El-Rufai and his airport crowd
Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai would have the gullible believe that everything that happened at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja was spontaneous. It was the impulse of
Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai would have the gullible believe that everything that happened at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja was spontaneous. It was the impulse of affection by people at the airport.
The man loves to flatter himself a lot, and wants the world to buy into that stagecraft of his. He said he arrived at the airport, a crowd of passengers insisted he would not be arrested, and the crowd grew on the tarmac and swelled as they chaperoned him to the immigration hall, and then through the checkpoint, and onto the beloved embrace of his waiting car. Haba Malam!
First, somebody needs to ask questions as to how a tarmac was populated by persons who would abandon their own business and follow a disembarking passenger.
Advertisement
300x250
Did anybody ask why even those people who accompanied him from the tarmac did not go through immigration checks if they were passengers? What happens when passengers arrive at international airports is that each person will wait in line for an immigration check. And that takes a while. Hence the queue. There was no such thing with the El-Rufai cheering crowd.
After that, they would also go through customs service after they have obtained their luggage. Is it not interesting that those who El-Rufai and his spokesperson identified as passengers had no luggage, and did not go through customs and immigration? They trundled past all checks into the country.
As for the former Kaduna State governor, he was a person of interest and the Directorate of State Services (DSS) confiscated his passport. What of the others? Were they above the law, even more privileged than their main man who, at least, reluctantly ‘lost’ his passport to the authorities? Was it not because they had no passports?
To expose the mockery of the accident of supporters, the crowd was unashamedly partisan. Some of them could not resist chants like, “we are welcoming our leader” and “this is democracy.” It was evidence that they were not passengers. None of them was hoisting or holding a travel document as passengers do.
Advertisement
300x250
El-Rufai had posted on X that he was going to be arrested on his arrival. So, he prepared, or so apparently did his followers.
Read Also: Nigeria to pioneer regional fishing vessel register in Gulf of Guinea – Oyetola
Now, some other questions. Why did the immigration officers not hold the crowd to account? There was no evidence of that.
What of the police force? We have not seen any evidence of the police force doing anything to condemn what happened. They were bystanders.
What of the officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)? What were they doing? Were they spectators of their own unravelling? Has the head of FAAN responded to this apparent act of shame?
It is very easy for anyone to say the officials have been suborned, and were in cahoots with the men of the former Kaduna State governor to undermine the sobriety of the law. We ought to be careful about matters like this.
It is the sort of incident that tells us of the implication of corruption for national security. When persons get through our major airports like the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport without the rigour of inspection, and it is passed off as a mere political act, we should worry.
