EL- RUFAI MEETS HIS POLITICAL WATERLOO? These are indeed not the best of times for Mal Nasiru el Rufai, the loquacious and cantankerous former governor of Kaduna state. The highly controversial Mallam has been in the news lately for the very wrong reasons. He was accused to have misappropriated the sum of 423 billion Naira belonging to the Kaduna state government. The Governor of the state, Sen Uba Sani was the first to blow the whistle, he openly lamented that he couldn’t pay workers salary because of the heavy debt profile of the state. He accused his immediate predecessor of misappropriation of the common wealth of the state. The Kaduna state House of Assembly immediately constituted an ad hoc committee which investigated the Mal Nasiru el Rufai administration and found the Governor and some key officials of the administration wanting. The House has since submitted it’s finding to the EFCC and the EFCC is presently looking at the report and has said the report is damning enough to warrant prosecution. Mal Nasiru el Rufai, the self acclaimed accidental public servant was brought into the public sector by Alh Atiku Abubakar who recommended him to Chief Obasanjo due to his cerebral content and competence to handle the privatization of the Obasanjo’s government. He also recommended him as Minister of the FCT to his boss when Obasanjo said he was looking for a “mad” person to handle the FCT. Mal Nasiru el Rufai proved his mettle both as DG BPE and Minister of the FCT such that Obasanjo who is no less intelligent and smart acknowledged Mal Nasiru el Rufai in his Book MY WATCH “He is brilliant and smart i grant him that, i appreciate his talents and brilliance. I also acknowledge his weakness, the worse his inability to be loyal to anyone or any issue for long, but only to Nasiru el Rufai. He barefacedly lied which he did to me and against his colleagues and so called friends” Chief Obasanjo’s assessment of Mal Nasiru el Rufai couldn’t have been more apt as El Rufai true to type soon betrayed Atiku and pitched his political tent with Obasanjo, he latter betrayed Obasanjo and pitched his tent with Buhari, he betrayed Buhari and pitched his tent with Tinubu during the highly tensed electioneering mode of last year. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not in any doubt a less smart and astute politician than Mal Nasiru el Rufai if anything he seems to be proving to Mallam that he is more politically sagacious than him. President Tinubu sent the name of el Rufai to the Senate for a ministerial appointment, but the Senate refused to confirm him. Not a few political analysts believed that the voice was that of Jacob, but the hand was that of Esau. The smart el Rufai could see through the smoke screen of the Senate confirmation and strongly believed that the voice and hand were indeed that of Jacob and not that of Esau. In his characteristics cantankerous attitude has been spoiling for a fight with the Tinubu’s administration. He was the first APC leader to openly accuse the Tinubu’s administration of paying subsidy to the tune of trillion of Naira. He latter started hobnobbing with opposition leaders, he visited the SDP chairman and was said to be planning an alliance with Peter Obi to wrestle power from Tinubu in 2027. President Tinubu being a very astute and pragmatic politician has strategically position political land mines on the path of Mallam to do him in politically. The EFCC is a very veritable tool in the hand of Tinubu and Mal Nasiru el Rufa is not unaware. Mal Nasiru el Rufai once boasted that “I have fought two president. Yar’adua ended up in the grave while Jonathan was defeated and ended up in Otoke. With the present political battle between Mal Nasiru el Rufai and Tinubu who blinks first? FRANCIS GBENGA SILAS