When in 2014, Nasir El-Rufai, at the time a chief critic of the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, argued that everything should be done, including negotiation with Boko Haram to free the Chibok girls, he never knew that he would be confronted with the same situation someday.
Jonathan lost his re-election bid in 2015, with his inability to rescue the Chibok Girls as one of the major factors.
At the time, El-Rufai’s major argument against Jonathan was that if the abducted Chibok girls were from very powerful families, they would have been released through backchannel negotiation.
Now El-Rufai is Kaduna state governor, and his mentor, President Muhammadu Buhari the president. The same scenario that presented itself seven years ago, has happened under his watch. In the same month of April when the Chibok girls were abducted, students of the Greenfield University in Kaduna State have been kidnapped. Before the Greenfield University abduction, some set of students of the College of Forestry in the Afaka area of Kaduna State were also kidnapped. On these two occasions, El-Rufai has fiercely said he would not negotiate their release. May be because they didn’t come from powerful families, as he suggested when Jonathan also refused to negotiate the release of the Chibok girls.
In fact, he has been talking tough against the kidnappers in public media, saying that his government would not negotiate with the criminals. The kidnappers, on their part, appear to be responding in a way by killing the students as a way of forcing his hands and those of the parents to meet their demand.
Nigerians are now reminding El-Rufai of what he said to Jonathan when the same situation happened some years ago through a press interview he gave.
In the viral video, El-Rufai told newsmen that “I’m in support of every option,’’ when he was asked if the government should negotiate with the terrorists to secure the release of the girls.
“When the lives of citizens are at risk, you should not take any option off the table. You should be flexible, you should listen,” El-Rufai said.
But now that it is his turn to be flexible and not discountenance any option, he said: “We will not engage with bandits or kidnappers. Private citizens like clerics and clergymen can do so in their individual capacities to preach to them and ask them to repent. We also want them to repent but it is not our job to ask them to do so,’’ the governor said.
Many Nigerians asked how the governor forgot what he said in the past.
Others said the governor should hide his face in shame for doing the opposite of what he said.