Gov El-Rufai Should Relocate To Southern Kaduna

The latest killings in the Southern parts of Kaduna State could not have been unexpected in a state where there is effective leadership. More than 40 residents were killed over two days of violence.

First, heavily armed gunmen stormed a wedding party in kukum-Daji community in Kaura LGA and opened fire on the guests, immediately killing 18 persons, according to reports, while over 30 were injured badly. The incident took place on Sunday.  Barely 24 hours after, gunmen again attacked several communities in the same local government killing 16 persons, including a policeman.

Around the same time, bandits also attacked Gora Gan village in Zango-Kataf LGA killing at least 11 persons. No one has been arrested and the identities of the gunmen remain unknown.

Now, if this were a state  on top of its affairs, there was no way the Government House would not have received some intelligence about the impending attacks, and indeed, all attacks that had happened in the past. It is obvious that the insecurity in Kaduna State is not one that would go away through military force or policing.

Apart from Borno State in the Northeast, there is no state in the country with the military and police presence we see in Kaduna State. Kaduna is also home to the Headquarters, 1 Division of the Nigeria Army. In 2017, a Forward Operation Base of 2 Battalion of  the Nigerian army was also established in Zango-Kataf, Kaduna, which was an addition to the Nigerian Army School of Artillery already in Kachia LGA, also in southern Kaduna.

A mobile police base was also established in Kafanchan, southern Kaduna, since 2016. Despite all the above-mentioned  military and police formations, the Inspector General of Police also regularly deploy police reinforcement to the state. Last week alone, over 500 policemen were sent to southern Kaduna to ensure there was no escalation of the violence.

All of these are evidence that the killings in southern Kaduna are not due to lack of security forces on ground, but are results of glaring failure of leadership. The problem in Kaduna is not that there is no security. The problem is that there are no leaders to help and inspire the people to embrace peace and forsake violence. Sadly, it is also what is now obvious at the national level.

Kaduna State urgently requires a leader who can connect with the people to make them believe all ethnic and religious groups in the state are highly valued resources for the development of the state. The people are in dire need of a leader who inspires trust, confidence and hope; a leader who feels what they feel and fears what they fear. A leader who can convince them they are safe with him, and around him.

Kaduna requires a leader who would work assiduously not only to make the state better but also make the people better. What is needed in Kaduna State is not more police or soldiers, but more leadership goodwill-a goodwill that disarms-that makes people surrender their anger and believe they’re in a new dawn.

It is obvious El-Rufai is not such a leader and has not pretended to be one.El-Rufai sees himself as someone given a job to do, and planned to deliver no matter the challenges. El-Rufai will build roads because he has to do it even if it leaves hundreds homeless. El-Rufai would install a project he believed is important even if all the state is opposed to it. He would cancel a programme if, in his estimation, it is a waste of public funds even if the livelihood of thousands are tied to it.

El-Rufai always likes to do what he thinks is the right thing, to prove the point that he can. But this ‘I can do it’ attitude sometimes manifests as arrogance and power drunkenness. He would do what he wants to do no matter what anyone feels.  And that is what puts people off about El-Rufai. And this is why he is not the right man to solve the Southern Kaduna problem.

Sadly again, President Muhammadu Buhari also suffers from an even more acute leadership deficit which has worsen the Kaduna imbroglio. He appears either not willing or incapable of solving the problem. While reacting to the recent violence,  he said the Southern Kaduna problem was complicated and explained that it was “an evil combination of politically-motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds.” But while he was right on the nature of the problem, his solution sucked.

After admitting that the violence was not due to lack of security, it urged residents not to take the laws into their hands, adding “what is required is for local authorities to radically improve their intelligence capabilities so that security agencies will be alerted in a timely manner to enable them forestall any planned attacks.”  The president sees the problem the same way El-Rufai sees it.   

El-Rufai had assessed the situation and came to his own conclusion about people of the area. He believes the people will never like him no matter what he does. In the eyes of many in the state, he had already taken side in the conflict by picking a fellow Muslim as deputy in a state where Christians constitute not less than 35 per cent of the population.  

There’s no doubt that El-Rufai is a cerebral governor who is adept at finding practical solutions to development issues. He is to me, a development expert who combines a keen ability for policy conception/dissection with an uncommon courage of execution. This is why El-Rufai has become a phenomenon in Nigeria.

But this is precisely why he is also a problem, and indeed, a burden for a state like Kaduna. People like El-Rufai are incapable of offering what I call empathic leadership; the type that puts itself in the shoes of the people they lead. If he is, I expect him to relocate the Government House temporarily to Southern Kaduna to address this problem from the root. Moving the seat of government to the area would convince the people that he is truly the father of all in the state.

– Tajudeen Suleiman, a journalist, writes from Lifecamp, Abuja.

Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.