…Says His Support For 2023 Muslim-Muslim Ticket Was Political, Not Religious
A former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has accused the Federal Government of providing a soft landing for bandits terrorising different parts of the country.
He alleged that the government was empowering bandits by paying them a “monthly allowance,” sending “food to them in the name of non-kinetic, describing it as a kiss-the-bandits policy.
“What I will not do is to pay bandits, give them a monthly allowance, or send food to them in the name of non-kinetic. It’s nonsense; we’re empowering bandits.
“It’s not the government of Kaduna State; it’s a national policy driven by the Office of the National Security Adviser, and Kaduna is part of it. Kiss the bandits; that’s the new policy,” Rufai, a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
He faulted what he described as a policy that rehabilitates bandits rather than making them answer for their crimes.
This, he said, was responsible for the lingering insecurity problem in the country.
The former two-term governor stated, “My position has always been [that] the only repentant bandit is a dead one. Let’s kill them all. Let’s bomb them until they are reduced to nothing, and then the five per cent that still want to be rehabilitated can be rehabilitated.
“You do not negotiate from the position of weakness. You don’t empower your enemy; you don’t give him money to go and buy sophisticated weapons. That is why the insecurity problem has not gone away and will not go away as long as this policy continues.”
“They can deceive, they can cover up, they can do propaganda, but those that live in Katsina, those that live in Zamfara, those that live in Kaduna, those that live in those states, they know what is happening.”
“Let the governor or anyone come and deny. When the time comes, we will reveal everything,” the former minister added.
There have been growing concerns about insecurity in the country, especially in the north, with recent attacks in Katsina, Benue, and Plateau states.
Although the Federal Government had yet to react to El-Rufai’s claims, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, had in July said that Boko Haram attacks, banditry, and communal conflicts in the northern region had reduced drastically in the last two years of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, compared to what the situation was in the last administration.
Citing an example, the NSA stated that 1,192 people were killed and over 3,348 kidnapped in Kaduna State during the previous administration, while more than 5,000 people lost their lives in Benue State within the same period.
Giving an instance, the NSA said 1,192 people were killed and over 3,348 kidnapped in Kaduna State during the previous administration, while more than 5,000 were killed in Benue State within the same period.
He made this known while addressing northern leaders at the ongoing two-day interactive session organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in Kaduna State.
Ribadu said that the successes recorded in the fight against insecurity is as a result of President Tinubu’s directive to security agencies on a unified security approach.
He said that the various security operations across the North-West had led to the release of 11,259 hostages as of May 2025.
He also disclosed that several bandit leaders and their gang members had been eliminated by security forces in Zamfara, Kaduna, and Katsina states.
The NSA had also, in April, asked Nigerians to stop giving money to kidnappers and bandits.
Meanwhile, El-Rufai, has said his support for the Muslim-Muslim ticket adopted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election was not motivated by religion but was a political strategy.
El-Rufai, who made an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, confirmed he backed the decision, describing it as a deliberate plan to secure electoral victory.
“It was a political strategy; it was a strategy to win the election; it was not a religious strategy. When you are contesting an election, you look at every variable, every index, every criterion that will help you win. It has nothing to do with religion,” he said on Sunday.
The former Kaduna governor argued that fears over religious exclusion were unfounded, citing his experience in Kaduna, where he also ran on a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“So long as we continue to speculate on these issues, we will not solve them. We have done a Muslim-Muslim ticket now. Tell me in what way Christians are now short-changed; nothing. No leader that wants to succeed will limit his choice of appointees to a particular religion or ethnicity.
“If you want to succeed, you have to diversify. Now we have cured the fear and the love for the Muslim-Muslim ticket. It has been done, buried, and gone. I did a Muslim-Muslim ticket in Kaduna; I want to know which Christian in Kaduna was short-changed because of it,” he added.
In the build-up to the election, the APC’s choice of President Bola Tinubu, a Muslim from the South-West, and Kashim Shettima, a Muslim from the North-East, generated mixed reactions.
The decision drew criticism from Christian groups, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), who described it as insensitive and a threat to national unity.
In the February 2023 presidential election, Tinubu was declared winner with 8.79 million votes, defeating Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 6.98 million, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who garnered 6.1 million.
Despite opposition challenges in court, his victory was upheld, and he was sworn in on 29 May 2023 as Nigeria’s 16th president.