The Middle-Belt Forum has urged former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, to control his utterances in the face of insecurity challenges in the country, rather than insult the sensibilities of Nigerians.
The group stated that the country at this time was in dire need of people who would exhibit patriotism and commitment to national unity and find solutions to the numerous challenges facing the country so the country could move forward.
Its National Youth leader and former member of the House of Representatives, Jonathan Asake, while reacting to a report that El-Rufai allegedly described the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, as “a man who lacks credibility,” said; “Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, as a man who was given the opportunity to serve in a responsible position in the country, is expected to act and talk responsibly, especially on issues concerning national challenges like insecurity.
“But what we see is that people who are expected to exhibit decent behaviour like El-Rufai are instead worsening the situation with their utterances. The last time on Liberty FM in Kaduna, he spoke with denigration on the person of the Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Muhammed Namadi Sambo, and his office, and he didn’t stop there.
“The recent one is about Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, where he referred to the CAN President as the PRO of PDP. The PDP of which I am a member has a National Publicity Secretary; he is not the CAN President, definitely not Oritsejafor.
MBF noted that Nigerians had given El-rufai the opportunity to serve the nation as FCT Minister, therefore, he shouldn’t destroy what he has done just because he is no longer part of government.
“He is bent on destroying the government because he has lost out of power and political relevance. El-Rufai should stop talking like a Street Boy or like an Area Boy.”
Meanwhile, the Presidency has also reacted to the statement credited to the former FCT Minister that Jonathan’s government was a failure.
In a statement issued in Abuja by the Special Assistant (New Media) to the President, Mr. Reno Omokri, Jonathan urged the public not to be misled by the machinations of El-Rufai, “a man in dire need of prayers and perhaps psychological assistance.”
The aide referred to the former minister’s position at a meeting with Ambassador John Campbell in April 2007 that Jonathan, then vice presidential nominee of the PDP, “is clean and honest,” and that “Jonathan was the only candidate that met Obasanjo’s guidelines – honesty and Ijaw.”
Omokri said, the ambassador kept a record of their conversation, which is now a public record in America.
“Beyond that, El-Rufai, who had gone into voluntary exile under the Presidency of Mallam Umaru Musa Yar’Adua after he was accused of corruption and abuse of office while the minister of FCT, felt safe enough to return to Nigeria as soon as President Jonathan ascended to power.
He recalled that when El-Rufai returned to Nigeria in 2010, he visited Jonathan at the Presidential Villa on May 11, 2010, and was the first major political figure to call on him to contest the 2011 election.
The aide chided El-Rufai as a man fond of double-speak, who now rally round Gen. Muhammadu Buhari contrary to a damning conclusion on the former Military Head of State in 2010.
“I think that where Nigeria is today, only someone like Buhari, with the experience of having run the country before, and having run it along certain principles of discipline, integrity and accountability, that Nigeria needs,” Omokri quoted El-rufai.
However, he recalled that the same El-Rufai had, in October 6, 2010, said that Buhari was not a suitable person to rule the country, stating thus; “Mallam El-Rufai wishes to remind General Buhari that he has remained perpetually unelectable because his record as military Head-of-State, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have wisely heeded.
“His insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well known. In 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father to enter Nigeria unchecked at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new.”
“Against all canons of legal decency, he used retroactive laws to execute three young men for drug-peddling after they were convicted by a military tribunal and not regular court of law.
“Buhari was so high-handed that he gave himself and his officials immunity even from truthful reporting. That obnoxious Decree 4, against which truth was no defence, was used to jail journalists and attempted to cow the media as a whole.
“That tyrannical legislation shows the essence of his intolerance. These are facts of recent history. The story of counter-trade and import licensing, the cornerstone of Buhari’s stone-age economic strategy and those whose interests it served, is a tale for another day.”
Omokri said he wondered how El-Rufai could go from warning the nation about Buhari as a man unfit to govern Nigeria and one who is “perpetually unelectable because of his parochial nature,” to saying that it is the same man that can best lead the nation.
“It is obvious to all that there is more than one personality in possession of the mind and soul of this man called Nasir El-Rufai,” he continued. “Can any sane person trust the words of a man who is so unstable?
“Today, El-Rufai, perhaps banking on what he thinks is the short memory of Nigerians, is attempting to rewrite history. But it is such a difficult task to paint over the truth with a lie.
“Nasir El-Rufai wanted something from the President, which was why he visited him at the Presidential Villa to heap unsolicited praise on him in 2010.
“When he did not get what he wanted, he became bitter and since the days of yore when the fox that could not get the grapes tagged them ‘sour grapes’ to mask its frustration, it has always been the habit of persons who cannot compete on the basis of ideas to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
“Thus, El-Rufai, having run out of ideas, has tagged this administration ‘incompetent”
Omokri further highlighted the achievements of Jonathan’s administration in the aviation, rail and agriculture, education, economic and other sectors. He spoke further: “Why has it taken an ‘incompetent’ President Jonathan to grow Nigeria’s economy at over 6 per cent per annum since he ascended to the Presidency?
“Why has it taken an ‘incompetent’ administration to get Nigeria to be promoted from a ‘Low Income Nation’ to a ‘Middle Income Nation’ by the World Bank? Again, it took an incompetent administration to ensure Nigeria won its first Africa Cup of Nations in 19 years.
“If previous administrations had been this ‘incompetent,’ then Nigeria would have long since overtaken South Africa as Africa’s largest economy, but we did not achieve this feat until an ‘incompetent’ Jonathan was brought to office by the votes of over 22 million Nigerians.” the aide said.
Comentarios