Nasir Ahmed El Rufai has addressed concern over the silence of some former colleagues, friends and family members, saying he will neither condemn their choices nor seek revenge for any injury done to him.
In a personal statement titled My Relationships and the Aftermath, the former Kaduna State governor said some people had expressed concern at the apparent quiet of those who had publicly stood by him or been closely associated with him in the past. His own view of that silence, he wrote, was simple.
Throughout his life he had tried to do what he could for colleagues and friends, for his family and for humanity at large. He said he had been guided by his Islamic faith, his Arewa upbringing, his personal values and, above all, his conscience.
Over the years he had stood by people and for causes he believed in, sometimes in difficult circumstances and at considerable personal cost. He had not done so in expectation of praise, gratitude or reciprocity, but because he believed it was right.
“Those were choices I made freely, and I remain answerable for them,” the statement said.
Those he had supported were now free to make their own choices, now that circumstances had been reversed. Some might speak. Others might remain silent. Others might deny the relationship or try to rewrite history. Their reasons, he said, were their own. He did not wish to judge them merely because their response differed from what others or even he might have expected.
Adversity, he wrote, has a way of illuminating relationships. What he had learned in recent months might lead him, quietly and without regret, to reconsider the nature of certain relationships and what those who look up to him should expect of them. That was neither reproach nor condemnation. It was simply part of seeing people, and life, more clearly.
Mr El Rufai said he had no regrets about standing by people or for causes when he believed it was right to do so. He bore no resentment towards anyone who chose not to do the same for him. He would rather remain true to the principles that have guided his own conduct than allow the conduct of others to redefine them.
As for any injustice, ingratitude or injury done to him, he said he sought neither revenge nor retribution. Ultimate accountability belongs to Almighty Allah, and he would leave that judgement to Him in this world and in the Hereafter.
“In the end, each of us must live with the choices we make, and posterity will render whatever verdict it sees fit,” he wrote. “My only concern is to remain at peace with my conscience and, above all, with Almighty Allah.”
Mr El Rufai governed Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023. He has been held by Nigeria’s corruption agencies since February and also faces a separate prosecution brought by the Department of State Services over alleged interception of telephone communications involving National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu. The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed 26 October to rule on a no case submission in that matter. In recent weeks several former associates have left his political camp and returned to the All Progressives Congress.
By John James
