom without being accessible to multiple

  delegations sent by the Nigerian government was developing into a potential diplomatic disaster for