Nasir el-Rufai… Rare breed of meteor 

SIR: For a while now, I have been following the track record of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. He is well-educated, brilliant, yet endowed with uncommon native intelligence not often associated with academic excellence. He has proven on every assignment he handles the ability to turn difficult situations around.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, was a city of commotion then, at war with herself, but was turned around by el-Rufai as the FCT minister.
Also, the development of Kaduna State, which laid prostrate for decades, has suddenly woken up to capture her place as centric focal point of the North politically, as well as in physical development

The voice of the occupant of Kaduna State Government House now counts, not only in Northern Nigeria and Nigeria but across the globe. After surmounting the distraction and initial hurdle of first lap of four years of his administration by those who placed higher premium on politics as a  thriller and game, rather than  a means to meeting the critical needs of those they are elected to  serve, he settled in the  current second lap to offer purposeful leadership he promised the electorate.

In the process, Kaduna rapidly overtook Kano and Bauchi with well-laid road network. Adding BRT and light rail spiced with two malls in strategic locations to race to a finishing line topped in infrastructural upgrade and human capacity development.

To achieve this, ethnic origin and religion played no part, but only capacity was applied to deliver. It is no wonder he assembled an executive from virtually every nook and cranny of Nigeria with a common identity of competence and performance.

His role in changing the narrative in some quarters in the South that the North is determined to hold on to power in perpetuity, which is now largely embraced, cannot be over-emphasised.

His report on constitutional review on devolution of power has positively calmed and shaped political architecture across the nation with reassured sense of equity for all.

His distinguishing trait is his courage to take tough decisions in the interest of the common good. When he found the quality of teachers in Kaduna State as appalling, he did not run away from taking similar tough decision, which had earlier cost another governor elsewhere his seat politically, by asking the teachers to take basic aptitude test of competence to retrain them where appropriate and injecting capable hands.

Defiling all odds amidst localised security challenge, though not peculiar to Kaduna, he attracted foreign investments to such communities.
Mallam Nasir el-Rufai is undoubtedly one to watch carefully, as he shares the unique character of a meteor that appears only for a purpose in a wide space of time, leaving a trail of impact on the landscape
• Titus Ajimobi, an architect, writes from Lagos.