El-Rufai’s Politics of Manufactured Hysteria: A Chomskyan Analysis
By Comrade Habeeb Bello Chikaji
“If you want to control a people, create an imaginary enemy that appears more dangerous than you, then present yourself as their savior.” — Noam Chomsky
This quote fits like a glove when applied to Nasir El-Rufai’s recent political maneuvers. The former Kaduna governor, a seasoned manipulator of public emotion, has sought to re-enter the national conversation not through constructive critique or policy alternatives, but by framing President Tinubu as a threat to Northern interests. In doing so, El-Rufai plays the age-old authoritarian trick Chomsky warned about: invent the monster, stoke fear, then pretend to be the only shield against it.
By constantly invoking a phantom “anti-North” agenda and casting Tinubu as the villain in a story of betrayal, El-Rufai distracts from his own questionable legacy—ethnic division, debt overhang, and broken promises in Kaduna. His sudden pivot to religious populism and regional victimhood is not born out of principle but political desperation. It’s a calculated attempt to consolidate a fractured base and deflect scrutiny.
But the North is wiser now. The era when elites could weaponize paranoia to sustain personal power is fading. El-Rufai’s attempt to cast himself as the “savior” from a problem he is helping invent reeks of political opportunism—not patriotism.
In the end, Chomsky’s warning stands vindicated: beware the leader who shows you a shadow and calls it a threat, only to step into the light claiming to be your only hope.
