of the malpractices that took place. At the time, we did not know how far Jonathan and the PDP were
willing to compromise the electoral and judicial institutions to preserve and protect their stolen
mandate. Neither did we expect that men of integrity within those institutions would succumb so
easily to be willing tools of conferring legitimacy on fraud! But that was what happened in the months
to come.
I was also contacted by William Wallis, the Africa editor of the Financial Times, to write a short op-
ed on Nigeria to be published as part of the paper’s coverage of the swearing-in of Goodluck
Jonathan. William, an old friend from the late 1990s wanted three points of view on Jonathan to be
published – a midway view which he thought would be provided by Bismarck Rewane, a chorister’s
highly optimistic view provided by Atedo Peterside, and an opposite, pessimistic view of the
Jonathan administration which he knew I held.
The article, which was heavily edited by the FT[185] to remove the political aspects I covered, was
nevertheless well received. I then decided to publish the complete (and expanded) version in
ThisDay when Atedo Peterside got his views published on that paper’s back page. My piece titled
“Jonathan’s Tough Choices” was both so popular and outrageous at the same time that a couple of
weeks later, the publisher, Nduka Obaigbena, requested that I make it a weekly column. He suggested
the simple byline of El-Rufai on Friday[186] and I have been writing it regularly since then.
June 2011: ‘El-Rufai on Friday’ Debuts, GMB speaks at Chatham House
One of the pieces I wrote for “El-Rufai on Friday” was titled “What Nigerians Pay the Federal
Government.” [187] It was a cheeky title for what was a summarized analysis of the federal budget
for 2011. It was an outrageous and incompetent budget by every measure and therefore an opposition
party’s delight. It not only showed the levels of waste in spending, but also the misplaced priorities
and corruption. It related that mismanagement to the life of the average Nigerian in the most
pedestrian way – that each Nigerian was paying for all that waste and corruption. Many Nigerians
related to that immediately. The authorities were incensed by “Jonathan’s Tough Choices” [188] and
the subsequent one on the budget, and felt the need to deal with me. Ita Epkenyong, the head of the
SSS, made the case that El-Rufai had to be dealt with before things got out hand. But I did not know
all this at the end of June when we left Nigeria to go to London with GMB and Pastor Bakare. A
couple of months later, I would publish another critical piece that for the first time, opened up the
federal security budget for Nigerians to see what our government was wasting in the name of security
expenditure against the insecurity outcomes we had in another piece – “Sleeping with both eyes
open. ” [189]
But before leaving for the UK, I was invited by Uba Sani to meet with Nuhu Ribadu and an inner
circle of our friends in his house. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss all that happened
between us starting from our exile years to the present, establish what went wrong and steps we both
needed to take to avoid these recurring in the future. It was a soul-searching meeting during which we
both learnt a lot about each other. Nuhu was bitter at my refusal to support his presidential aspiration,
preferring Buhari instead, and so openly and publicly. I explained that the way and manner Nuhu
pursued his ambition exhibited lack of trust in me and concern for my support. In the end, we
understood each other and resolved to move forward as the friends and brothers that we have always
been. I then left for the UK to meet up with Buhari and Bakare.
Our collective concern over the mischievous and flawed image of the CPC and GMB in the media
persuaded us to accept another Chatham House invitation to GMB to speak at the think tank. He was
initially reluctant, but agreed providing Pastor Bakare and I went to London with him and I agreed to
join him to present the case of the CPC. We did, and Buhari gave a stellar performance during the
question and answer session. He was as articulate as he was passionate about the country’s problems
and why he wept at his final campaign outing in Abuja. He made a case, both historical and factual,
for the need for social justice in our country. We were all proud of him. It was the honest and
patriotic Buhari we knew that came out that day in London – one that the Nigerian media had
misrepresented so successfully. Many in the audience, including Jonathan’s sympathizers, were
blown away by his passion, patriotism and concern for the voiceless and vulnerable. Those planted to
ask questions got appropriate responses from both Buhari and Bakare. I summarized the voting
statistics from the “clean” April elections and showed the clear turn-out fraud and rigging particularly
in the South-East and South-South states in very clear and incontrovertible ways. Our British and
Nigerian audience was stunned and left the event better informed about the ‘Deceitful Elections’ of
April 2011!
We also used the opportunity to meet with some British members of the House of Commons and the
Lords. We hosted a dinner for the Nigerian Diaspora in the UK to interact with GMB at the Pearl
Liang Chinese Restaurant in Paddington. Pastor Bakare and Buhari made some welcome remarks. My
daughter Yasmin (now deceased) joined us and met Buhari for the first and what would turn out to be
the last time. Kayode Ogundamisi and Dr. Garba Sani made passionate speeches about Nigeria’s
future, and Buhari’s role in shaping it. Pastor Bakare made an eloquent speech that was cautiously
optimistic about the country’s future despite everything. We then spent a few more days after the
Chatham House event to debate and discuss the future of our party and country.
We all believed that Jonathan’s tenure would be a disaster, but hoped that on the whole it was going
to be slow-paced, dull but largely peaceful – even with the expected massive looting and corruption.
So long as Nigerians are left alone by the government to pursue their legitimate livelihoods, we could
focus on rebuilding our party and hope democracy and the nation survive till the next election. But the
outcome of the economic research for my weekly columns had convinced me that serious dangers lay
ahead. The socio-economic data pointed to far too much poverty, inequality and waste of resources
for the political and economic structure to be sustained without a change in direction. I felt that
something would have to give, one way or another, though I was not sure what and when. What I did
not expect was to be arrested at the Abuja irport on my arrival from the UK!
July 2011: Arrested on arrival at Abuja, and saved by Twitter
I arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, around 5am on Saturday, 2 nd July to be
detained by officers of the State Security Service. I was taken to the headquarters subliminally called
Yellow House, after being detained for nearly two hours at the airport. While waiting, I said my Fajr
prayers, and got my BlackBerry charged. Once the ever-reliable Etisalat Dubai service came on, I
tweeted that I had been detained and was being taken to the SSS HQ. I posted the same on my
Facebook page and broadcast it to all my contacts via BlackBerry Messenger. The arrest and
detention message went viral on all the social media platforms. Almost exactly seventeen hours later,
the Nigerian authorities had to release me. My tweets immediately trended like crazy. Reuters,
Associated Press, AFP, CNN, BBC World and Al-Jazeera all broke the news from the tweets, and
the authorities began to receive frantic calls from within and outside Nigeria. The SSS had to issue an
absurd statement saying I was arrested for writing something that was false and ‘inciting’ and later
leaked to some selected newspapers that I would be charged for sedition. Subsequently I learnt that
the Director General of the SSS, Ita Ekpenyong, got me arrested on the orders of the National Security
Adviser, Andrew Owoye Azazi [190] who had cleared it with Jonathan in advance of my
arrival. [191]
I later came to learn that Jonathan, Ekpenyong and Azazi had a nasty Saturday. As soon as the story of
my arrest was broken by the global news outlets, they received incessant calls reminding them that
they were not a military regime that could detain citizens at will; that arresting me for exercising the
freedom of speech and expression protected by the Constitution was unlawful; and that the colonial
era crime of ‘sedition’- which the SSS was forced to admit via a statement issued that Saturday as the
basis of my arrest and which they intended to charge me with- was no longer an offence in our laws
as it violated the right to free speech entrenched in our Constitution. My party leader Buhari issued a
very strongly-worded statement asking for my immediate release. Obasanjo was incensed. He called
Azazi and Ekpenyong and told them that they had messed up big-time. He said that they just acquired
an unnecessary and relentless adversary, and advised that I should be released and approached to
mend fences. My friend and lawyer, Asue Ighodalo, reached Nduka Obaigbena to get to Abuja right
away and get me out of detention. My friends Idris Othman, Tijjani Abdullahi and Balarabe Abbas
Lawal, cut their weekends and kept vigil at the SSS headquarters until I was released. Dele Olojede
called Azazi and Ita Ekpenyong to find out what was going on. Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim began reaching
out to our friends and associates to organize a group response. Some other close family members and
prominent friends of mine were surprisingly silent as if saying – “serves him right for daring to stand
up to a sitting government.” I got home around 10pm that Saturday with my lawyer, A U Mustapha,
and my wife Asia, with ThisDay colleagues Nduka Obaigbena and Segun Adeniyi in tow. [192]
That was not the plan of Jonathan, Ekpenyong and Azazi. The SSS intended to arrest me quietly over
the weekend, detain and torture me psychologically if not physically till Monday without anyone
knowing about it or me having any access to lawyers, and then charge me for any trivial offence
before a sufficiently-intimidated magistrate who would then remand me in prison custody with
stringent bail conditions that would not be met for just a few more days. This is the modus operandi
of the Nigeria Police and SSS which was perfected from the days of military dictatorship. That
period of double incarceration then affords the authorities the time to smear the detainee some more,
while he or she reflects on whether fighting on the side of the opposition was worth it. This plan was
defeated - taken off the table by the availability of smartphone versions of Facebook, BlackBerry
Messenger and Twitter!
Within the seventeen hours of my detention, my Twitter following increased rapidly - from about
three thousand to over seven thousand, and since then has increased by at least one hundred followers
every day. The SSS and Twitter made an overnight social media celebrity of El-Rufai with no effort
on my part. The narrative of my time with the SSS has been widely reported by the Nigerian media
and is available for anyone interested, but a few things became clear from the experience. First the
Nigerian security agencies mistakenly equate national security with the protection of the narrow and
personal interests of anyone in power. They have no understanding of overriding public interest or
loyalty to the state. They thought and believed that Jonathan is the State, and an article insulting to him
constituted an offence! Second, the senior officers I interacted with were driven more by primordial
and ethnic sentiments than competence and overall national interest. One of those that interviewed me,
a woman ‘director’ suggested that instead of writing pieces criticizing the president, I should talk to
“your people, Boko Haram, to stop all these killings.” I simply asked, ‘Are they not also your
people?’ and thereafter ignored similar remarks.
A few days later when I met the DG, SSS who once worked for me as state director of security at the
FCT, the same sentiment surfaced, because as his justification for the arrest and illegal detention of a
citizen, he asked me pointedly how I “would feel if a northerner was president and he was being
attacked by south-south people”! Again, I was shocked that a national security chief, who had worked
with me and ought to know that I have never in my life operated on the basis of such nonsensical
sentiments, would now think, talk and act this way because he is DG, SSS under Jonathan! I knew
then that the country was in greater trouble than I had estimated. I became more convinced than ever
that the mindset and narrow worldviews of the key people in the Jonathan administration would
manifest in deepening the divisions in the country and destroy all that some of us hold sacred. I was
determined never to have anything to do with this brand of pathetic pretenders ever and further
committed myself and all I have to holding them accountable for every decision and action till their
last day in office, or until they change their attitude for the better and see Nigeria through more open,
fair, just and inclusive eyes.
Thirdly, the Nigerian security agencies are neither updated in their knowledge of constitutional rights
nor are they willing to obey the constitution and the law. The SSS has no powers of arrest. They need
to obtain a warrant from a judge after showing justifiable cause to be able to arrest any citizen. So my
arrest and detention were patently illegal. They also seized and kept my passport for three days in
violation of the law, the Constitution and the Court of Appeal decision in the case of Agbakoba v.
The State, which substance was upheld by the Supreme Court in The Director of State Security v.
Agbakoba. [193] When I was informed at about 2pm that day that I was then formally under arrest, I
asked to see the warrant and the lawyer quoted some secret Statutory Instrument signed by Obasanjo
in 1999 granting the SSS powers of arrest as in the Police Act. I responded that no such delegated
legislation could override the Constitution and I refused to say anything until I met with my lawyer.
They were taken aback and shocked. Clearly they were not used to being so challenged and insisted
that my “interrogation” must go on without consulting a lawyer. When I kept quiet and ignored all
their questions, they succumbed and I met with my lawyer-wife Asia and A. U. Mustapha. I had
intended to sue the federal government seeking a declaratory judgment for all these violations but was
persuaded by my friends to drop it. We had too many cases against the government already. I let it go
but there is n
o statute of limitation against constitutional violations, so I may pursue it someday. The
thinking and practices of our officials must comply with the constitution and our laws, and this can
only be achieved through serial litigation against oppressive behaviour and any kind of
unconstitutional conduct.
The Last Few Months…..
Even with the financial support of El-Rufai & Partners and a few of my better-off friends, I found my
liquidity in dire straits by the middle of 2011. I had to find means of supporting my immediate family,
the think tank I wanted to establish and the many political activities I was engaged in. The breakdown
of governance meant that from time to time, demands by relations and even complete strangers for
financial assistance towards the payment of school fees, hospital charges and even purchase of grains
and groceries have become common, daily personal challenges. Some years back, these kinds of
demands were few and far between, but these days, the floodgates are impossible to bear
conveniently. Since we are in opposition, federal (and even state) government officials are reluctant
to or scared of having any business dealings with our firm, El-Rufai & Partners. The fact that levels
of corruption have risen significantly since we left office, compounded by our reputation not to be
part of any corruption-tainted business arrangements, has affected our corporate and personal
liquidity. We were therefore forced to explore business opportunities in neighbouring African
countries where my friends and I have contacts within the governments and with leaders in the
business community. We also looked at consulting opportunities in East, Central and Southern Africa,
using our offices in Dubai as springboard.
In November, the chairman of our party, Prince Tony Momoh, invited me to chair what came to be
known as the CPC Renewal Committee. The task given to us was to rebuild and strengthen the party’s
organization, operations and processes at all levels, while preparing for upcoming governorship
The Accidental Public Servant Page 68
