Mallam Nasir El-Rufai reminds one of the limitations that are placed on the adult atòlé by the very nature of their condition. Atole is the Yoruba name for that man or woman who bed-wets. Health experts in their registers say this condition is “nocturnal enuresis” or “nocturnal incontinence”, and they also – though curiously – hold that bed-wetting “does not mean that there is a medical problem.” But it is a problem for the atòlé and his kinsmen because his shameful condition is usually discussed in hushed tones. It’s one of such conditions that the world points to using signs and symbols; the mouth or the eyes with a nod. Some medical experts may have argued that bed-wetting does not mean that there is a medical problem, but the wise Yoruba fathers think otherwise. There is a problem which might also be medical, and they have pointed to one of the results of the problem.
To the Yoruba, some conversations are beyond the atòlé. It is both moral suasion and a socio-economic warning to the bed-wetter. To them, the person who bed-wets has sacrificed or implicitly forfeited the privilege to negotiate whatever bill that might have been submitted by the washerman. They say, Kò tó sí atòlé lá ti yo owó alágbàfò. It is not fitting for the bet-wetter to haggle with the washerman. The wise bed-wetter should know how not to raise dust, given the condition of the clothes he had sent to the laundry; the wise bed-wetter should also know that he can do this by not annoying the laundry man with foolish haggling. By the same token, I think it is ‘beyond the mouth’ of Mallam Nasir El-Rufia to try to do or say anything edifying about the current condition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Nigerians know how the foundation for the current situation of the PDP was laid. Nigerians also remember the various people who did what while laying this foundation. The people are also not oblivious of the composers who overreached themselves while they were composing the impending dirge for the PDP. However, this column today is not about the consistency of former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi and all his near-revelations. Amaechi’s persona should, however, remind the reader of their days as PDP chiefs. Some of the things he said he did along with some others to bring us here are simply almost revealing. Today’s thoughts are also not on the current verbal ping-pong between the former Kaduna State governor and the Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Federal Government as represented by a certain Daniel Bwala. This is also not about the obvious denouement of the once so-called largest party in Africa and its many prodigal sons and daughters and friends.
Today is about those people who know that they are suffering from ‘nocturnal incontinence’ but have still insisted on haggling with the washerman. This, to me is either the height of shamelessness or from the vale of foolishness. It is beyond them. It is beyond Nasir El-Rufai. It is beyond Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi. It is beyond Nyesom Wike and all those people who are trying to make us think they are still sympathetic to the cause of the PDP and, by extension, the cause of suffering Nigerians. What has happened, and is still happening to the PDP through the deadly instruments wrought by these people and their ilk should cause them to stay afar from the party and soak themselves in their deserved penance. For now, it would make things easier if they can just remove themselves from our faces!
Meanwhile, people should not think that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is not in this discussion. He indeed is a major piece of the puzzle which the degenerating PDP has become. Atiku, the legendary figure in the party and who has become what appears like an eternal presidential hopeful, is also one of the many problems the party is contending with. He was a problem to the party when he was out to other parties, and he has remained a problem for the PDP when he returned in the party. That is why some people have been left wondering where to place some other notable renegades like Daniel Bwala and the cloudier Reno Omokri, who are now dancing rigorously on the biggest stages to please their former political adversaries.
From 1998 when Malam El-Rufai became a “public servant” till now, a lot has happened. He has twisted and turned in very many directions to please each extant situation he had been while negatively degreasing the previous one. A lot of people will always remember him for what he had done to them or for them. A lot of other Nigerians might remember his days as a key member of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), a body for which activities only Atiku Abubakar is still receiving bitter flak today. Many might not even reckon with his political journey as a two-term governor of Kaduna State as much as they remember him a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. That ministerial tenure which began in July 2003 and ended in 2007, gave El-Rufai his firm political footing and an identity for both his radical measures in restoring the Abuja master plan, and notable verbal wars which set him out as a potential loose cannon. If others don’t remember, Jonathan Zwingina and Ibrahim Nasir Mantu would remember El-Rufai. Or, have we forgotten when he said Zwingina and Mantu demanded bribes in hundreds of thousands of dollars from him to approve his ministerial nomination? The same El-Rufai caused so much ruckus when, in response to a legitimate Senate probe, said “silence is the best answer to a fool.” That remark caused so much anger and uproar that the senators went on strike to protest the statement and also demand his sacking by then President Olusegun Obasanjo. The senators also rejected Obasanjo’s apologies on behalf of El-Rufai and only were pacified when he appeared before the Senate and said “I certainly did not mean to refer to the senators as fools. The statement is inappropriate. I made a mistake and I am sorry.”
That was the El-Rufai of the PDP. He was a well-decorated soldier of the party in the mould of Saul against the Christians. He did well while he persecuted Buhari’s CPC so much, and gave the others opposed to the government he served then their share of his venom. He later transmuted from Saul to become the Paul of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He was so zealous about it that Bola Ahmed Tinubu had to beg him to not leave the country for his proposed pursuit of educational advancement. A video of that begging has been trending and Nigerians, who either were not born or were toddlers when El-Rufai made waves, are currently feasting ravenously on it. The impression many of the people commenting on El-Rufai standpoint have is that he is against Tinubu and might be shifting base again to his former boss and ally, Atiku Abubakar – the symbol of PDP.
That is wrong and does not do justice to the hardwork of people like Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and others are doing in the party. Atiku Abubakar alleged that President Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) were “devoting their energies to the systematic harassment, intimidation and dismantling of the opposition, all in service of their grand design for a one-party autocracy.” That the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is on the death bed isn’t in doubt. That the party, as it is right now is gasping for breath is also not a lie. But is it generals in the mould of Nasir El-Rufai that would lead the impending redemption war for the PDP? I doubt this without doubting the contention that there possibly well organised plans to eventually obliterate PDP. The brawl at the party’s national secretariat points to the fears of Atiku and even El-Rufai himself, but this does not mean that the men are running on the same lane.
I doubt El-Rufai’s sincerity in the quest to see strong, organised opposition to the Tinubu government. His anger that he longer believed that the APC is interested in solving the problems that led him and others to form the party is untenable. “The distance between me and the party is widening” and “there are internal mercenaries in the PDP hired and motivated to destroy the party” gives a picture of a man akimbo on the line. This makes him one atòlé in the house of Nigerians that have a desire for the PDP to provide a vibrant opposition to the current administration. El-Rufai had bent back and forth before and, like a hoisted flag he can’t now stop dancing back and forth. He cannot now learn to use the other hand in his old age. Check it out, when the eyes relax properly, they would see the nose.
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