Dear Senator Ojudu,
Your open letter to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, while rich in nostalgia and veiled condescension, is both surprising and disappointing in its intent and tone. It reads less like a sincere letter from a concerned friend and more like a thinly veiled attack. Some personal malice may have propelled the gusto which you shared a recent hatchet job against El-Rufai by one Haruna Haruspice, but I concede that it is your choice to treat your friends with malice and contempt, while those friends can also choose how they respond to supposedly “friendly fire”.
Permit me to respond directly to the inconsistencies, half-truths, and outright misrepresentations in your letter:
1. Misplaced Format and Intent of the Letter
It is rather curious that someone who claims to be a friend chose an open letter—designed for public consumption and mischief—rather than reaching out privately to seek clarifications or express concern. Such a public display betrays the pretence of friendship and exposes a desire to damage rather than build. Real friends know better than to launder grievances in the market square.
2. Falsehood About Nasir’s Anger Over Ribadu’s Placeholder Role
Your narrative suggesting that Nasir was angered by the selection of Nuhu Ribadu as the ACN presidential placeholder is patently false and mischievous. You know fully well that Mallam Nasir made it clear long before that period that he had no intention to contest for the presidency. He repeatedly informed his inner circle of friends and family of his decision not to run and, in fact, encouraged support for Nuhu Ribadu. If there was any anger, it was from this group who felt betrayed by Ribadu’s conduct—accepting to run behind the group’s back after initial collective agreements. Portraying this as El-Rufai’s personal anger is disingenuous and manipulative.
3. You know very well that you lied that El-Rufai defected to Goodluck Jonathan’s side. Having been invited into the CPC by Pastor Tunde Bakare, El-Rufai backed Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 elections. It is interesting that you dodged talking about whether the ACN, your party, actually backed its own 2011 presidential candidate up to election date.
4. Mallam Nasir’s Non-involvement in Your ACN Political Transactions
It is also important to correct your subtle insinuation that Mallam Nasir was part of your transactional politics during the ACN era. Mallam Nasir was never part of your political merchant activities or those desperate alignments you engaged in. He remained distant from the personal ambitions, betrayals, and frequent “transfer seasons” you described. If anything, Mallam Nasir’s political journey has been defined by convictions and, yes, strategic decisions—not the seasonal wheeling and dealing that characterized your own admissions.
5. On Allegations of Inconsistency – A Case of Hypocrisy
You accuse Mallam Nasir of inconsistency while admitting he is intelligent and strategic—a contradiction that exposes the hypocrisy of your arguments. Changing positions based on evolving realities, especially for the good of the nation, is a mark of a thinking patriot, not inconsistency. Your advertised brand of consistency — anchored in regional loyalty and self-interest—is precisely why Nigeria’s political class continues to fail. Progress requires adaptation, not rigidity.
Senator Ojudu, your political history does not suggest consistency. In 2003, you championed Ayo Fayose against Niyi Adebayo in Ekiti, then fell out with him. You were in Kayode Fayemi’s corner for the 2007 elections but you fell out with him. What is your role in sundering the relationship between Bola Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo? Perhaps, Femi Ojudu is the only correct guy in Nigerian politics, its most consistent exponent and unwavering source of political sagacity and profoundity.
6. Your Pretentious Moral Outrage Over Al-Mustapha
It is laughable that you pretend moral outrage over Mallam Nasir sitting at the same table with Major Al-Mustapha, yet you conveniently ignore that your principal and benefactor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, counts among his closest associates Gilbert Chagoury—Abacha’s known confidant and business ally. You are silent about that, perhaps because selective outrage suits your agenda. If Al-Mustapha represents blood-stained tyranny, what does Chagoury represent? President Buhari’s years of service heading the PTF under Abacha did not stop you from serving for two-terms in his government. This merely shows that you understand nuance and complexity much better than you make out with your selective outrage.
Conclusion
Senator Ojudu, your letter is less about Nigeria and more about yourself—your tribal sentiments, your lingering desire to cast Mallam Nasir into a mould of your design and your barely disguised malice. You accuse him of inconsistency because he refuses to be bound by the narrow ambitions of men like you, who mistake opportunism for loyalty.
It is a mighty contradiction to describe the APC as a so-called party, yet seek to tar someone who has left it as engaging in opportunism.
History will indeed judge—but it will judge you too.
Yours sincerely,
Mohammed Salihu
