Presidency: El-Rufai is a Serial Liar

Mallam Nasir el-Rufai

The Presidency  Sunday dismissed the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, describing him as a "serial liar", who should not be taken seriously.

Reacting yesterday to the comments made by el-Rufai, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the wild allegations against the person of President Goodluck Jonathan, that he was playing ethnic and religious politics, was not an objective assessment of the president.

He said contrary to the comments made by el-Rufai, the president was tolerant of other religions as demonstrated by his personal respect for Islam.

Abati said: “For instance, in his breaking the fast with Muslims at the Presidential Villa, during the just concluded Ramadan period, his administration's ploughing of quantum of funds to the promotion of Islamic itinerant scholars known as the almajiri as well as  appointment of Muslims into sensitive positions is a fact that the president loves Muslims.”

Observing that el-Rufai was the one guilty of the same allegation he was making against the president, the statement drew attention to his profanity against the name of Jesus Christ on Twitter, saying it was "a joke which is too indecent to mention in the presence of civilised persons."

"This same el-Rufai is the same man who in June of last year claimed that Christians were behind the bombings of their own churches rather than terrorists and were doing this to further a Christian agenda," Abati noted. 

The spokesperson recalled that el-Rufai had been inconsistent in criticising and playing up the political credentials of former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari whom at different occasions, he described as a "perpetually unelectable" and insensitive. Today, el-Rufai is serving this same Buhari," Abati said.

He also gave example of how  el-Rufai, quoted in Segun Adeniyi's book, 'Power, Politics and Death,' confessed that: "There was no cabal, we created the myth to neutralise Turai.”

“El-Rufai sold Nigerians the dummy of a Turai cabal which was a lie used to further his own political ends.”

In a rare reference to a leaked secret diplomatic memo from the US embassy, Abati indicated that one of such documents "revealed that just before the April 2007 presidential election el-Rufai had told the then US Ambassador to Nigeria that the then vice-presidential candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was "clean and honest.”

The presidency also took exception to el-Rufai’s comment on the Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, saying it was "unfortunate."

"At no time did the late Governor Patrick Yakowa, ever accuse the vice-president of incurring any huge debt during his tenure as governor of Kaduna State," Abati wrote, adding that: "For the records, when the vice-president was in charge as governor of Kaduna State, the state never borrowed a penny from any quarters. The efforts to generate cheap funds for development, which he applied for were just recently approved by the Islamic Development Bank for the state.

"It is on record also that the vice-president made judicious use of the state’s resources in reviving the already comatose railway sector, construction of a 150-million litres per day Zaria water treatment plant, the construction of a 300-bed specialist hospital and 5,000 kilogramme grain silos for each of the three senatorial districts, the building of a games centre at the Murtala Muhammed Square and the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna; the construction of a brand new Governor’s Office at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim  House; the establishment of a mobile and effective security outfit codenamed Operation Yaki and the deployment of 27 per cent of the state’s budget to education amongst other achievements," it further added.

The presidency warned his supporters that a betrayer like him "is capable of anything and Nigerians should consequently take his words with not just a pinch of salt, but a spoonful because a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."

Reiterating that El-Rufai is treacherous, Abati said: "The false accounts he rendered in his recent collection of half-truths and outright lies which he accidentally titled: 'The Accidental Public Servant,' further defined his public image as an ungrateful, self-serving and loquacious personality."