I attended the launch of the controversial book, The Accidental Public Servant, written by a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre Abuja last Thursday. A close friend of mine bought me a copy which the author graciously autographed for me. I had listened to the author several times as the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises but I had not met him face-to-face until last week. I listened to most of the commentators at the book launch and was most fascinated by those by the Governor of Central Bank, Lamido Sanusi. He said, “There are many things that will surely be contained in the book but one that will not be there is that I share something with Nasir. Both of us are small in stature and that led to the fact that our mouths are the most developed parts of our bodies. Therefore, we are ever ready to fight with our mouths”.
I read about 75 per cent of the book all through the weekend and one thing I must say is that it is a brilliant piece of work. I congratulate the author both for the book and the conversations it will elicit which will enrich the governance landscape in Nigeria. I have always admired the fantastic work that el-Rufai did in the FCT while he held sway as minister. He comes across as a courageous and hard-working man. Those who hate or like his person or disagree with his style always acknowledge this. No one can take for granted the amount of effort that might have gone into writing such a voluminous book – no less coming from a quantity surveyor.
In the book, the author really made substantial efforts to portray himself as a nationalist who is exceptionally intelligent and who discharged his duties as a public servant with utmost integrity – such a move deserves my commendation. Many Nigerians have been freely commenting on the book even without reading it. Some have gone ahead to lambast him in the media while others have caught the dummy that he is desperately trying to sell to the public to begin to applaud him as an untainted reformer.
But if you critically read and analyse the book, you will discover that the book actually reveals the author as someone whose bloated picture of himself led him to several political blunders that he is now desperately trying to cover up. It presents him as a vindictive character, on a clear revenge mission, struggling to get political mileage by demonising his godfathers and benefactors. A “born again” political activist still gasping in the euphoria that he is the most qualified person to become a beneficiary of the palpable public indignation against bad governance whose foundation some of them contributed to. However, one will not dismiss the shocking details of the insider intrigues and manoeuvres in high places in public service and the lessons that come with it. Many people refer to el-Rufai as an accidental progressive and political opportunist. Is he really any of these? One can overlook his derision for his former boss Olusegun Obasanjo who was clearly his target for vengeance.
Obasanjo’s sin apparently was the fact that he did not anoint the former FCT Minister as his successor but that is by the way. How about his friends and colleagues in the economic reform team, namely, Nuhu Ribadu (whom he described as a typical policeman) , Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (whom he accused of having civil war hangovers) and Charles Soludo (whom he described as a Central Bank Governor often seen with expensive suits). I will draw a few points with an intention to simply contribute to the ongoing debate about the author and his motives at this time and allow you to make up your mind.
The third term misadventure is by all means unfortunate, despicable and reprehensible yet the author left his readers guessing about what could be his motive for making the subject the first chapter in his book. Could it be for a deliberate reason? It may be true that El-Rufai did not support the ill-fated project; however, one would have expected that if he hated it as much as he painted in his book, he could have resigned from Obasanjo’s government. Yet, he stayed on. The so-called “siddon look” approach was ostensibly due to his expectations and positioning to become the beneficiary of a possible failure of the project. Sadly, that did not happen and that is probably a bigger source of frustration to the author than the project itself.
Let us assume that what el-Rufai served the Nigerian public in his book is the full story of all that happened. Does it mean that he did not commit any error in his nine years in public service or is this a mere selective narrative? Was he such an infallible man in public service? Yet, he was able to chronicle and amplify the failure of others. How come someone who claimed to have dabble in something did it so perfectly? Did he deliberately choose to rob his readers the lessons that could be learnt from his mistakes, if any? For instance, how come with all his experience, he saw nothing wrong in presiding over the procurement process where Motorolla, a company he worked for and that is known to be associated with his elder brother Bashir, took part in? How else can you define conflict of interest? How about the alleged allocation of choice plots of land in the FCT to his friends and family members including his two-year-old child? Really! Who is he trying to fool? Nigerians?
The author emphasises the role of meritocracy, competence and track record in governance in producing competent leadership. The chronicle of his achievements and meteoric rise is unique and impressive yet it reveals him on a closer look, as a classical product of man-know-man. A product of the so-called big families united by marriage. Clearly from his own account, four factors were responsible for his entry and rapid growth in public service. The first was being an old boy of Barewa College. The second was being the younger brother of Bashir el-Rufai. The third is his network for Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The fourth is being an adopted son in-law to Dr. Hamza Zyyad.
The most interesting part of this book in my view is the conversation that held between Obasanjo and el-Rufai between pages 125 and 128 of the book. In those pages, the author himself narrated how the former President drew his attention to three of his problems bordering on cleverness. That short encounter gave me a very important insight that can flow from the wisdom of an old man. In all, el-Rufai unwittingly painted Obasanjo as a master political tactician with a wealth of experience. Never mind that he might have deployed his experiences for more selfish ends and less common good. My mother once had a similar conversation with me many years ago. She told me that there was a big difference between being brilliant and being clever!
In all, I have learnt so much from reading this book. I will read it over and over again. Everyone who wants to understand how Nigeria operates should read it. Every student of Nigerian politics and a future career aspirant in the Nigerian public service deserves a copy. Let the conversation continue.