What a sad day it is for us. Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has contributed immensely to the formation, promotion, development, and continuation of the APC at many levels and the progressive movement in general since he joined us in CPC in 2010. He chaired the CPC Renewal Committee, of which I was a member then. The committee recommended that there should be an alliance between the CPC and ACN at that time.
A proposal some of our leaders in CPC opposed, and the talks collapsed in early 2011. We went into elections separately and lost to Jonathan. GMB then said he wasn’t going to contest again.
In the lead-up to merger talks in 2013, Malam played a role again, and I remember PMB used to say all the time during the 2014/15 electioneering campaign that Malam el-Rufai was one of the few people that basically “forced” him to contest again after declaring he would “not contest again” in 2011. And PMB, in turn, coerced him as well to run for Kaduna State Governor and even, uncharacteristically, endorsed him before the primaries.
Malam, as Governor, made Kaduna an example the Progressive party was proud of. And in 2022, when we started having problems with the leadership of APC at the national level, of which I was a member, Malam and some of his colleagues rallied some of us within the leadership to ensure we had the much-demanded convention that ushered in a new leadership of the party headed by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu.
When the Adamu-led NWC wanted to toy with the idea of retaining the Presidency in the North after selling forms of 100m Naira each to more than 15 people, most of whom were from the South, Malam, with his colleagues, rallied again to ensure that civility, equity, equality, unity, and most importantly, progressivism prevailed. They openly backed the emergence of a candidate from the South.
When the CBN announced the cashless policy and wanted to withdraw what it termed “excess cash” from the system, an unpopular decision that many see as a direct attack on the candidacy of the APC at the time, Malam rallied, sued, and won against a policy of his own government.
The rest is now history.
I had hoped and prayed that it would not come to this. I had prayed that somehow the wisdom of our elders in the party and leaders would intercede early and perhaps prevail. But alas, it either didn’t happen or not enough was done.
I am not a happy man today.
For what it is worth, Malam, some of us are proud of your achievements and strides, even when we disagree with you sometimes.
All the best, sir. Until we meet on the field again. 😔.
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