Nigeria, Feb. 24 -- In the weeks leading up to the 2007 Kano State gubernatorial election, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, then minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and a prominent member of President Olusegun Obasanjo's cabinet, visited Kano to mediate between Governor Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The intervention came after a public feud between Shekarau's administration and the EFCC over a report allegedly implicating the governor. At the time, any report from the anti-corruption agency that indicated wrongdoing could automatically disqualify a candidate from participating in elections. However, the constitutional authority to disqualify candidates r...