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This submission is not a defence for Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. He doesn’t need one and he has repeatedly said that he doesn’t care what people say about him because his heart is white and his conscience is clear. It is God who judges people and God’s judgement is fair and perfect.

This piece is rather to expose the chameleonic nature of the self styled “living legend” Femi Fani-Kayode aka FFK who is indeed a living legend in the arts of hypocrisy, sycophancy, lies, double speak and people manipulation.

Like the Pharisees of old who used the religious system to stay rich while the common people struggled and who Jesus clashed with because their religious beliefs, political power, and focus on wealth ran directly against His teachings about God’s kingdom, FFK has perfected the art of using religion as a tool for manipulating people to stay politically relevant and as a meal ticket. What makes FFK worse than the Pharisees is his ability to blow hot or cold depending on where he thinks his bread may be buttered at any point in time.

A few days ago, while meeting with the Chairman of the Northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Rev. Joseph Hayab, and his entire Executive Council, FFK accused Mallam Nasir El-Rufai of persecuting Christians and marginalising Christian communities during his eight years in office as Governor – street talk that no one has been able to prove with any verified facts and evidence.

True to his manipulative and deceptive character, FFK claimed that his motive was not political. One wonders what business a Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa from Osun state had meeting with Northern Northern CAN members – doubling down on El-Rufai, Kaduna state, Southern Kaduna and Ubah Sani – other than dirty, nauseating and dangerous politics using religion.

FFK simply got on the El-Rufai-bashing bandwagon and chose the low hanging fruit which is Southern Kaduna and Southern Kaduna Christians – which is the current rave in Kaduna state politics – all in a bid to deceptively court Southern Kaduna Christian votes in line with the mantra, “all is fair in politics”.

Incidentally what many Southern Kaduna Christians, including those FFK met with might not know is that, over a decade and half ago and years before El-Rufai became Governor of Kaduna state, FFK had them in his ‘line of fire’.

On May 4, 2011, in another life of FFK, wearing one of his many faces, he penned an essay on his femifanikayode. org, titled “THE KILLINGS IN THE NORTH, THE FACTS AND THE SLIPPERY SLOPE”, in which he narrated how Southern Kaduna Christians killed “many Hausa-Fulani Muslims” during the 2011 post-election violence.

Below is FFK’s own account:

“That many Hausa-Fulani Muslims were also slaughtered in Southern Zaria, Kafanchan, Kagoro and other parts of Southern Kaduna by members of the northern Christian minority groups who reside there, who are mainly PDP supporters; and that the same group of northern Christians even targeted and killed many Igbo traders and burnt down the market in Kafanchan simply because they believed that such traders were CPC sympathisers.”

At the time, FFK broadly described the perpetrators of those killings as “deranged and satanised individuals.”

Today, however, another version of FFK sees the “deranged and satanised individuals” of Southern Kaduna Christian extraction as angels probably because a treacherous and ungrateful soul is allegedly paying his bills to demonise Nasir El-Rufai. It’s all about FFK’s meal ticket, isn’t it.

It gets even worse.

Like a true tale bearer and gossip who the Bible describes as “fools” (Proverbs 10:18) and warns people to stay away from (Proverbs 20:19), the smooth talking FFK went on, dropping names, including the name of a dead man Architect Bala Bantex, adding in classic gossips’ style, “there are so many things that he (Ubah Sani) told me, but I’ll just leave it at that” – of course knowing that his audience can neither verify anything he said from the dead Bala Bantex nor ask the Governor (who he said is his lifelong friend) for corroboration.

Interestingly FFK called El-Rufai a “monster” and accused him of seeking to undermine Christians and their faith while in office.

Here is where it gets truly nauseous and disgustingly interesting.

So, in August 2026, FFK shows up before some Southern Kaduna Christian leaders and calls Nasir El-Rufai a “monster”.

The same Nasir El-Rufai about whom the same Femi Fani-Kayode on the 8th of June 2023 wrote (unsolicited) on his verified twitter (now X account) handle @realFFK, and I quote:

“Yet sadly today, simply because he made some comments about the Muslim/Muslim ticket before a gathering of Muslim clerics in Kaduna State he is being demonised and labelled as a religious bigot, a terrorist, a fascist and an Islamist fanatic by mainly those who do not share his religious faith, who do not know him, who have never met him and who are in a different political party to him.

I know a religious bigot when I see one and I assure you that Nasir El Rufai is not one of them. Neither is he a muslim fundamentalist, a terrorist, a fascist or a jihadist.

If he were any of these things he would not be my friend and brother and I would be the first to openly oppose and condemn him.

If he were any of these things he would attract my contempt rather than have my respect.

We worked closely together when we were in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet many years ago and we worked closely together during the presidential campaign for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I know him very well indeed.”

FFK continued:

“He (El-Rufai) is a down to earth, practical, pragmatic politician who speaks his mind boldly, who is deeply calculating and courageous, who knows and understands the game of thrones and the art of acquiring and wielding power very well, who has no fear of his adversaries and who is determined to do whatever it takes to win. These are all virtues and no* vices.

The reason many denigrate him is basically out of envy and because he has proved over and over again that he is far smarter than them.

Yet love him or hate him I will tell you this: had it not been for him, Matawalle and the Northern Governor’s of the APC there would have been no power shift to the south, the Presidency would have remained in the North and Atiku, not Asiwaju, would be President today.”

He (FFK) Concluded:

“Those that insist on launching a crusade, igniting a religiious war and assuming the worse about El-Rufai today simply because of his comments about religion in the politics of Kaduna state would do well to consider all this as they continue in their asinine behaviour and insidious tomfoolery”.

Wow! Is God not wonderful and is FFK not truly a “legend”?

In August 2026, 3 years after FFK penned these about El-Rufai, and 3 years and 8 months after El-Rufai left office as Governor of Kaduna State, the same FFK tells some Southern Kaduna Christians and indeed Nigerians that El-Rufai is everything he said he wasn’t in 2023.

The same way he (FFK) courts Southern Kaduna Christians as angels and saints in 2026 and not the killers of Northern Muslims and “deranged and satanised individuals” he found them to be in 2011. Which testimony of FFK would one believe? Well, it’s not in my place to remind Southern Kaduna Christians that: “Wisdom is profitable to direct”. ~ Ecclesiastes 10:10

It bears asking, what face of FFK showed up before Southern Kaduna Christians a few days ago and which of his multiple faces would show up tomorrow when his allegiance and source of meal ticket change? You be the judge.

Now, you understand why I said this piece wasn’t in defense of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. Indeed, by the documented words and unforced testimony of many of his enemies, El-Rufai always gets vindicated. Like the words of FFK, like those of Ubah Sani.

Incidentally, while FFK might think he was hurting a man who he knows cannot defend himself presently because he is unjustly incarcerated, by his submissions – including saying that his Christian and Muslim friends alike, complained to him about El-Rufai (whether true or false), he actually vindicated what many honest observers know, which is that El-Rufai ran a borders-blind and equal-opportunity administration which favoured only what he believed was right for Kaduna state and Kaduna people at large, and not any particular religion, tribe or group of people.

The claim that El-Rufai singled out Christians or Southern Kaduna Christians for persecution is a lie from the pit of hell.

El-Rufai took courageous actions and deployed policies that affected Christians and Muslim alike and all parts of Kaduna and the positive results are evident for all to see. I won’t even bother adding that El-Rufai wasn’t perfect because neither myself nor Fani-Kayode is perfect.

Furthermore, insecurity in Kaduna state and Southern Kaduna, as attested to by FFK’s 2011 essay, predated El-Rufai as Governor, all parts of Kaduna State were victims and well villians in varying degrees, and verifable records show that El-Rufai did his level best to contain it sustainably.

It is therefore as tragic as it is ungodly that a deeply flawed and unstable character and hypochristian like Femi Fani-Kayode has elected to insert himself into the delicate mosaic of Kaduna state and Southern Kaduna, deploying religion for political gains.

Ubah Sani and Southern Kaduna Christians might think FFK is doing them a favour today, but what he is doing is irresponsibly deepening the divides in the state and setting them up for a hard fall. I can only wish them luck.

El-Rufai is no longer Governor of Kaduna State and will never be again. His records are there for posterity to judge. So, anyone bearing fabricated tales against him is only wasting his or her time. In the fullness of time, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai would be vindicated, as he already is, to the shame and disgrace of Femi Fani-Kayode and his ilks.

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. ~ John, Chapter 8, Verse 32.

Dr Uche Diala

Director General

El-Rufai Support Group Association (ERSGA)

Abuja (26th August 2026)