Reviewing Nasir el-Rufai’s book: The accidental trouble maker…

by Joachim MacEbong

This is because we have no strong institutions, and strong leaders must build these institutions and entrench a culture of excellence which will continue after they are gone.

In part, ‘The Accidental Public Servant’ is a story about bullies. Sunday, a boy in Barewa College, his alma mater, would be the first to find out it was unwise to attempt to bully Nasir El-Rufai, and it was a sign of things to come. There would be others. The company he worked for while on national service, Abdul, a hustler with a diplomatic passport, three Nigerian presidents, one former vice president (with a presidential ambition which remains to this day) and other countless government officials all found him impossible to intimidate or compromise.
The book is also about networks. A young Nasir wanted to go to Government College, Kaduna, but ended up at Barewa College, and later Ahmadu Bello University. Every significant event in his private and public life linked back in one way or another to his time in both institutions. His lifelong friendships, his first marriage, his business partners, and especially his entrance into public service was a direct result of his networks. We are often told that who you know is as important as what you know, and this fact is brought into stark focus throughout.
Networks were also key once in government. When he met Oby Ezekwesili, a woman he described as ‘one of the most honest people I know’, his partnership with her, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nuhu Ribadu, and for a time, Chukwuma Soludo resulted in a closely knit group of reformers in government. Okonjo-Iweala and Ekwesili were instrumental in getting him retained by Obasanjo after a time spent reorganising the Bureau for Public Enterprises, after making more than a few enemies, which nearly blocked his confirmation as minister.
The frankness and detail in the book is unnerving, for want of a better word. It gives the impression of a man who held back precious little, honest about the tensions in Obasanjo’s economic team which eventually proved too much, and caused him great distress. He was also honest about the constant tensions between himself and Obasanjo on one hand, and Atiku in the other hand, reproducing conversations in detail. He was also honest about his role in frustrating the Third Term Agenda, stating clearly stating his thought process.
El-Rufai’s time as Minister of the FCT is something he remains very proud of, and will always be. It is clear he sees himself as the one who saved the Abuja master plan from going the way of Lagos. In fact, that was precisely the reason Obasanjo asked him to turn the Federal Capital Territory into a laboratory of sorts, quoting the former president as saying that Lagos does not work and will never work. It was in trying to get Abuja back on track that he came face-to-face with having to offend even more people, even bringing down a building belonging to the Federal Ministry of Works, which violated the masterplan, one of about 900. He reorganised Wuse market, banned commercial motorcycles and improved the land allocation system, reducing land prices in the process. His time in the FCT is described over 6 chapters, and one realises that a similar scale of reforms in a city like Lagos over such a short period will come at a cost too high for any regular politician to pay. One of his regrets, however, is a lack of investment in satellite towns, and he also wishes he started building a metro.
There is quite a lot more in the book. It must be stressed again that the honesty is likely to be disturbing, a sign of a man completely at peace with all his key decisions and their costs, providing clear reasons behind each one. Nasir El-Rufai understands that he will always be a divisive figure, and makes no apologies for this. He does lament the lack of time he had for his family as a result of public office, including his disdain for party politics which he now views as a mistake, having witnessed first hand the disastrous turn things took from 2006.
During his exile, he had a lot of time to think about the lessons of the Obasanjo years, coming to terms with his former principal’s duality, a theory of second comings, and the vacuum which comes with an exit from government. In a book full of advice for future public servants, he says that living within his means at all times was crucial.
El-Rufai also elaborated on the moves to form a united opposition to the ruling party in the 2011 elections, one which eventually did not materialise, as key figures either lost interest or pursued their own personal ambition. The release of this book, coming at the same time that existing opposition parties finally announced a merger, it remains to be seen whether any lessons have been learnt.
He concludes the book with a strong belief that Nigeria has reached the point where it is better to the painful and right thing, than to be liked when in a position of responsibility. This is because we have no strong institutions, and strong leaders must build these institutions and entrench a culture of excellence which will continue after they are gone. There is no doubt that he believes Obasanjo’s handling of the 2007 succession hurt his legacy – and Nigeria – greatly, but there is also no doubt that El-Rufai himself thinks he could have done more.
In the end, that is his charge to everyone. That we can and must do more. Indifference to politics, leaving the space open to those who do not want the best for Nigeria, is no longer an option. All his life, he has stood up to bullies, charlatans and criminals, heeding only his conscience along the way, and asks us to do the same. By no other means shall Nigeria be saved.
YNaija.com