Defence Minister accuses former governor of deepening division and insecurity; controversy erupts over Kaduna’s troubled past
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A political and historical storm has erupted in Kaduna following extraordinary comments by Defence Minister General Christopher Musa (retd.) about the administration of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai.
In a television interview, Musa accused El-Rufai of doing “a lot of terrible things” in Kaduna State and alleged that his administration deepened divisions between northern and southern parts of the state.
According to Musa, the situation became so polarised that people from Southern Kaduna could not comfortably live in the northern part of the state, while northerners moved south. He described the situation as deeply troubling in a country that should be united.
Musa further argued that the experience of Southern Kaduna went beyond ordinary political dissatisfaction, describing it as a deep-seated trauma associated with violence and what he characterised as systemic exclusion.
The comments have immediately reopened one of Kaduna’s most sensitive political questions: What really happened to Kaduna between 2015 and 2023?
A contested legacy
El-Rufai’s eight-year tenure remains one of the most debated administrations in contemporary Kaduna politics.
His supporters point to reforms in education, infrastructure, public-sector restructuring and urban development. His critics, however, have repeatedly accused his administration of mishandling ethnic and religious tensions and of failing to adequately protect communities during periods of intense violence.
Those criticisms are now intersecting with legal and political scrutiny. In 2026, the ICPC arraigned El-Rufai over allegations including abuse of office, fraud and conferring undue advantage, with the allegations relating to his administration’s handling of state affairs. The former governor has not been convicted of those allegations.
Musa’s latest intervention is therefore entering an already politically charged environment.
But Kaduna’s history is older than El-Rufai
There is another dimension that should not be lost.
Kaduna’s communal and religious tensions did not begin in 2015. The state has experienced major crises over several decades, including violence associated with political, ethnic and religious disputes long before El-Rufai became governor.
That history matters because assigning the entirety of Kaduna’s problems to one administration risks simplifying a deeply complicated conflict.
Nevertheless, Musa’s intervention has reopened an important conversation about governance and accountability.
For Kaduna, the real question is not merely whether Musa or El-Rufai wins the political argument.
It is whether the state can finally move beyond the politics of blame toward a system in which security, equal citizenship and freedom of movement are guaranteed regardless of where a citizen comes from within the state.
And with 2027 approaching, Musa’s remarks will almost certainly become part of the wider political battle over who gets to define Kaduna’s past—and who should be trusted with its future.
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