₦airaland Forum

Jostoman:
i just don't know why I didn't like criticising him, BAT supporters use to call El-rufai all sorts of names like, terrorist, miglet, religion bigot and they also said he is wicked but am still trying to study him.

Hmmm

Enwhen:
E go shock u cos u don't knw much about nigerian politics ...it's so glaring , Atiku is the next president

Find another talk brother

Jostoman:
No comment from me now.

Josto my man counter the article na

Enwhen:
Tell Us the Trillion Tinubu hide and also the bullion van...so unfortunate that ATIKU is the next president, only God can stop him

You are funny o Atiku is not going anywhere

Kagd10:
You mean the school will give or show Tinubu's certificate to you? You dey ment?

They've confirmed he was their student. Sink that into your skull

Look if I insulted you above I am sorry I am not an abusive person and we should not be insulting ourselves for politicians that doesn’t care . See let me explain to you how a memo of that query works in an institution.

Every memo asking for results or transcripts follow what will call through.

There was no through in the letter.

No Faculty

No department

Just from the Registrar .

In Europe countries we call the head chancellor
.
In the USA it’s called A Dean . There should be a remark to his office and through a faculty.

Kagd10:
You mean the school will give or show Tinubu's certificate to you? You dey ment?

They've confirmed he was their student. Sink that into your skull

a university wrote that memo ? If you no go school no Dey talk online na . Go hawk gala

famology:
Take him to court mugu

E don enter insult

School when no get certificate for Abroad that one no be school na fellowship

famology:
Stop fooling yourself. This was part of the evidence supplied by the school in the gani fawehimin case.

Stop fooling yourself also . Where is the certificate abi the school no Dey give certificate?

Do you study and take a handshake home ?

PrincessofDSS:
Be at peace with your mind and keep telling Nigerians the truth

God bless you for understanding the truth

OlawaleBammie:
Oga, with all this ur story and rants now, where is ur link to source it out??

Use ur brain

I am sorry sir I have used my brain. Here is the link sir .

http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/exclusive/god-will-never-forgive-me-if-i-support-atiku-for-president-obasanjo/

Any cyber cafe Along Carpenter village in Jakande estate Ejgbo can do this na

An Archive.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Friday that former Vice
President Atiku Abubakar should not count on him for support in his latest
bid to actualise his life-long ambition of being elected the president of
Nigeria.
The former president, one of the most influential of his living peers,
hinged his blistering position on the unsavoury corruption perception of
Mr Atiku while speaking with PREMIUM TIMES shortly after his arrival from
Kigali on Friday afternoon.

“How can I be on the same side with Atiku?” Mr Obasanjo asked. “To do what?”

“If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not
know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support,” he added.
Mr Obasanjo rejected all notions that his remarks could be deemed too
personal, coming as 2019 presidential campaign gathers steam with Mr
Abubakar amongst the front-runners.

The pronouncement comes barely two weeks after Mr Abubakar declared his
intention to run for president, touting his pro-business credentials and
lambasting President Muhammadu Buhari for his handling of the country’s
security situation.

Before then, the former vice president, who has unsuccessfully run for the
top office multiple times, spent the past few months criss-crossing the
country as part of a strategy aimed at broadening his appeal amongst
politicians and the electorate.

It also comes a little over a month after the two met at an event in Abuja
and shook each other’s hands before photographers, days after reports said
Mr Obasanjo was under pressure to back Mr Abubakar.

“I do not have personal grudges with anyone,” Mr Obasanjo said. “If you do
not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us.”

“It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual,”
he said. “If you are working for the good of Nigeria, I am working with
you. If you are not working for the good of Nigeria it does not matter who
you are I am not working with you.”

In making his position clear on Mr Abubakar ahead of the presidential
primaries in October, Mr Obasanjo has put to rest several months of
speculation about whether he would soften his borderline disposition to
his former vice president of eight years.
Settling old scores

The disclosure also exposed a fundamental fracture between Mr Obasanjo,
who seems hell-bent at ensuring that the alleged transgressions of the
past were not forgotten, and Mr Abubakar, who now appears in high spirit
for reconciliation.

The former vice president is locked in a fierce contest for the Peoples
Democratic Party’s presidential ticket with several political bigwigs on
the platform of the major opposition party.

The ever-broadening field already includes Rabiu Kwankwaso, Sule Lamido,
Ahmed Makarfi and Taminu Turaki. While some of these politicians are
already capable of challenging Mr Abubakar for the ticket, the recent
addition of Senate President Bukola Saraki and Governor Aminu Tambuwal,
both of whom are being rumoured as equally running for president, could
further complicate Mr Abubakar’s chances.

Mr Obasanjo did not specifically say whom he would back for the PDP
ticket. Already, the African Democratic Party, with which he now publicly
identifies, has entered into an alliance that would see it and over 30
other political parties present a joint presidential ticket with the PDP..

After the former president said he would not support President Muhammadu
Buhari for a second term, widespread conclusion had been that he would
back anyone presented as the major challenger, even if this turned out to
be Mr Abubakar.

“Most of you do not understand the way I operate,” Mr Obasanjo said. “And
I thought your own paper will understand better.”
“I know Atiku very well. And I have mentioned my position with Atiku. My
position has not changed,” he said.

On a personal note, he added, “If my children are getting married, he has
sent representatives. If his children are getting married, I have sent
representatives. That is social. That is not political.

But “on political ground, my position has not changed. If I support Atiku
for a political office other than the one I supported him in the past when
I did not know him,” maybe, but not “now that I know him, God will not
forgive me.”

A spokesperson for Mr Abubakar did not provide a response to Mr Obasanjo’s
statement when reached for comments Friday night, indicating that the
campaign was likely going to ignore the former president rather than
engage him openly.

Mr Obasanjo did not offer further remarks on his grouse with Mr Abubakar,
but he had repeatedly complained of his former right-hand man’s alleged
sharp practices.

Mr Obasanjo, 81, tapped Mr Abubakar as his running mate in 1999, and both
went on to rule Nigeria until 2007. The pair started on a good note for
Nigeria’s democracy, working together to dismantle the statist political
economy imposed by successive military administrations for more liberal
economic policies.

Mr Obasanjo trusted Mr Abubakar with key government initiatives, placing
him in charge of the National Council on Privatisation to midwife the sale
of federal assets which were not only dysfunctional at the time but fast
becoming white elephants draining national resources.

But years into the administration, Mr Obasanjo started accusing Mr
Abubakar of corruption, and at a point, set up a panel to probe his
deputy. aAnti-graft detectives allegedly came up with damning dossiers
that linked his lieutenant to a slew of financial misdeeds.

When United States authorities commenced investigation into the infamous
iGate scandal, Mr Obasanjo asked Nigerian anti-corruption agencies to
cooperate fully with their counterparts from America.

The F.B.I. accused Nigerian and American officials of running a bribery
racket in the award of a broadband project to expand Internet coverage in
Nigeria in the mid-2000s.

Specifically, Mr Abubakar was said to have received kickbacks for his role
in helping iGate, an American firm, secure the contract. Williams
Jefferson, an American politician who was a member of the U.S. Congress at
the time, was identified as a political associate of Mr Abubakar with whom
the Nigerian leader allegedly connived to inflate the contract and get
illicit payouts for seeing it through.

It was further reported that the infamous $100,000 cash which
investigators found in Mr Jefferson’s refrigerator was intended as parts
of the bribes to be paid out to Mr Abubakar. Mr Abubakar strongly denied
ties to the fraud.
Mr Jefferson was convicted on 11 out of 16 counts of criminal charges
filed against him in 2009 and sentenced to jail shortly thereafter.

But Mr Abubakar was never arraigned, much less convicted of any crime.
During Mr Jefferson’s trial, prosecutors failed to prove him guilty of
allegations of bribing foreign officials, which meant that there was no
evidence to link Mr Abubakar to the $100,000 bribe.

Still, the claims that Mr Abubakar was involved in the bribery remained
widespread. They were also largely linked to the mystery surrounding the
former vice president’s ability to travel to the U.S., which was perhaps
the biggest of his alleged political baggage until the position of Mr
Obasanjo.

Mr Abubakar strongly denied having any questions to answer in the U.S.,
and repeatedly said he applied for U.S. visa but was not granted. The U.S.
Embassy in Abuja often declines comments on visa matters involving Mr
Abubakar.

Mr Obasanjo, whose two terms were on the platform of the PDP, has since
become estranged from the party. In 2015, he abandoned former President
Goodluck Jonathan and threw his support for Mr Buhari, after years of
tension over which direction held better promise for the country’s future.

Although Mr Obasanjo said he regretted supporting Mr Buhari, and now said
he would work to ease him out of office in 2019. He also wrote a public
letter aimed at the president in January, urging him not to run for
reelection and or risk being disgraced out of office.

Yet, he felt that Mr Abubakar would not be appropriate as his stand-in
candidate next February.

“If Jonathan had performed, we would not have had Buhari,” Mr Obasanjo said.
Mounting vulnerabilities

Mr Abubakar defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress last
November. It would be his third time of leaving a political party in a
quest to actualise his presidential ambition which began in 1992.

He contested against Moshood Abiola for the Social Democratic Party’s
ticket in the 1993 elections, but said he stepped down for the late
business mogul after being pressured to do so.

After completing his two terms as vice-president under the PDP, Mr
Abubakar moved to then-newly-formed Action Congress after it became clear
that Mr Obasanjo will not tip him as his successor.

He won the ticket of the AC, now defunct, but lost to Umar Yar’Adua in the
2007 presidential polls. He later returned to the PDP, in time for his
disclosure of interest in the then-ruling party’s presidential ticket for
the 2011 elections. He was, however, beaten to this by Mr Jonathan, whose
status as acting-president following the death of Mr Yar’Adua in May 2010
placed him in a better position to use the party’s machinery to his
advantage.

In 2014, Mr Abubakar again abandoned the PDP and joined the APC, which was
a merger of at least four political parties. He vied for the party’s
ticket and lost to Mr Buhari at the December 2014 convention in Lagos.
Mr Abubakar made his way back to the PDP in November 2017, after it became
clear to him that Mr Buhari would seek re-election and he would be
difficult to stop him as an incumbent.

Mr Abubakar’s apparent inconsistencies, the raging controversy around his
U.S. visa status and now the unambiguous position of Mr Obasanjo could all
make for a devastating political cocktail, said political analyst Gbola
Oba.
Mr Oba said the short term consequence of Mr Obasanjo’s comments is
two-fold: “One, he is now vulnerable to easy shots from those contesting
the primaries with him. And secondly, there would be genuine fears amongst
the kingmakers within his party that Mr Obasanjo might work actively
against the PDP if Mr Atiku gets the ticket.”

Mr Oba, chief executive at Automedics in Lagos, said Mr Obasanjo’s
statement was not entirely surprising.

“Once you have offended him, you can never get rehabilitated to the point
that he will like you again,” Mr Oba said, implying that the former
president is vindictive. “Atiku is politically dead if Obasanjo is still
around.”

Mr Oba expressed strong doubts that Mr Obasanjo’s reasons for not
supporting Mr Abubakar was strictly based on alleged corrupt personality
traits.

“It was because of what Atiku put him through in 2003 when governors said
they did not want Obasanjo to return as president,” Mr Oba said. “Once
Atiku accepted the pleas of his boss at the time, many concluded that his
future in politics would be very tough.”

On Thursday, Nobel laurete, Wole Soyinka, said Mr Obasanjo “knelt down” Mr
Abubakar in 2003 to clinch the ticket of the PDP.

Speaking during the presentation of his new book in Lagos, Mr Soyinka was
quoted by The Nation as saying he warned Mr Abubakar that he would pay a
heavy price.

“Before the PDP primaries in January 2003, Obasanjo got everyone he knew
could reach me on the surface on the earth including Yemi Ogunbiyi and my
son, to get me to help him intercede when it was clear that (Abubakar)
Atiku was in a position to take his job. He knew Atiku had a lot of regard
for me and calls me ‘Uncle’” The Nation reported.

“The pressure was intense. Of course, I could not have knelt before Atiku
not to embark on a course of action that would lead to his boss’ disgrace.
But I can confirm to you that Obasanjo as president knelt down before
Atiku so that he would not lose his job.

“But I warned Atiku that for making Obasanjo to kneel down for you, be
sure you would have to pay heavily for that. I guess my warning came to
pass if you remember Atiku’s dramatic change of fortune once Obasanjo was
sworn in for a second term of office.”

Still, Mr Oba said Mr Abubakar may continue his campaign, but should be
ready to swim against the tide where Mr Obasanjo is concerned.
“He should not see Obasanjo as a complimentary force in any way, shape or
form,” the analyst said.

Mr Oba described Mr Atiku as “one of the very few characters who are
well-resourced to play the game on the field of play now,” because to be a
president of Nigeria now, “you need a minimum of between $1.5 billion and
$2 billion.”

Mr Abubakar is seen as a favourite for his vast wealth. A former Customs
officer, former vice president has investments in agriculture, education,
logistics and even fast-food businesses.

While he is expected to mouth these credentials throughout the campaign,
his major policy thrust is rooted in the urgent needs to restructure the
country. He has since taken the message of restructuring to Nigeria’s
inner corners, describing the current federal system as unitary and
virtually unworkable.

At a time of heavy sentiment and growing distrust against the federal
structure, which critics say concentrates power at the centre to the
detriment of a larger, diverse population, Mr Abubakar’s campaign said his
message was resonating greatly amongst Nigerians. But how far he would be
able to go would depend on which support he gets and at what price,
analysts said.

Although Mr Obasanjo currently holds no position in the PDP, his contacts
within the party are still widely deemed deep enough to influence
decisions. The former president has been courted extensively in recent
weeks, and the party’s leadership is still said to be keen on getting his
support in regaining its lost political fortunes.

Only three weeks ago, PDP Chairman Uche Secondus led other party stalwarts
to hold talks with Mr Obasanjo at his residence in Abeokuta.

But next year’s presidential ticket would be won largely by a candidate’s
ability to convince the delegates than the domineering influence of a
politician, said PDP’s spokesperson Kola Ologbondiyan.

“There will be a convention and there will be statutory candidates elected
from all the local government areas in the country,” Mr Ologbondiyan told
PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Friday night. “It is those who would
participate in the election that the delegates would vote for, and there
would be no internal or external influence.”

A backhanded compliment

Before wrapping up his exchanges with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Obasanjo weighed
in on Mr Abubakar’s campaign. The former vice president appointed Gbenga
Daniel as campaign director at the end of May, becoming the first of PDP’s
presidential candidate to fully form a campaign structure.

But the former Ogun State governor also has a history with Mr Obasanjo.
“As for Gbenga Daniel, they are birds of the same feather” with Mr Atiku,
he said. Mr Daniel had an open confrontation with Mr Obasanjo over the
2011 governorship ticket in Ogun State. As Mr Daniel wound down his two
terms, Mr Obasanjo favoured Tunji Olurin, one of his long-term associates,
a proposal Mr Daniel rejected, according to those familiar with the feud.

Although Mr Obasanjo had his way, as Mr Olurin got the PDP’s ticket in the
election, he strongly believed that the PDP would have defeated Ibikunle
Amosun had Mr Daniel not supported Gboyeka Isiaka in Peoples Party of
Nigeria, using his power of incumbent to split potential PDP votes in the
three-way race.

Both Mr Daniel and his spokesperson declined PREMIUM TIMES’ requests for
comments between Friday night and Saturday morning.

Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State is currently in the eye of the storm over the controversial wealth he allegedly got through General Sani Abacha, a former Head of State.
There have been reports on how Bagudu used phoney companies to siphon and move funds allegedly stolen by Abacha but the governor has denied the stories.
In a fresh controversy, Pandora Papers, one of the biggest leaks of financial documents in the world, has uncovered how Bagudu dispatched a delegation to Singapore in search of a new haven to shelter which is a target of ongoing forfeiture proceedings by the United States Department of Justice.
Pandora Papers investigation – led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, including more than 600 journalists, reported that huge funds, warehoused offshore, is part of billions of dollars Bagudu helped the Sani Abacha family to steal from Nigeria in the 1990s.

“Referred by Farrer and Co., a prestigious centuries-old London law firm that has represented the British royal family, Bagudu’s choice of secrecy provider in Singapore was Asiaciti Trust, an entity notorious for helping clients hide behind opaque offshore trusts to launder dirty money across borders.

“The Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS, imposed a fine of one million and a hundred thousand dollars on Asiaciti in July 2020 for “serious breaches” of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations between 2007 and 2018.

Bagudu’s brother fingered in ‘dirty wealth’

“When on February 23, 2010, Mr Bagudu’s delegation – comprising his brother, Ibrahim Bagudu, and London lawyer, Ben Davies, from Byrne and Partners, now a part of PCB Byrne – met with Asiaciti’s officials, they registered his preference for a new structure of secrecy to oil the flow of his dirty wealth for the benefits of himself and his family.

Late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha

“In 1997, some 13 years earlier, Mr Bagudu had structured offshore holdings Ridley Trust and Ridley Group in notorious tax and secrecy havens, Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands, positioning himself as the unseen but ultimate beneficiary. But in 2010, he wanted to terminate the Ridley structure and transfer his assets into another structure, hence the need for Asiaciti’s service in Singapore.

“The reason, according to a 2010 Asiaciti memo, was control. As noted in the memo, Ibrahim told the February 2010 meeting that his brother, Mr Bagudu – “the client” – had become “disillusioned” with institutional and independent trustees (of the Ridley Trust) as they (he and his brother) had no control over their action or inaction and suggested they feared they could lose the hidden assets.

“He then insisted that any new trustee arrangements to be erected in Singapore “must ensure that the family cannot lose ‘control’ of the assets.”

‘Millions in cash transferred abroad’

The report added in months that followed, 99 million euros in cash and securities was then transferred from Ridley to a new structure enabled by Asiaciti, which brushed aside red flags about Bagudu’s controversial background and source of his wealth.

“Asiaciti acted with advice from Farrer and Co. and Byrne and Partners, now a part of PCB Byrne, documents showed,” the report read.

The Bagudu Blue structure

Documents showed that Asiaciti helped Bagudu to set up a multi-layered structure with footprints in at least three countries, namely Singapore, Cook Islands, and the United Kingdom.

At the head of the structure is Blue Holdings Trust, registered in Cooks Island as a “purpose trust” to “wholly” own a Singapore-incorporated private trust company, Blue PTC Pte Ltd., with Bagudu’s brother, Ibrahim, and an Asiaciti nominee as directors.

The Blue PTC Pte Ltd is in turn the trustee of two family trusts – Blue Family Trust (1) and Blue Family Trust (2). Under each trust, then, is a Singapore family-owned investment holding company, FHIC, Blue Holdings (1) Pte Limited, and Blue Holdings (2) Pte Limited, respectively.

Each of the FHIC has an investment account with Waverton Investment Management, formerly JO Hambro Investment Management, and James Hambro and Partners, both London-based firms. Assets kept with the two firms are now frozen, according to U.S. court documents. America has been at the forefront of helping Nigeria recover the Abacha loot, saying that hundreds of millions of dollars stolen were laundered through banks under its jurisdiction.

The beneficiaries of each of the family trusts and the corresponding investments domiciled in London were Bagudu, his wife, seven children, and his brother, Ibrahim.

“In September 2010, according to minutes of some meetings we reviewed, a sum of 99 million euros was moved from Ridley through the Blue PTC in Singapore to the investment accounts in London and distributed as follows:

“Blue Holdings (1) (17,007,016 euros): Waverton – seven million euros; James Hambro – 10,007,016 euros.

“Blue Holdings (2) (81,841,163 euros): Waverton – 23 million euros; James Hambro – 58,841,163 euros,” the report read.

Bagudu was reportedly involved with all the offshore front companies and bank accounts – from the British Virgin Islands to Ireland, Switzerland, England, Guernsey, and Jersey – used to steal and launder billions of dollars belonging to Nigeria under the Abacha regime as a director, signatory on accounts or prime beneficiary, according to U.S. court documents and incorporation filings from the Pandora Papers leaks.

In another scheme, the conspirators were also said to have defrauded Nigeria of more than 282 million U.S. dollars by causing the government to repurchase Nigeria’s own debt from one of their companies for more than double what Nigeria would have paid to repurchase the debt in the open market.

According to American investigators, the initial funding of Bagudu’s Ridley’s account at Credit Agricole Indosuez, London, to the tune of 90 million U.S. dollars in 1998 was from the Par bonds and the debt-buy-back fraud.

The Ridley assets were later transferred to the Blue structure facilitated by Asiaciti and are the outstanding defendant assets being targeted for forfeiture by the United States, court documents showed.

The U.S. filed its forfeiture litigation in 2014. It said, then, the assets held by the Blue holdings, traceable to the old Ridley structure, and domiciled in London investment portfolios held with Waverton and James Hambro, were last valued at a total of 96 million euros.

Bagudu’s brother, Ibrahim, continues to claim the assets, seeking to prevent their forfeiture to Nigeria, court documents showed.

Bagudu’s lawyers respond

Responding to questions from investigators, Nicola Boulton of PCB Byrne, Mr Bagudu’s lawyers, said “all monies held by the Blue Trusts are lawfully held,” citing a 2003 settlement between Mr Bagudu and the Nigerian government under then-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

His treachery also came to fore during the last election when his friend, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu contested for the presidency. At the last minute, while Mallam Ribadu was betrayed in the South West for few billions of naira, El-Rufai led the foot soldiers of crusade against Ribadu’s candidature to elders in the north. Such backstabbing on such large scale Nigeria has not witnessed in a long time. The same thing he did to Donald Duke, another avowed friend of his, who is now left licking the wounds of betrayal from a trusted ally.

Not long ago, sensing that General Buhari’s large following in the north would threaten his own presidential ambition, El Rufai came public to label the retired general “unelectable.” Now, after being pushed to a corner on account of that statement, he has made a detour to sing the praise of the same man he so labelled.

The grand finale of all his lies is manifest in his memoir, The Accidental Public Servant. A publication that has been generally discredited by all the living characters covered therein. The ONLY character in that memoir that is saintly is Mallam El-Rufai. Soludo described the memoir as an “intellectual fraud”; while Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and others dubbed it a “cocktail of lies.”

El Rufai is reputed for serial lying among those who really know him. It is also an open secret that he is a major financier of Owoyele Sowore and his Sahara reporters crew. And that is his major propaganda medium for feeding the Nigerian and foreign readers (as well as copycat reporters and bloggers) with false news in the name of scoops that Sahara reporters usually propagate from “unidentified sources.” It also believed that El Rufai is the brain behind Lamido Sanusi’s recent public expose about the federal government, after having collected his own N5 billion controversial contract from CBN.

By Mohammed Seidu

When it comes to the game of propaganda, not even the legendary Paul Joseph Goebbels – the Minister of Propaganda in the Hitler’s Third Reich – can match our own Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. Times over, he has proven that he has no equal in the art of treachery and cunningness. His ability to manipulate public discourse to suit his own view and agenda has not been matched yet. And if he has something to say and no one seems to be listening, he has an uncanny way of bulldozing his opinion into the public space and consciousness through his stooge medium, Sahara reporters, using fanciful pseudonyms.

After his infamous tenure as minister of the FCT where buildings of thousands of honest and hardworking Nigerians were brought down in a phantom city sanitation exercise, sending many to their early graves, only to re-allocate hundreds of plots of such demolished space to himself, his family and cronies, he now sits as Twitter warlord and media sponsor to continue his damaging business; only that this time, he demolishes people’s reputation and frustrates their efforts at political ascension.

On Twitter, El Rufai presents himself as an altruist, whose major concern is the welfare of Nigerians, so he constantly takes a swipe at any perceived “anti-people” policy. But the discerning ones know that this is mere fronting. El Rufai cannot be described as a humanist. The only person El Rufai cares about is El Rufai. Was he not the arrowhead in the campaign of silencing the opposition or perceived enemies during the OBJ administration? Have we forgotten how Chief Audu Ogbeh was shoved through the exit door at gunpoint? Have we forgotten the numerous atrocities committed by the OBJ regime, some of which were traced to the accidental public servant?

Indeed, if there are traits that cut across many present day Nigerian politicians, it is inconsistency and a lack of ideology. Many of our so called politicians cannot be identified with a notable ideology. They change with the weather; they move with the tide.

That is why you see a Nigerian politician who benefitted so much from the establishment, suddenly become an emergency activist after seeing the rug pulled off his feet. Or another who has sapped the national treasury cross over to the opposition and start to throw stones at those in government, while projecting himself as incorruptible to the public. That is the reason some of us are not so amazed at how Mallam El-Rufai has transformed from a pain in the asses of Nigerians into an activist and their number one friend who is so concerned about their welfare that he battles the government of the day on their behalf.

History of Betrayals and Doublespeak

Betrayal and speaking with both sides of the mouth are another hallmark of Mallam El-Rufai while in and out of office. Let’s start with former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who considered El-Rufai a loyalist when the accidental public servant was appointed to chair the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE). But when OBJ and Atiku fell out, it was El-Rufai who headed the team that dragged the Turaki Adamawa’s image in the mire, trumping up his excesses for the Nigerian public to see.

Then came the Yar’adua regime. We were all regaled with the tale of how El-Rufai was instrumental in foisting Yar’adua on Nigeria then. But when Yar’adua was not doing his bidding, El-Rufai turned his propaganda machine against the good-intentioned Yar’adua and started to plant stories in the media to paint the late President as weak-willed and a puppet controlled by the cabal. God bless Mr. Segun Adeniyi who told Nigerians the whole truth in his book, Power Politics and Death; thus helping us to see El-Rufai in his true colour.

During Yar’adua’s health crisis, stories were flying around about a cabal supposedly led by Turai Yar’adua who purportedly held the nation to ransom. To be frank, I was one of those who believed that grand concoction of El-Rufai. However, Segun Adeniyi’s book enlightens us that a cabal never existed, and that it was all a fabrication of El-Rufai – a claim the former minister has never denied. Imagine what a laugh he must have had over us all then, with the press and public discourse agog over tales of a certain cabal that never existed.

“I didn’t lie about him, he can’t deny it. There were people there; there were witnesses.” Those were the words of Segun Adeniyi in an interview with Sunday Trust of March 12, 2012.

It is interesting to note that El Rufai himself later came clean on this cabal issue shortly after paying a visit to the newly appointed Vice President, Namadi Sambo. Perhaps, he thought he would be appointed to the inner caucus of President Goodluck Jonathan, now that Yar’adua was out of the equation.

His doublespeak was crystallised in a United States diplomatic cable made public by Wikileaks in 2011. In the cable, El-Rufai described President Jonathan as “clean and honest”. The confidential cable with reference 07ABUJA77 reveals that El-Rufai gave the endorsement during an interactive session with the former American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr John Campbell, as the 2007 general elections was in top gear. Was Mallam El-Rufai hallucinating when he returned the verdict of “clean and honest” on GEJ then? How come he is now the lynchpin who feeds the foreign media with damaging scoops about the Nigerian people and government as recently revealed by an investigative reporter?

seunmsg:
No. He was in the house from 2011-2015. He completed his tenure successfully and was even the Chairman house committee on communications. He represented my constituency back then so I know him a little.

This is just a fake news fabricated by opposition to further tarnish Tinubu’s image. They always get away with things like this because there is a very large population of Nigerians out there who are so daft that they believe every publication without fact checking in as much as it is against people they don’t like.

to article is old and Authentic nothing like opposition here