By Richard Akinola
Two days ago, Nasir El Rufai said he warned PMB not to appoint Aisha Alhassan as a minister as she could not be trusted. El Rufai talking of trust! Incredible!!
Nasir El Rufai is a snake slithering through the crevices of the power edifice.
In an interview granted to The Guardian in September 2003, as the head of BPE, when asked about allegations of corruption against the then Vice president, who was the supervisory official of BPE, El Rufai said they were all lies, that those making such allegations of corruption against Atiku didn’t know the then vice president.
He said:” At BPE, l had a completely free hand. I took independent decisions and not once did the vice president even ask me to bend the rules. The bidding for the sale of any company, because of the way we structured it was so transparent that there was no way anyone could know who would win. So, if you cannot arrange anyone in advance and bribe someone to win, why should l pay somebody? But people want to believe the worst about our leaders and l don’t blame them because we have had leaders who had done all kinds of things. But l happen to know the story of Atiku Abubakar “.
This was when his relationship with Atiku was chummy. It was reported that Atiku brought him to BPE but how far that is true, l don’t know.
But barely three years later, El Rufai had jumped ship, switching to Baba’s camp in the feud between Baba and Atiku.
Speaking on BBC ” Focus on Africa” on February 22, 2007, El Rufai said:” The president’s greatest worry about the vice president running for office is the wrong message it would send. The vice president has been engaged in corrupt activities for a long time…”
How then can you trust someone who switches allegiance at the drop of the hat?
No wonder Obasanjo said about a year ago about El Rufai:”Nasir’s penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological… his weaknesses being his ability to be loyal to anybody on any issue consistently for long but only to Nasir El Rufai…l have heard how he ruthlessly savaged the reputation of his uncle, a man who was like his foster father. I shuddered when l heard the story of what he did to his half-brother in the Air Force who is senior to him in age…”.
On this score, OBJ may be right. Was it not this same El Rufai, who is now pretending to love Buhari more than Aisha, who, in 2013 said the following against this same Buhari:
“My advice to both Babangida and Buhari is for both to retire.
Since Babangida labelled whole generations of Nigerian youth as being unfit for leadership, age has become an issue in the coming elections. While it is true that neither youth nor age supplies wisdom on their own, it makes sense to ask those who have been recurring decimals in our country’s sorry history to leave the stage. Our people surely deserve better. (I am) amazed that General Buhari cannot debate this matter without scurrying to the gutter, making claims that are baseless and unsupported by any facts…Buhari is perhaps one of the tiny few blinded by their prejudice from recognising (my) quality service.
…It is strange that a Buhari who protests when unproven claims of N2.5 billion (about US 3 billion dollars in those days!) missing oil funds are levelled against him, can gleefully elevate similar claims into facts when it concerns another. How would Buhari feel if the corruption allegations made against him by Group Captain Usman Jibrin, then a board member of PTF, are today reported as if they were proven facts? So much for ‘corrupt background’ and ‘shoddy performance’.
I wish to remind General Buhari that he has remained perpetually unelectable because of 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 well-known “.
Isn’t it a thing of curiousity that this same El Rufai is equally guilty of all he raised against Buhari? He knows when to be politically correct. The same man is pretending to be a Buhari loyalist today and campaigning for Baba’s re-election, while surreptitiously, deftly positioning himself.
Baba, beware of this man. Or rather, l should put it more creatively as Alozie Ogugbuaja did on sign board at the gate of his Ikeja, Lagos home in 1986. Instead of BEWARE OF DOGS, Alozie poignantly put:” DOGS, BEWARE OF MAN”.
Baba, please beware of this man called Nasir.
He did it to Atiku, he did it to Obasanjo, he did it to Ribadu. He will do it again to you.
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