Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasir El-rufai, on Saturday alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan was shielding the country’s oil thieves.
El-rufai also accused the President of playing sentimental politics in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.
Speaking as guest of the week on a radio programmed monitored on Liberty FM, a Kaduna based radio station, the one-time Director-General of Bureau for Public Enterprise, dared Jonathan to go after those stealing the country’s major source of income.
On speculations that some persons were arming Ijaw youth for the purpose of instigating violence in 2015, he said: “This country has gone through one civil war and I don’t know if any country has survived two civil wars. And those that are stealing crude oil and buying arms and stockpiling should know that its not the number of arms that determines who defeats a war. So they should think deeply and learn from history. One who doesn’t learn from history will be a victim of it.
“Unfortunately, Jonathan’s political handlers thought that if they introduce religion, they will be able to divide the North and take the Christian part of the North to vote for Jonathan. And if they introduce ethnicity, they will get the whole of the South. That’s their winning strategy and now they are surprised that after dividing the country, they are finding it difficult to get the cooperation of everyone.
“The danger of division is that you defeat social trust which makes it very difficult for you to cover and they are still playing this game. Now, if Jonathan is from the minority, how did he get elected? Was he elected by his minority groups or by other Nigerians?
“If we all decided to follow ethnicity, Jonathan cannot even win election outside Bayelsa State because apart from Bayelsa, there is no any other place where the Ijaws are not seen as minority in Nigeria. So when people like Edwin Clark, Jonathan play the ethnic and religious cards, I just look at them because its not going to work. The moment anyone resorts to ethnicity and religion, its because he doesn’t have a better ground.
“If you are performing and doing the work of the people, why do you need to resort to that. It is really wrong and one of the tragedies of the Jonathan’s leadership that whoever inherits the leadership of Nigeria will have to spend the first or second year repairing is the trust and relationship between the various ethnic and religious groups. Everything under Jonathan administration has been reduced to these two things which is unfortunate.
“Politics is not about religion, neither is it about ethnicity. Politics is about delivering services to the people and when you are good every ethnicity and religion will benefit. Our religion is private to us, our ethnicity is an accident of birth. This government has adopted that as a political strategy and by God’s grace, the people of Nigeria have experienced it and know that such does not lead to competence and will defeat them in the next elections.
“There are many dangers confronting the Nigerian nation. What is more worrisome is the kind of rhetoric coming out. Whenever Asari Dokubo and Edwin Clark speak, just know that a week earlier, they were called to the Villa and given some money to say it. How can a small ethnic group like the Ijaws threaten Nigeria. And the government is keeping mute over it. And the expected reaction is that you’ll also have people from the North threatening similarly. What kind of country do we live in, such that nobody is in charge to bring people to order.
“It is sad and again it is this political strategy of Jonathan to always use ethnicity and religion whenever there is a problem. When excess crude account is down or when there is a big story about subsidy case, they bring this religion or ethnicity into play and this is unfortunate”
Th Kaduna state-born politician also took a swipe at the former governor of the state and incumbent vice-president, Namadi Sambo.
El-rufai said, “We’ve not had leadership in Kaduna State since Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi left office as Governor of Kaduna State. I know Governor Makarfi performed well in the state in terms of peace, infrastructures put in place. Since he left, Namadi Sambo as a Governor was a disaster. He wasted the resources of the state and the state acquired debt that late Governor Yakowa complained to me about before his death.
“So we need a better government in Kaduna State because Kaduna is too important to be governed below the quality we can see for instance in Kano. Kaduna should be an example or a beacon in the North that will set standards of governance in the state which we don’t have that right now.”
When asked to rate the current state governor, Mukhtar Yero, he replied that “Its too early and I have not analysed Governor Ramalan’s budget of 2013 and I don’t want to rush into judgement, but I’ve not seen any changes yet.”
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