By Enyeribe Anyanwu
“The evil that men do lives after them” is a famous quote from Julius Caesar, one of the political plays of legendary playwright, William Shakespeare. In the play, Anthony, Caesar’s friend, is ironically vilifying Brutus and his fellow conspirators for murdering Caesar, but to the conspirators Mark Anthony is referring to Caesar whose murder they had tried to justify before Roman citizens.
In the view of a literary critic, “the evil that men do lives after them” is a true statement because the evil of people’s actions lives on in the consequence of those choices and deeds long after the person is gone. In other words, the effects of people’s poor choices and wicked actions resound for days, months, and years as those left behind deal with the consequences of the evil committed.
True as this statement is, it has been modified further to accommodate the present. It is no longer the people the evil doer lives behind that deal with the aftermath, but the evil doer himself also lives to face the consequences of his evil deeds. Hence in this modern time, one can hear: “the evil that men do lives with them.” This modification aptly fits Nasir El-Rufai, the present governor of Kaduna State, as he grapples with the outrage that has continued to trail the unrelenting attacks and abductions of Nigerian citizens in Kaduna State vis-a-vis his stance not negotiate with bandits.
In the last few weeks, bandits have been on the rampage in Kaduna State, abducting students of tertiary institutions. The most recent of these abductions is the mass abduction of students of Greenfield University out of which five of them have been killed, and the bandits threatening to kill all if their demand is not met. The students were killed because the governor has vehemently refused to negotiate and even threatened to prosecute anyone that negotiates with the bandits. To him, the only answer to the bandits is total annihilation. While insisting he would never negotiate with bandits or terrorists, El-Rufai has continued to talk tough against the bandits. This is regardless of the fact that he has no means of exterminating them neither does he control the apparatus that should be used in accomplishing the task. This, he has voiced this several times.
On its face value, El-Rufai’s stance or argument makes sense, especially his insistence that payment of ransoms to bandits cannot stop banditry. Instead it will further empower them and equip them to commit more atrocities. Payment of ransom, he insists, amounts to rewarding the criminals for their heinous crimes against the state and humanity. This is a sound argument to which many people subscribe.
Unfortunately, as things stand, El-Rufai and his government have no alternative, especially as human lives are at stake. Nemesis appears to have caught up with him because of his caustic words for former President Jonathan. He is now face to face with the famous statement by Shakespeare quoted above.
In 2014, in the wake of the abduction of the Chibok girls, many of whom are still in Boko Haram captivity, Nasir El-Rufai was very harsh on President Goodluck Jonathan whom he accused of negligence and apathy over the abduction. El-Rufai had vehemently and arrogantly urged Jonathan to negotiate with the terrorists to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
“Whatever it takes to rescue those girls should be done. If one of these girls was Jonathan’s daughter the story will be different, the only reason these girls are still in captivity is because they are not the daughter of any important man in Nigeria and we know it,”El-Rufai had bellowed.
He went further: “I am in support of any option, you have lives of your citizens at risk, you should not take any option off your table, you should be flexible, you should listen, you should negotiate and look the price you have to pay and get the girls out, you should not say you won’t do this, you won’t do that, it’s irresponsible.”
Six years after this outburst and insult on the sitting President, fate has brought El-Rufai face to face with Jonathan’s dilemma. The choice he was pushing Jonathan to make is what is facing him now and he has refused to budge. And no one has told him that it is irresponsible to take any option off his table; that he should be flexible, that he should listen and negotiate since the lives of his citizens are at stake?
It’s so sad that not even the killing of five of the abducted students, the future leaders of the nation can move El-Rufai to reconsider his position. Instead he has continued to infuriate the bandits, telling them that what they deserve is death and not the N800million they are asking for, when all he can do is talk and hold meetings.
El-Rufai’s reaction to the video making the rounds in the social media where he was making the call on former President Jonathan to negotiate with Boko Haram terrorists is worthy of mention. His reaction to commentators on the video who have condemned his past and present action is a measure of what has become the hallmark of the present administration in the country, that is, diversion of issues. According to his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Muyiwa Adekeye, El-Rufai’s invectives and advice to Jonathan was based on what he termed Jonathan’s “initial refusal to acknowledge” the abduction of the Chibok girls, which he said Nigerians appear to have forgotten.
But while diverting attention and trying to whip up sentiments against Jonathan, he could not deny that it is still citizens’ lives that are at stake, and that no option should be taken off the table to secure the lives of the abducted students. However, like his compatriot, Pantami, El-Rufai is telling the nation and the entire world that time has changed his opinion and stance on preserving human lives and pampering and rewarding terrorists and bandits.
But, however, Nasir El-Rufai tries to justify his stance of annihilating the bandits who are holding and killing his citizens as against securing the lives of the citizens first, he cannot get away with the judgment of history, and the stark reality that the evil that men do lives after them.