One of the many Presidency’s weekend verbal missiles was fired at a former Minister
of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai today describing him as
liar,ungrateful and indecent for accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of playing ethnic
and religious politics.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, in a
statement issued
today, said it was historically evident that el-Rufai’s wild allegations against the president
had exposed him to be a serial liar.
According to the president’s spokesman, any objective watcher of the president knows
that Jonathan is not playing ethnic and religious politics as el-Rufai alleged.
“For instance, the Muslim Ummah just emerged from the Ramadan fast and the
President, though a Christian, joined them in fasting and severally broke the fast with
Muslims at the Presidential Villa. Also, in the history of the existence of Nigeria as a
nation, no leader has spent the quantum of funds that President Jonathan has spent on
education specifically tailored for Islamic itinerant scholars known as the almajiri. In the
composition of his cabinet, the President has appointed Muslims into sensitive positions
and ensured a balance that has been commended by many in the Islamic fold.
“But it is most curious that this allegation is coming from Nasir el-Rufai, a man who
profaned the name of Jesus Christ on Twitter by tweeting a joke which is too indecent
to mention in the presence of civilized persons. This same El-Rufai is the same man
who in June of last year claimed that Christians were behind the bombings of their own
churches rather than terrorists and were doing this to further a Christian agenda. It is only
a measure of his inconsistency that El-Rufai is today accusing the Presidency of being
afraid of General Muhammadu Buhari whom the same El-Rufai said was “perpetually
unelectable”.
“In fact, the accusation el-Rufai is now making against the President is precisely the same
accusation he made against General Muhammadu Buhari on October 4 2010 when he
said Buhari’s “insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already wellknown”. Today, el-Rufai is serving this same Buhari. That el-Rufai is not above lying to
the media to achieve his political objective was proven in Segun Adeniyi’s book, ‘Power,
Politics and Death’ when el-Rufai was quoted to have confessed in the presence of
multiple witnesses who are still alive today that “There was no cabal, we created the
myth to neutralise Turai”.
“el-Rufai sold Nigerians the dummy of a Turai cabal which was a lie used to further
his own political ends. In any case, we have a record of what el-Rufai truly thinks of
President Jonathan from the leaked secret diplomatic memo from the U.S. embassy in
Abuja which revealed that just before the April 2007 Presidential election El-Rufai had
told the then U.S. ambassador to Nigeria that the then Vice Presidential candidate, Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan, was “clean and honest”, he said.
Abati also lambasted the former minister for describing the administration of Mohammed
Namadi Sambo in Kaduna State as a disaster, purporting that Sambo as a former
governor of the state incurred a huge debt profile that compelled his successor to
complain.
“Since el-Rufai has a history of saying the truth privately and the lie publicly it suffices
to warn his current fellow co-travelers that a man who can betray those who brought him
up in politics is capable of anything. Nigerians should consequently take his words with
not just a pinch of salt, but a spoonful because a double-minded man is unstable in all
his ways. We are not the least surprised with such vituperations from Nasir El-Rufai. His
public record of treachery and slander is still very fresh in the minds of Nigerians. His
verbal assault on his original benefactors for worldly gain, his record of double standards
and his treatment of the late Justice Bashir Sambo speak volumes of his character. The
false accounts he rendered in his recent collection of half-truths and outright lies which
he accidentally titled The Accidental Public Servant further define his public image as an
ungrateful, self-serving and loquacious personality”,Abati added.
