Northern group slams El-Rufai over criticism on Tinubu

Northern Patriots Forum (NPF) has criticized the former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, for criticizing President Ahmed Bola Tinubu and his administration.

El-Rufai, during his interview on Arise Television on Monday, accused President Tinubu and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, of orchestrating his failed ministerial nomination.

The embattled former Governor specifically said President Tinubu did not want him in his cabinet, not any security report. He also accused the NSA of fighting him due to his (Ribadu) Presidential ambition in 2031.

Reacting through a statement signed by its Coordinator, Capt. Monday Ishakwu, on Wednesday, the Northern Patriot Forum said El-Rufai lacks the moral right to attack President Tinubu in such a manner, having failed woefully in his 8-year administration as Kaduna Governor.

The Forum acknowledged that President Tinubu’s outings as President in less than two years have recorded more trophies than Governor El-Rufai’s eight-year misrule.

While warning Mallam El-Rufai to be careful in his utterances, the Forum opined that his mouth and conduct as Kaduna State Governor made him unpopular politically in the north and discredited him nationally and internationally, including his failed ministerial ambition.

The statement read, “President Tinubu actually wanted him to join his cabinet. He actually nominated him and sincerely reserved a lucrative portfolio, if he had scaled through the Senate screening.

“But multiple security reports from security agencies indicted him and suggested he would be a ‘diplomatic liability’, should he eventually emerged a cabinet member of President Tinubu.

“The agencies cited his controversial past statements and actions. One of such incidents was his 2019 threat to European Union election observers, where he warned, ‘We are waiting for the person who will come and intervene. They will go back in body bags.

“I’m sure the President too would have regretted it, if El-Rufai had eventually made the list, because shortly after that, his own State House of Assembly indicted him of mismanaging a whooping N423bn under 8 years. Harboring such a person in your cabinet would have brought a dent in the integrity of Mr. President and a question mark on his anti-corruption stance.

“Now, he is driven by envy and jealousy of the Tinubu administration’s laudable reforms, and he is pained that all these great achievements could be recorded in less than two years without him as a Minister.

“He blames everyone for what his mouth has cost him. It is either he is blaming the Kaduna Governor, or he is blaming Ribadu, or Senator Shehu Sanni, or he is blaming President Tinubu. What an obsession!

“He has forgotten all his atrocious outings as Kaduna Governor. He never knew all those would come to hunt him after his tenure. He could enjoy constitutional immunity, but he can’t erase the bad impressions on the memories of Nigerians and the international community.

“El-Rufai’s alleged role in the Zaria Shiite Massacre of 2015, where 438 civilians were killed, as well as accusations of funding violent herdsmen responsible for attacks in Southern Kaduna, were also part of the security reports that stopped his ministerial ambition.

“Nigerians can not also forget in a hurry his derogatory remarks about Jesus Christ and his 2019 assertion that even if he brought the Pope, Christians will never vote for him. His religious intolerance is one of the major obstacles and people see him as a fanatic, an extremist”.