Nasir El-Rufai’s Audacity: Who Even Does That?

By Eshiorameh Sebastian

There is an old Hausa saying that warns: “When the liar runs out of lies, he starts believing his own stories.” Watching Nasir El-Rufai’s recent attempts to rewrite the history of his Kaduna governorship brings this proverb to life with painful clarity. The man who once presented himself as Nigeria’s most cerebral governor has been reduced to claiming credit for projects he neither completed nor equipped – a pathetic act of a political fugitive trying to remain relevant by any means necessary.

The facts, stubborn things that they are, tell a different story from El-Rufai’s revisionist fantasy. Take the three vocational institutes now producing skilled workers across Kaduna. When El-Rufai left office, these were either half-built shells or existed only in blueprint form. Today, they are fully operational centers certified by the National Board for Technical Education as the best-equipped in Nigeria. The Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa Institute in Rigachikun, a functioning hub training thousands. The Col. Dangiwa Umar Institute in Soba, fully equipped with modern workshops. The Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa Institute in Samaru Kataf, operational and graduating skilled artisans. All completed, furnished and made functional under Uba Sani’s administration. Yet El-Rufai now claims these as his achievements with the straight face of a man who’sl convinced himself of his own fiction.

Then there is the curious case of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Specialist Hospital – a project that perfectly encapsulates El-Rufai’s governance approach: strong on optics, weak on delivery. When Governor Uba Sani assumed office, this supposed “hospital” was an empty concrete shell – 53% completed according to handover notes, with zero medical equipment installed. No beds. No diagnostic machines. No staff. Just walls and roofing. Fast forward to today, and it is a fully functional tertiary health facility with modern equipment, specialist wings and actual patients receiving treatment. The transformation happened under Uba Sani’s watch, with funding and execution entirely by his administration. Yet El-Rufai, like a man pointing at a fully grown tree and claiming he planted it yesterday, wants this recorded as his legacy. Who does that?

But the most laughable claim is his sudden interest in the CNG buses – vehicles procured specifically to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal. Here is the inconvenient truth: these buses were purchased, delivered and deployed entirely under Uba Sani’s administration. The procurement documents are dated 2023. The manufacturers’ delivery notes show 2024. The subsidy removal policy itself came into effect after El-Rufai left office. Yet he wants Nigerians to believe he somehow anticipated and planned for these buses during his tenure? This is not just revisionism – it’s outright fabrication, the political equivalent of a student copying someone else’s homework and then claiming they taught the class.

The galling part of this historical airbrushing is the stark contrast between El-Rufai’s claims and the actual inheritance he left for Kaduna State. The financial records speak for themselves: $587 million in external debt (the highest of any Nigerian state at the time), N85 billion in domestic liabilities, and N115 billion in unpaid contractor bills – many for projects that were reportedly paid for but never completed. The civil service he left behind was demoralised by arbitrary sackings and policy reversals. Communities were more divided along ethnic and religious lines than when he took office. This is the real El-Rufai legacy – one of financial recklessness and social fragmentation that Governor Uba Sani has spent his first year trying to repair.

The psychology behind El-Rufai’s current behavior is not hard to decipher. For eight years, he cultivated an image as Nigeria’s most effective governor, a perception carefully nurtured by a pliant media and sycophantic aides who never challenged his narratives. Now, watching Uba Sani achieve tangible results without fanfare or self-aggrandizement, the cognitive dissonance must be unbearable. How could this “quiet man” be succeeding where the “lion of Kaduna” failed? The vocational institutes are actually training people. The hospital is treating patients. The buses are moving commuters. All without the usual El-Rufai drama and media blitz.

This explains the increasingly desperate attempts to claim credit where none is due. His recent interviews and tweets reveal a man struggling with two uncomfortable truths: that his much vaunted legacy is thinner than he claimed, and that his successor is quietly achieving what he couldn’t – genuine development without the accompanying divisiveness.

The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife. This is the same El-Rufai who once positioned himself as the ultimate party loyalist – first to Obasanjo, then to Buhari. Now he dismisses the APC as a party he “no longer recognizes” and describes President Tinubu’s government in terms one might reserve for a military junta. The transformation from insider to iconoclast would be fascinating were it not so transparently self-serving. His claim that Uba Sani’s support for the president is “transactional” is particularly rich coming from a man whose entire political career has been a good example of realpolitik.

At its core, this isn’t really about projects or legacy. It’s about a fundamental character flaw that has defined El-Rufai’s career – an inability to share credit or admit limitations. The same trait that made him bulldoze through opponents as governor now prevents him from gracefully acknowledging his successor’s achievements. Where a statesman would offer quiet support or constructive criticism, El-Rufai chooses petulance and false claims.

Kaduna is moving forward. No amount of revisionism can change the simple fact that these happened after El-Rufai left office, under an administration that prioritized substance over showmanship.

As the Hausa saying goes: “You can’t hide a pregnancy by wearing a big gown.” The truth of Uba Sani’s achievements is too visible, too tangible to be erased by El-Rufai’s attempt to fabricate history by every means.