By Sa’adiyyah Adebisi Hassan
Former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai is at it again weaponizing religion, inflaming northern emotions, and inventing conspiracies just because he is no longer the one sitting close to the corridors of power.
He shared Bello Doka’s article alleging that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is “waging a quiet war against the Muslim North.” Coming from a man whose politics has been built on religious division, the propaganda is painfully predictable.
But let us tell ourselves the truth:
Politics of religion is dead. Competence has taken center stage. The North will not be dragged backwards by one man’s bitterness.
El-Rufai’s Problem Is Not the North His problem is that Tinubu is not using him
This sudden defence of “Muslim North” did not exist during Buhari’s government. Where was this righteous energy when Buhari filled every important office with northern Muslims?
Chief of Army Staff – Muslim, North
Chief of Air Staff – Muslim, North
Defense Minister – Muslim, North
What happened?
Banditry exploded
Kaduna burned
Zamfara collapsed
Katsina was bleeding
Farms became graveyards
Schools were turned to kidnap markets
So let’s ask El-Rufai:
If Muslim appointments automatically bring security, why did your own Kaduna become the epicenter of killings under a Muslim – Muslim government?
The hypocrisy is loud
When Buhari filled Nigeria with northerners, El-Rufai said: “Appointments should be based on competence.”
Today Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu balances appointments and suddenly competence no longer matters, only religion matters?
Where did this sudden “love” for northern Muslims come from?
El-Rufai, the same man who said Kaduna South complaints against Muslim – Muslim ticket were childish, is now crying religion?
The hypocrisy is disgusting.
The North must stop allowing political manipulators to play savior
The same El-Rufai who silenced clergy in Kaduna is now pretending to defend Islam? The same man who divided Kaduna by religion for 8 years now wants to preach religious fairness?
Nigeria knows him, Kaduna knows him, history knows him.
Whenever Nigeria begins to unite, El-Rufai appears with matches and kerosene.
Religion is his political oxygen.
Division is his comfort zone.
Chaos is his political career.
Tinubu owes you competence, not sectarian appointments
The entire idea that “Northern Muslims are being removed” collapses when placed beside reality:
Middle Belt finally has representation
Northerners are still in key offices
Christian Northerners are finally considered human beings
Appointments are no longer a religious monopoly
Is that war? Or sanity?
A northerner is not defined by religion
El-Rufai’s logic is clear: If you are not a Muslim, even if you are from Northern Nigeria, you don’t belong.
So Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna and Taraba should become foreign countries?
This is exactly why Middle Belt shunned northern politics under Buhari.
Tinubu is correcting decades of marginalisation inside the North itself.
Tinubu is doing what El-Rufai never had the courage to do
Balancing the system
Uniting the country
Reducing ethnic monopoly
Restraining religious dominance
And that is what truly frightens him.
Nigerians are tired of religious merchants
We want roads
We want electricity
We want better security
We want working economy
We want competent appointees
Not loud emotional blackmail from political middlemen searching for relevance.
If Northern Muslims like Buratai, Sadiq, Monguno, Badaru and others could not secure Nigeria when they controlled everything, then the problem is not religion.
The problem is that incompetent people were recycled because they were Northerners and Muslims, not because they could deliver.
Tinubu is ending that rubbish.
El-Rufai, the game is over
The era of religious extortion is gone
The North is wiser
Nigeria is tired
And the Muslim North you are trying to provoke has suffered enough under the same system you defended for 8 years.
If you have a presidential candidate for 2027, bring him.
Tell Nigerians his achievements
Tell us what he did
Tell us where he succeeded
But don’t hide behind Islam. We are not buying that trick again.
Nigeria is moving forward.
With or without the tears of expired politicians.
