Yesterday after Eid prayers, I paid a Salah visit to my brother and friend, Sadiq Umar of @ValenciaACF at his private residence. He is an exceptional football talent who continues to make Nigeria proud on the global stage. I consider him to the greatest export from Kaduna North on the global stage. I am proud to call him my friend, brother and business partner in our journey with @RanchersBeesFC
Our conversation was filled with laughter, reflection, and shared hopes for the future of sports development in our country, especially through our Ranchers Bees Football Club. I am grateful to his mother, Hajiya Asabe (Baba), a mother to all of us and a pillar of the community. Her prayers and support on my political journey were very touching. She has always been an ardent fan of dear father and reiterated her support for him.
Sadiq remains a shining example of discipline, resilience, humility, and dedication. It is always inspiring to see young Nigerians excelling internationally while still maintaining strong ties to home and community. He was the one that recommended I pray at Eid on Maiduguri Street and I was happy to oblige.
I wish him continued success, good health, and greater achievements ahead for both club and country. May this Salah season bring peace, joy, and renewed blessings to us all.
Signed
Hon. Mohammed Bello El-Rufai
Member.
Kaduna North Federal Constituency
Chairman, Committee on Banking Regulations.
May 28, 2026.
“When two people have an agreement, both parties are expected to fulfill their own side of the bargain. If neither person keeps their part of the agreement, then morally, neither has the right to complain about the other. Before you can criticize someone else for failing to
Press Release: In response to our family’s challenge to its overreach, the ICPC has issued a statement of which no law enforcement agency can be proud if indeed it is committed to upholding citizens’ fundamental rights, the laws of Nigeria and the Constitution under which those fundamental rights are enshrined.
Let it be on record that the family and supporters of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai have no reason to treat government agencies as infallible masters of the universe. The actions of agencies of the Executive Branch are not beyond scrutiny and criticism, the more so when the heads of those agencies have succumbed to undue influence and become tools of political scheming, rather than law enforcement.
The ICPC statement was unable to deny that it prevented Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s doctor seeing him on Friday, 15 May 2026. Neither was it able to state that it did not prevent delivery of dinner by his wife later that same evening. Indeed, it cannot deny
The ICPC is aware of court orders granting Mallam access to his family, lawyers and doctors. Yet, this same agency is employing what it calls ‘protocols’ to vitiate these orders of court and render them to be practically of no effect. Otherwise, why is the ICPC placing obstacles in the way of a doctor already identified by Mallam as his physician? While we respect internal administrative procedures, we must protest when those protocols become tools for waging a subtle psychological war on our family or for brazen violations of court orders.
It is obvious to every observer that the ICPC seeks to inflict on Mallam Nasir El-Rufai every act of torture it can conjure as part of the coordinated effort to break him. The duty of the ICPC to secure someone in their custody is not the same thing as treating that person as having even fewer rights than a convict. In what way did preventing the delivery of his dinner amount to securing him, more so considering the rather puerile reason given by the ICPC, that the dinner arrived 30 minutes late. What the ICPC did not say was that this dinner arrived later than usual because the wife who brought the dinner at 7pm had been with Mallam’s medical doctor all through his 2-hour ordeal of delay (3pm - 5pm) earlier that same day. The ICPC knew this, since they caused the delay and should equally have known that it would be physically impossible to prepare dinner and be back at ICPC by 6:30pm.
It is common knowledge that the most egregious affronts to human dignity, life and liberty have been dressed up as ‘protocols’ or ‘rules’, when they are nothing but the thinnest veneers of legality, unlawfully deployed in a most brazen assault on the rule of law. Mallam has been in custody for over 90 days now and has been charged, in multiple courts in Kaduna State and the FCT, with offences that are unquestionably bailable.
Our immediate focus is on securing Mallam’s freedom. While Mallam remains in custody, we urge the ICPC to respect his rights, obey court orders and stop deploying ‘protocols’ as instruments for magnifying the inconveniences of detention. Our family cannot be expected to meekly accept the violation of the rights of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
Signed on behalf of the family.
Hon. Mohammed Bello El-Rufai
Member.
Kaduna North Federal Constituency
Chairman, Committee on Banking Regulations.
May 19, 2026.
In the name of Allah SWT, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful. If running again will not be in the interest of the excellent people of Kaduna North and Nigerians as whole. Then may God give it to another. In the coming weeks, I will be going around by the grace of God to engage the people of Kaduna North in their homes and streets, as well as the stakeholders of our party, the African Democratic Congress, (ADC). I am not entitled to anything and I will work as hard as I can and always do to state our record and convince the public. We will do this while willing to support whoever emerges in the primary election. Regardless of the outcome we will campaign for the candidates in our party with the precision, honesty and transparency we are known for. My focus is still ensuring justice for our dear father, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai but we will be testing this mic from this week Insha Allah. See you soon.
Signed: Jika Hanta
Mallam’s proud son.
A doctor just sent me this message from General Hospital Wudil in Kano State.
This young man is currently lying in this hospital.
He is a Christian from Biu Local Government Area in Borno State. After converting to Islam, he relocated to Kano State.
While at his workplace, Allah tested him with a fracture in his hand, and he is now seeking financial assistance for surgery and medical treatment.
He called his relatives on the phone, but they hung up and told him not to try calling them again.
At the moment, the hand has started to smell and deteriorate due to lack of funds.
His original name: Dunahyel Muazu
His Muslim name: Muhammad
Age: 34
Current address: Sabon Gari, Kano
This is the phone number you can call to be connected with him: 08145987649
For the sake of Allah, dear brothers and sisters, let us help this servant of God as we usually do.
Account number: 8105891413
Name: Alhassan Musa
Bank: OPay
We will pay his surgery and treatment bills directly to the hospital, and whatever remains will be given to him to continue his treatment. May Allah make it successful, Ameen.
Please help us by sharing 🙏
Press Release: El-Rufai issues public alert. Malam Nasir El-Rufai wishes to alert the public to certain malicious orchestrations directed against him. The unwarranted effort to arrest him upon his arrival at Abuja Airport from Cairo on 12 February 2026 served as a clear signal of more troubling developments to follow. On 16 February 2026, Malam El-Rufai honoured an invitation from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He was detained, then transferred to the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on the night of 18 February. He remains in detention and has been arraigned in two separate high courts.
On 18 April 2026, The Nation newspaper published a report headlined “El-Rufai’s trial: Gunmen invade principal witness home.” The article stated that Mohammed Umar Karage, a witness in the criminal proceedings at the Kaduna State High Court, had reported to the police that armed individuals had invaded his residence. While it is the civic duty of every citizen to report crimes to the authorities, it is an entirely different matter to publish false imputations against others.
The Nation proceeded to do precisely that by including innuendos suggestive of a plot to frame Malam Nasir El-Rufai. According to the report, Mr. Karage linked the incident to his role as a witness in the corruption charges against El-Rufai—specifically one of the nine counts involving the alleged unlawful revocation and reallocation of land. The article further quoted Mr. Karage as alleging that the invasion might be part of an effort to silence him, drawing parallels with the controversial disappearance of Kaduna-based activist Abubakar Idris Dadiyata.
Any objective reader would recognise the clear intent behind these statements: to smear Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s reputation, jeopardise his pending bail application at the Kaduna State High Court, and implicate him in serious capital offences. The evident objective is to secure his indefinite detention through these reprehensible tactics. Such conduct is unacceptable, particularly toward a citizen who has made substantial contributions to our country.
Malam Nasir El-Rufai is an upstanding and law-abiding citizen who has no connection whatsoever to the incidents described in The Nation’s publication. Therefore, he has already instructed his legal team to initiate defamation proceedings in this matter.
Since 2023, Malam El-Rufai has been subjected to an appalling and sustained campaign of innuendos and vilification. This is a man with a distinguished record of public service. Many will recall his sterling service to the cause of national unity through his principled opposition to opportunism, alongside other senior leaders, during the events leading to the 2022 primaries of the ruling party and thereafter.
The rule of law must never be perverted into a tool of oppression. Legal processes should serve the ends of justice, not be employed to deny a citizen his fundamental right to liberty while he stands trial. Malam Nasir El-Rufai should be accorded full due process guaranteed by law to every citizen, and the persistent disregard for his rights must cease immediately.
Signed
Muyiwa Adekeye
Media Adviser to Malam Nasir El-Rufai
19 April 2026
Happy marriage life Yazeed and Maryam. Bride and groom both are staff at Danmama smart homes. May Allah bless your union. I’m proud to be an architect of this blessed union.
My brief remarks in Hausa today at the Kaduna State High Court after Mallam Nasir @elrufai’s case was adjourned until April 14th, 2026. We continue to stand with Mallam in solidarity. We are proud of his administrative excellence and his public service record from his days in the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Ministry of Federal Captial Territory and as the father of Modern Kaduna. I used the opportunity to commiserate with our brothers and sister that were tragically killed in Jos and Maiduguri. May Almighty God bless their souls. And may He guide we leaders to focus on the what really matters. The safety and socio-economic development of our citizens.
Signed
Hon. Mohammed Bello El-Rufai
Member.
Kaduna North Federal Constituency
Chairman, Committee on Banking Regulations.
April 1, 2026.
NIGERIA UPDATE - Nigeria’s Growth Crisis Is a Talent-Allocation Crisis - by: Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai - 1st April, 2026 - Part 1
Nigeria is often described as a paradox. We are a nation of extraordinary human capital—energetic, inventive, resilient—yet our economic outcomes fall persistently short of our potential. Growth remains shallow, productivity weak, firms struggle to scale, and prosperity does not spread widely enough.
Today, I want to advance a clear and uncomfortable proposition:
Nigeria’s growth problem is not primarily a shortage of talent, capital, or ideas.
It is a problem of where our best talent goes—and why.
This is not a moral argument about individuals. It is a political-economy argument about incentives.
1. The Core Insight: Talent Follows Returns
Across societies and across history, highly capable people choose occupations that offer the highest returns to ability, especially where small differences in skill translate into large rewards. Economists describe this as increasing returns to talent.
When those returns are highest in entrepreneurship, innovation, and production, economies grow.
When those returns are highest in rent-seeking—activities that redistribute existing wealth rather than create new value—growth slows or stalls .
People do not wake up intending to harm their country. They respond rationally to incentives.
So the right question for Nigeria is not “Why are people corrupt?”
It is: “What activities does our system reward most handsomely?”
2. Nigeria’s Current Incentive Structure
Let us be honest about Nigeria’s reality.
•GDP growth was about 4.1% in 2024, respectable on paper but insufficient for a country with our demographics.
•GDP per capita remains around US$1,084, placing Nigeria among lower-income economies despite our scale.
•Informal employment accounts for roughly 93% of the labour force, meaning most firms are small, fragile, and defensive rather than scalable.
•Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio is only about 8.2%, one of the lowest in Africa—signalling weak fiscal capacity and heavy reliance on discretionary collection rather than broad, rule-based taxation.
These numbers are not abstract. They describe an economy where scale is risky, visibility attracts predation, and long-term investment struggles to compete with short-term access.
In such an environment, the most capable Nigerians often find that the fastest and safest returns come not from building large, productive enterprises—but from proximity to state power, regulatory discretion, political brokerage, or legal and administrative contestation.
This is exactly the mechanism identified in the economic literature: when the “market” for rent-seeking is large, talent flows there .
3. Why Rent-Seeking Damages Growth
Rent-seeking harms an economy in three cumulative ways.
First, it absorbs labour and capital without creating output. Resources are spent competing over existing wealth rather than expanding the economic frontier.
Second, it acts like a tax on productive activity. Businesses face delays, uncertainty, informal payments, and arbitrary enforcement—raising costs and discouraging investment.
Third—and most damaging—it diverts the very people who would otherwise be the most productive entrepreneurs and innovators.
When the brightest minds are pulled away from production, the quality of entrepreneurship falls, technological progress slows, and the economy’s long-run growth rate declines .
This is why rent-seeking does not merely lower income levels; it can permanently reduce growth.
Solidarity Walk for Justice
Pass the message: Tell one, tell ten, tell everyone!
Even in our time of mourning, the work of justice does not rest. The mischief makers do not pause, and neither can our struggle. The fight to free Malam Nasiru Ahmad El-Rufai continues with unwavering resolve.
We are calling on all "El-Rufai Boys," loyal supporters, and every advocate for justice to join us for a peaceful solidarity walk. Let our presence be our voice.
Event Details
• Date: Tomorrow
• Time: 8:00 AM Prompt
• Meeting Point: Unguwan Sarki Bus Stop
Justice delayed is justice denied. Stand for Malam, stand for truth.
ADC Arewa Youth: United for Our Leader.