•Nasir El-Rufai
Malam Nasir El-Rufai has come down hard on the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Kaduna State government under Senator Uba Sani.
El-Rufai took on his former allies while reacting to their responses to his recent television interview, reports Daily Trust.
In the interview, El-Rufai had alleged that the Kaduna State government and office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) were paying ransom to bandits while lying to the populace that they were on top of the war against insecurity.
While denying the allegations, both the state government and office of the NSA accused El-Rufai of the ‘Politicisation of National Security’.
But the former governor stood his ground, insisting that all he said in the interview were factual.
“As usual, the combined voices of the Government of Kaduna State (KDSG) and ONSA, instead of responding to the core issues I raised, seek to deflect responsibility by alleging that exposing them amounts to politicising security.”
“As a person whose three siblings served in the Nigerian Army and the Airforce, with one of them rising to the rank of General, I have and will continue to appreciate and honour the memory of our citizens in uniform who have made sacrifices for Nigeria. I will also continue to appreciate the immense work that continues to be done by gallant officers of the military and security agencies.
“It is a well-known fact to discerning Nigerians that the face of the politicisation of national security for politically intended purposes resides, for the first time in our recent history, in the ONSA under its present leadership. If the ONSA thinks Nigerians are not following its unclear and incompetent management of terrorism and banditry in Northern Nigeria and beyond, in collaboration with a certain Senator, also from the North, then it is high time it carried out an in-depth evaluation and review of its actions.
“We are not the first to reveal the government’s ongoing greasing of the palms of non-state actors in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Kebbi, and other states. No matter how incompetent in security matters he may be, the National Security Adviser cannot be oblivious of videos and audios of traditional rulers, community leaders and religious leaders condemning the payments made by the state to bandits. The attempt at denial falls flat as many citizens in the affected states have been following the counter-replies by community leaders and clerics on the issue of government paying bandits.
“We spoke the minds of distressed communities across Nigeria who are victims of banditry and terrorism, and who are watching with pain the way and manner the ONSA, which ought to be discreet and purely carry out intelligence coordination, is now deeply involved in lousy protocol and public relations duties along with politically inclined security management at the expense of the expertise of trained professionals.”
El-Rufai ended by saying, “Insecurity is the menace they ought to eliminate, not opposition voices and platforms. The repeated haranguing by the KDSG of some of its own officials and some security agencies for not disrupting visits and meetings in Kaduna by certain prominent persons is well-known. The thuggery unleashed against the ADC meeting of Saturday, 30 August 2025 shows that those harangued government officials and some officers of security agencies have succumbed to blandishments to sponsor and enable violence against those that legitimately oppose their government. Why is this not attracting the attention of the ONSA as a major security issue? Is it until it leads to anarchy due to total politicization of policing in the state?”
