Nasir El-Rufai’s Release – By Reuben Abati

The release of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai from the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), on temporary, compassionate grounds, on Friday, March 27, following the death of his mother, Hajiya Ummar El-Rufai in Cairo, Egypt, raises legal, philosophical and communal belief issues that are at once controversial and discernable. The release is wrong. It is an abuse of due process. Mallam Nasir el-Rufai was remanded in custody on the orders of the court of law. Many have questioned this, particularly as El-Rufai insisted that he has been a victim of political persecution. Except that the law is not governed by street sentiments or the emotions of those affected by it. Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution guarantees the freedom of movement, but no right under the Fundamental Human Rights provisions in Chapter IV of the same Constitution is absolute hence the caveat in section 41(2), a proviso that is further adumbrated in Sections 293 – 299 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.    Only a court of law can give orders as to remand proceedings. The ICPC has no powers to release Nasir el-Rufai on compassionate ground, or any other ground. The ICPC should have gone back to the Federal High Court that extended el-Rufai’s detention till March 31. The process is controlled by the courts to prevent a situation where any agency of government or individual can on its own overrule the courts of the land. It amounts to contempt, impunity and an overreach without a formal court application for such a variation. Nasir el-Rufai is obviously not the first detainee who would lose a loved one while in the custody of the state, and with a valid, subsisting order holding him. The ICPC in this case has clearly breached the doctrine of the equality of justice by overruling the Court. An ICPC spokesperson purportedly defended the agency’s action on the grounds that it is a sensitive matter: “Let us not talk about whether it is a court order or not. His mother died. It is very sensitive.”

So, who gave the order for his release? Who is that powerful figure who can so brazenly usurp the authority of the judiciary under Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution?  It is an untidy development that can lead to a loss of confidence in the supremacy of judicial decisions. The ICPC cannot possibly act on a whim. Mallam El-Rufai was initially arrested and detained by the EFCC based on a court order. He was re-arrested by the ICPC on February 18 following his release by the EFCC. The Federal High Court further remanded him in ICPC custody, after his arraignment on corruption charges on March 24. His motion for bail is scheduled for hearing on March 31, that is today. In the charges that were filed against him on March 18, the ICPC accused him of taking an inflated severance package of N289 million at the end of each of his two terms in office (totalling N579.7 million) instead of N40 million. He was slammed with ten charges under Section 18 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022. Neither the application for court bail nor the case has been determined. So, what happens today? Will the ICPC produce Nasir El-Rufai in court? Or will the Court adjourn the case on compassionate grounds?

The root of the confusion can be traced to antiquity and folk wisdom. As a student of thanatomimesis, one of the favourite texts in the literature that I know is Sophocles’ Antigone which deals with the subject of death, honour, duty, and state authority.  Antigone is an Athenian tragedy, written in the 5th Century by Sophocles. It tells the story of Antigone who insisted on the principle that the dead must be honoured, and that no one should speak ill of the dead. Antigone wanted a decent burial for her brother Polynices who had taken up arms against Thebes, and against his brother Eteocles who had refused to share power with him after the death of their father, Oedipus. Both died in the conflict. Their Uncle, Creon who assumed the throne after their death decreed that Eteocles should be buried with honour, while Polynices who started a civil war, and was considered a traitor by King Creon, should not be buried, left to rot away for the vultures to devour, and must not be mourned. Antigone defied the King. She buried her brother. She argued that divine law is superior to human law, and that the dead deserve honour, respect and duty. One of the lessons in Antigone is that power destroys when it goes too far. When power is wrongly used, it can make people appear mean and cruel. This is in line with traditional African philosophy that when people die, they should be mourned and buried properly. It is the same narrative in Hegel’s submission in the Phenomenology of Spirit that what we face herein is a confrontation between two values, the individual and the universal, but where there is such conflict, there can only be one resolution which instructively is mutual destruction, resulting in tragedy. Hegelian ethics, questioned by Nietzsche,  recognizes how death serves a fundamental role in human institutions and how a delicate balance between family and the state may resolve the threat of tragedy. Human laws collapse in the face of death, a reminder of the mortality of all men, and rationality. It is perhaps from this understanding that the Tinubu administration, having learnt of the death of Nasir el-Rufai’s mother, decided to let him return home, temporarily, to bury and honour his mother, knowing fully well that death is the only certainty from which no man will find rescue. Thus, the state submits to folk wisdom and avoids the kind of resolution in Sophocles’ Antigone. 

But if he were to be in the same situation, would Nasir El-Rufai do the same for another person? In 2021, he wrote on Twitter, as X was then known, that “We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes”. There is no evidence that it is the Nigerian state that killed Nasir el-Rufai ‘s mother, but as Africans, we understand how a mother seeing a crown child, which Mallam el-Rufai is to his mother, in distress is enough to translate into sudden aggravation and emotional death. Is he, el-Rufai, possessed of the same spirit of compassion that has been extended to him?  It is however instructive to see the Tinubu administration, despite the conflict between the APC and el-Rufai, extending a gesture of support and solidarity to him in his moment of grief.  If the order to release him came from President Tinubu, it shows that he, Tinubu believes like Antigone, and Hegelian ethics, that it is not always that the state can insist on its own rules, a major conflict in the contemporary interpretation of natural and state law, the argumentation of which is beyond the purview of our present commentary. In expressing his condolences, President Tinubu wrote: “Nasir, please accept my heartfelt condolences on the passing of your beloved mother, Hajiya Umma which happened today in Cairo. As someone who had also lost an old mother, I share in your grief. I understand the depth of your loss… Losing a mother is a pain unlike any other. I know that no words can fully ease your sorrow, but I pray that the memories of her love, wisdom, and guidance bring you comfort in the days ahead… I also hope you find strength in the remarkable life she lived and the values she instilled in the entire family…” Kind, well chosen words by the President.

But what I find curious is that most of those commiserating with Mallam Nasir El-Rufai are doing so for opportunistic reasons. His mother died. Suddenly he has become everybody’s friend.  Everyone showed up at his house, at the Janaza prayers at the Abuja Central Mosque and they followed the corpse to the Gudu cemetery in Apo, Abuja. Nasir El-Rufai is old enough to know those who came to shed crocodile tears, and simply want to be seen taking photographs at his mother’s burial. Some of his sworn adversaries even got to the Mosque before him! He has been in detention since February 18 – EFCC and ICPC: please how many members of the funeral party tried to reach out to him?  Nigerians are very quick to set up a mourning party but when fate throws you into the deep end, they will conveniently stay away. In one of the most hypocritical displays at Mama Ummar el-Rufai’s graveside, we saw former Minister Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy (2019 – 2023) trying to reconcile Mallam el-Rufai and his successor as Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani. Is that the appropriate place and occasion to act as mourner and mediator? Where has Pantami been all this while? His intervention at the cemetery is an ambush-like, opportunistic gesture, short of dismissing it as pure blackmail. Let him return to the obscure space from whence he has re-emerged. Let no one play cheap politics with the death of a noble mother.  Some of the more prominent mourners have even been tittle-tattling away from sight that why did Nasir El-Rufai have to take his mother for medical care in Cairo, Egypt. As Governor for eight years in Kaduna State, he could not build a health facility good enough for his mother and everyone else?

Nasir El-Rufai’s mother has departed to the great beyond in a Holy month for women: the month of celebration for women and also for mothers. Hers is a blessed womb, having given us Nasir el-Rufai who no matter anyone may think of him, remains one of the shining lights from contemporary Northern Nigeria in terms of intellect, presence, voice and courage. It is hard to agree with his politics or temperament, or sense of loyalty, but he cannot be ignored nonetheless, one of those vocal citizens who cross your path and leave an impression with their active involvement in the Nigerian project.  We join others in commiserating with him. Mother is gold. Mother is precious. Every Mother that dies, leaves a message. Every orphan must seek the meaning of that message and navigate this troubled world more carefully.  The suckle of a mother’s breast is the most personal, intimate, and original heritage that we all share.

That said, Nasir el-Rufai must return to the urgent task of responding to the ten charges before him in the courts of the land. It is not enough to push the beaten line that he is being persecuted by the Tinubu administration because of his loudly proclaimed opposition to it. He said he would do all that is possible to stop Tinubu in 2027, and yet the same Tinubu has been gracious enough to release him to go and bury his mother. He confessed that he had access to the National Security Adviser’s phone calls. The same NSA wrote a tribute to his mother and showed up to honour her. In the end, there is a subtle separation between that which is divine, natural, communal responsibility in law, and that which is statutory state law. His mother’s death cannot become an excuse for evading the law. The people of Kaduna state simply want to hear how their money was spent, how much el-Rufai collected as compensation for serving them for eight years, and whatever other questions may be raised by the prosecution. It is called transparency and accountability, and when any man is called to give account, that is beyond politics, even if there are persons who may argue that whatever El-Rufai benefitted means nothing under the “de minimis” rule. Nigerians do not accept that doctrine. Nobody is allowed to make away with any sum as a Governor and now turn around to say that “it is too small to matter”. The plight of the people and the future of the country matter.

• Abati is a journalist and columnist