Ruffler of feathersNasir El-Rufai, the new governor of Kaduna, sees himself as the “rescuer” of northern Nigeria. [From our archives, July 2015]Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State in northern Nigeria, is surrounded by a coterie of aides. In its heyday in the early 1960s Kaduna was home to Ahmadu Bello, premier of the Northern Region and a powerful chief of an Islamic caliphate that once stretched across much of northern Nigeria, with its headquarters in Sokoto. “Of all the governorship candidates running for office in northern Nigeria, none has the cult following he has,” one aide said on the day before the March elections. In one of the breaks during the swearing–in on 7 June, governor El-Rufai asks aides for more information about the building.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 03, 2019 14:26 UTC