The peril in el-Rufai’s dirty politics of insecurity

BY IBRAHIM ABDULSALAM

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s recent attempt to drag Kaduna State back into the dark alleyways of fear, distrust and political cynicism is as reckless as it is revealing. It exposes a man trapped in the web of his own alternative facts, a former governor so unable to reconcile himself to the peace and progress his successor has achieved that he now seeks to poison the well from which the people of Kaduna finally drink clean, life-giving water. It is important, for truth and for the future of Kaduna State, to expose the dangerousness of this moment. For in El-Rufai’s latest outburst lies not merely the bitterness of one man, but the seeds of a perilous campaign to weaponize insecurity in pursuit of political revenge.

His most brazen allegation, that Governor Uba Sani’s administration has been “paying bandits” and “apologising” to them, is not merely false; it is maliciously designed to rupture the newfound stability Kaduna has enjoyed under Governor Uba Sani. This claim, delivered with trademark confidence but zero evidence, is vintage El-Rufai: a deliberate distortion intended to stir suspicion, ignite conflict, and tar the achievements of a successor whose calm competence stands in embarrassing contrast to the chaos he inherited. In one breath, El-Rufai sought to delegitimise a government that has painstakingly restored hope across the State; in another, he attempted to undermine the credibility of Nigeria’s security architecture, from the office of the National Security Adviser to the Presidency itself. But the facts, real facts, stubbornly resist his revisionism.

The Kaduna that Senator Uba Sani inherited on May 29, 2023 was a broken, bleeding State. Communities were traumatized by incessant attacks; farmers had abandoned their fields; women and children moved in fear; and entire local government areas were reduced to ghostly shadows of their former selves. This was the Kaduna of tears, tatters and despair; the Kaduna that El-Rufai left prostrate. No amount of self-mythologising can erase that record. Yet, in barely two and a half years, Governor Uba Sani has accomplished what eluded his predecessor for eight long years: he stabilised the State, rebuilt trust, restored dialogue, rekindled social cohesion and constructed a functional architecture for lasting peace.

And he did it without paying bandits. He did it without covert deals, without appeasement, without trading the dignity of the State for fragile calm. He did it through what is now widely known and studied as the Kaduna Peace Model, a holistic, multi-layered framework grounded in inclusion, justice, citizen participation, intelligence-driven security operations, and community-level reconciliation. As Governor Uba Sani has consistently articulated, peace is not decreed; peace is engineered. It emerges when communities feel seen, when development is equitably distributed, and when governance is moral, accountable and participatory.

The Kaduna Peace Model was never the product of parochial instincts or narcissistic posturing. It is the result of method, humility, data-driven decision-making and strategic collaboration across political, religious, ethnic and institutional lines. Under Governor Uba Sani, security institutions did not work at cross-purposes or suffer from gubernatorial micromanagement; instead, they found a partner who listened, coordinated and reinforced their operations with technology, intelligence and community support systems. The result is that farmers who once fled their lands now work them with confidence; markets that once shuttered now teem with activity; and rural communities that once cowered under the weight of fear now sing again with the hum of daily life.

Yet for El-Rufai, this progress represents not a source of collective joy but a personal insult. A more secure Kaduna leaves him with no convenient villains to hide his own failures. A more united Kaduna exposes the divisions that flourished under his temperamental politics. And a more prosperous Kaduna, rebuilt brick by brick under Uba Sani’s steady hand, renders hollow his narrative that he alone possessed the administrative genius to lead the State. Thus, he reaches for his standard arsenal; deception, impressionistic storytelling, and the theatrics of victimhood, to sow doubts in the minds of citizens.

But Kaduna people know better. They have seen the transformation with their own eyes. They have watched Governor Uba Sani expand access to primary healthcare; rehabilitate schools; strengthen maternal and child health systems; upgrade secondary health facilities; and recommit the State to education as the foundation of long-term peace and prosperity. They have watched the government equitably deploy infrastructure across all 23 local governments: roads, bridges, markets, electrification projects, water systems and urban regeneration initiatives designed not to reward cronies but to knit the State together. They have witnessed the expansion of social inclusion programmes for women, youths, persons with disabilities and historically marginalized communities.

But perhaps the most striking evidence of Governor Uba Sani’s purposeful leadership is Kaduna’s extraordinary agricultural renaissance. With the restoration of security as the fulcrum, the State has transformed into Nigeria’s agricultural and food hub, a development that even the fiercest cynic cannot ignore. From 2023 to 2025, Kaduna’s agricultural budget soared from a modest ₦1.48 billion to an unprecedented ₦74.02 billion, a nearly 5,000% increase that surpasses continental benchmarks and reflects a profound shift in priorities from stagnation to abundance. Mechanisation programmes have distributed hundreds of tractors, 500 power tillers, 10,000 irrigation pumps and more than 900 truckloads of fertilizer to smallholder farmers. Irrigation schemes such as Kangimi and Mashigin Kaya are being revived. Thousands of farmers have returned to their fields. Hundreds of thousands are enrolled under agricultural insurance schemes that protect them from climate and market shocks. And rural connectivity projects under RAAMP are linking producers to markets, reducing post-harvest losses and stimulating rural prosperity.

International partners have taken notice. The African Development Bank is collaborating with Kaduna on a Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone that positions the State as a national hub for processing, logistics and agro-innovation. China selected Kaduna as one of six sites for the Nigeria-China Poultry Project, and the pilot site, expected to generate $450 million annually, create 50,000 direct jobs, cultivate 10,000 hectares of maize and soybean, and produce over one million eggs daily. A $122 million partnership with StarAgri is constructing 3 million metric tonnes of modern storage capacity. And UNICEF has singled out Kaduna as the first State in Nigeria to fully implement Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food distribution, underscoring a governance culture that places vulnerable children at the centre of State policy.

This is what bothers El-Rufai. Not any alleged “payments to bandits” , a fiction he concocted with characteristic bravado, but the glaring fact that his successor has achieved what he could not. And rather than confront that truth with humility, he turns, as he has done repeatedly in his political career, to disruption, disinformation and sabotage.

It is a pattern Nigerians know too well. When he failed to secure a super ministry under the Yar’Adua administration, he turned on the government with ferocity. When he was not handed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation position under President Bola Tinubu, he adopted the rhetoric of withdrawal: “I want nothing,” “I am burnt out,” “I am going back to school”; even as he lobbied vigorously through proxies for the Ministry of Power. His subsequent outrage when adverse security reports emerged during Senate screenings has nothing to do with principle and everything to do with entitlement. It is not surprising, therefore, that he now casts stones at the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and targets Governor Uba Sani with venom. He wrongly imagines himself the victim of vast conspiracies, when in reality he is a victim only of his own inflated sense of indispensability.

Kaduna State cannot afford this regression. Nigeria cannot afford it. The politicization of security is not merely irresponsible; it is dangerous. Lives are at stake, communities are vulnerable, and the coordinated efforts of security agencies deserve support, not sabotage. For a former governor, one whose own stewardship saw some of the darkest chapters of Kaduna’s insecurity, to now undermine the delicate balance of peace for personal vendetta is an act that borders on subversion. Our security agencies must therefore call El-Rufai to order. No individual, no matter how loud, is above the law, above public safety, or above the collective right of citizens to live without fear.

Governor Uba Sani has given Kaduna a new story; one grounded not in theatrics or aggression, but in healing, inclusion, innovation and accountability. He has shown that peace is possible without appeasement, that unity can be nurtured without intimidation, and that development can flourish when the government treats every community with respect. Kaduna today is more peaceful, more prosperous and more hopeful than the Kaduna he inherited. This transformation belongs to the people: the farmers who returned to their fields, the children who returned to school, the traders who reopened their shops, and the rural communities that rediscovered their dignity.

What Kaduna must reject, with clarity and conviction, is the cynical attempt by one bitter man to drag the State back into chaos for personal relevance. The future must not be held hostage by the past. The progress of millions cannot be imperilled by the grievances of one.

In the end, truth will prevail over alternative facts. Peace will triumph over bitterness. And Kaduna, under the steady and visionary leadership of Governor Uba Sani, will continue to march forward; united, secure, and determined never to return to the tragic conditions from which it has emerged.

Abdulsalam, a Political Scientist and Social Commentator resides in Zaria and can be reached at: [email protected]