What Goes Around Comes Around: An Open Reflection To Nasiru El-rufai - By Professor Abdullahi Danladi

The reported detention of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Off...

The reported detention of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission over allegations under investigation by the Federal Government has generated widespread public debate. As always, every person—regardless of status or political affiliation—is entitled to due process, fair treatment, and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Justice cannot be meaningful if it is applied selectively.

It is from this standpoint that I wish to remind you, Mallam El-Rufai, of an enduring truth: what goes around comes around.

Between 12 and 15 December 2015, the city of Zaria witnessed one of the darkest episodes in Nigeria's contemporary history. Hundreds of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria lost their lives during military operations. Homes, religious centres, and properties associated with the movement were destroyed. Among the structures demolished was the residence of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, a place that housed copies of the Holy Qur'an and numerous Islamic texts. Sacred religious materials were desecrated during those events and remain deeply painful to countless Muslims.

Even more disturbing are the long-standing concerns about the burial of victims in a mass grave at Mando on the outskirts of Kaduna. These crimes have remained part of the public record and were examined during the judicial commission of inquiry established to investigate the Zaria tragedy. Testimonies presented before that commission, including evidence attributed to senior officials of the Kaduna State Government, continue to provoke difficult questions that history has yet to answer fully.

Your administration was also associated with widespread demolition exercises that displaced many Kaduna residents, leaving numerous families homeless and without what they considered adequate legal remedies or compensation. Thousands of civil servants equally lost their jobs under reforms that many critics regarded as abrupt and insensitive to the welfare of ordinary citizens.

Many still remember the government action involving the Qur'anic school of Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi, where students and staff were arrested. Whether one agreed with those actions or not, they contributed to a perception of intolerance that many believe characterized your years in office.

Today, reports indicate that you seek access to medical care and visits from members of your family while in detention. Your wife has publicly appealed that you deserve justice and humane treatment. On that point, I agree completely. Every detainee deserves access to healthcare, legal representation, and family. Human dignity does not disappear because someone is accused of wrongdoing.

But it is difficult not to remember that many Nigerians made similar appeals on behalf of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenah, when they were held in prolonged detention despite court orders for their release. Many pleaded that they be granted access to adequate medical treatment. Those appeals, too, were framed as appeals to justice and humanity.

History therefore presents an uncomfortable mirror.

One wonders whether those who exercised state power with such firmness ever imagined that they might one day depend upon the very principles of justice, compassion, and due process that others had pleaded for.

Perhaps your family cannot fully imagine the pain endured by the families affected by the Zaria tragedy. Many children were orphaned. Many women became widows. Some families continue to search for answers about relatives who never returned home. Others still live with permanent physical injuries, carrying bullets and lifelong disabilities. Beyond the physical scars are emotional wounds that have yet to heal.

None of this means that injustice against you should be welcomed. Quite the contrary. We reject injustice absolutely—even when directed against those with whom we profoundly disagree. Justice loses its moral force the moment it becomes revenge.

Nevertheless, your present circumstances should serve as a lesson to every public office holder. Political authority is temporary. The power to command soldiers, sign demolition orders, or determine the fate of others does not last forever. Eventually, every leader becomes an ordinary citizen, answerable before the same law, the same society, and ultimately before the same Creator.

Allah has many ways of reminding human beings of the limits of worldly power. Sometimes those reminders come during one's lifetime, while authority still seems within reach. Sometimes they come only in the Hereafter. Either way, no position, no office, and no influence can shield anyone from divine justice.

Sooner or later, every one of us—governors and governed, rulers and subjects, the powerful and the powerless—shall stand before Allah, the Perfect Judge, before whom neither wealth, influence, nor political connections will avail anyone. On that Day, every life taken unjustly, every home destroyed unlawfully, every tear shed by an orphan, every cry of a widow, and every abuse of authority will be accounted for with absolute justice.

That is the ultimate court from which there is no appeal.

May Allah grant justice to every oppressed soul, guide those who wield authority to rule with compassion and fairness, and make us all mindful that power is a trust, not a possession.