Haj Halima Idris

FEEDBACK FROM YESTERDAY When Someone's Brain Is Functioning Optimally, You Easily Know. 👇 "Hajara Usman's analysis is both incisive and timely. I align fully with her submission regarding Mallam Nasir @elrufai. The discourse around leadership in Nigeria often suffers from selective memory and emotional bias. Yet, as Hajara rightly notes, objective assessment demands that we separate personality from performance, and perception from policy outcomes. El-Rufai’s tenure in Kaduna was never defined by neutrality or placation. It was defined by decision. And in a polity where indecision has become the default, that alone merits scrutiny, not vilification. His attributes, vision, intellectual rigor, eloquence, and political courage are rare commodities in our democratic space. The “murky waters of politics” she references are indeed navigated not by popularity, but by leaders willing to confront entrenched interests. El-Rufai’s willingness to implement the Luther Agwai report and compensate aggrieved Fulani families was not an endorsement of crime, but a recognition that sustainable peace requires addressing grievances on all sides. That is the calculus of statesmanship: uncomfortable, unpopular, but necessary. On the Gonin-Gora and Kaduna-Abuja expressway crises, her account underscores a painful truth: leaders must choose between appeasing vocal constituencies and protecting silent victims. El-Rufai chose the latter. The warning to Gonin-Gora elders was not rhetoric. It was deterrence. And deterrence, when applied consistently, restores order where appeasement only emboldens criminality. That is why the axis recorded relative calm afterward. Similarly, his handling of the IMN/El-Zakzaky standoff was rooted in a principle that Nigeria ignores at its peril: no individual, sect, or group can be allowed to exist as a parallel state. When Gelesu became a no-go area and federal officials were obstructed, the issue transcended religion. It became a question of sovereignty. El-Rufai’s insistence on due process through the courts, rather than extrajudicial excess, was precisely what the rule of law demands. To condemn him for that is to endorse impunity. Beyond these flashpoints, El-Rufai’s broader legacy in Kaduna, education reform, fiscal restructuring, urban renewal, and the aggressive pursuit of Internally Generated Revenue reflects the kind of transformational leadership we claim to desire but rarely tolerate. Reform is disruptive. It creates enemies. But nations are not built by leaders who avoid making enemies. They are built by leaders who make the right ones. Hajara’s final point is the most critical: until we identify the true “sacred cows” holding Nigeria captive, ethnic militias, sectarian warlords, corrupt political dynasties, we will keep cycling through mediocrity. We need more leaders with El-Rufai’s surgical boldness, not fewer. Nigeria does not need more consensus. It needs more courage. May her voice remain undeterred. Kaduna, and indeed Nigeria, needs more such intellectual honesty." ©️ El-Masjid Abdul Umar Via Uche Diala's Wall #EyesOnTheBall