On el-Rufai’s allegations on being persecuted by Jonathan

My attention has been drawn to claims by the Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, to the effect that he was persecuted under the administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and was pencilled down for arrest in furtherance of the second term bid of the former President.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as the facts will now bare out.

Nigerians may recall that Mr. El-Rufai was on a self imposed exile during the administration of the late great President Umar Musa Yar’adua. Mr. El-Rufai only returned to Nigeria on May 5, 2010, the very same day that President Yar’adua died.

He returned because he believed that under then President Jonathan, the atmosphere was more conducive for him. This is borne out by a wikileaks cable, in which Mr. El-Rufai admitted that former President Jonathan is “clean and honest”.

After this diplomatic cable was published by local and international media on October 8, 2011, Mr. El-Rufai admitted that he indeed made those comments.

Exactly six days after his return, Mr. El-Rufai visited then President Jonathan at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, on Tuesday May 11, 2010, and then held a press conference outside the then President’s office, where he made unsolicited comments asking Dr. Jonathan to contest the 2011 elections and said that he would support him.

After the then President named Mr. Namadi Sambo as his Vice President, two days later on May 13, 2010, Mr. El-Rufai became very bitter and made plans to leave the Peoples Democratic Party and began to undermine the Jonathan administration.

In keeping with the Jonathan Doctrine, wherein Dr. Jonathan said “I have no enemies to fight, because of my confidence that people can only do to me what God permits”, the then President refused to move against Mr. El-Rufai.

Security reports received by the then President indicated that Mr. El-Rufai was engaged in provocative activities in order to instigate his own arrest, because he felt it would boost his popularity.

As such, he made several false and provocative comments, that were injurious to Nigeria’s peace, unity and progress, as well as to our good relations with neighbouring nations, including: That then President Jonathan founded and funded Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion to give Islam a bad name, which Mr. El-Rufai made on September 8, 2014.

That then President Jonathan had gone to the Republic of Chad to plan Boko Haram attacks with the late President Deby, which he made on November 25, 2014. And That he (El-Rufai), along with General Buhari, and several other prominent Nigerians, were on a hit list of people to be shot and killed by the Jonathan administration, which he made on January 5, 2014.

Though these spurious and defamatory statements could have led to his arrest and prosecution, former President Jonathan took a statesmanly position to ignore them, in order not to heighten the political tension in the country.

Malam Nasir El-Rufai worked closely with then President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has described him in his book, My Watch Volume 2, as follows: “Nasir’s penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological. Why does he do it? I recognised his weaknesses; the worst being his inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue consistently for long, but only to Nasir el-Rufai. He barefacedly lied which he did to me against his colleagues and so-called friends. I have heard of how he ruthlessly savaged the reputation of his uncle, a man who was like, in the African setting, his foster father. I shuddered when I heard the story of what he did to his half-brother in the Air Force who is senior to him in age.”

Malam El-Rufai was also exposed as a pathological liar in page 272 of ‘Power, Politics and Death: A Front-row Account of Nigeria Under the Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’, written by former ThisDay editor and spokesman to President Yar’adua, Mr Segun Adeniyi.

Finally, Mr. El-Rufai has been described as ‘a liar’ and fetish person by his former political patron, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who he credits with bringing him into the Obasanjo administration.

With such testimonials about his character from people with initiate knowledge of his personality, Nigerians should not be surprised about Mr. El-Rufai’s most recent assertions.

Instead, we urge the nation to pray for peace, progress and stability.

Reno Omokri is a gospeller, deep thinker and #1 bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. He is an avid traveller and  Hollywood Magazine Film Festival Humanitarian of the Year, 2019.