The Presidency describes Nasir El Rufai as a Serial Liar

In a  statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati,, on Sunday, he rejected accusations of ethnic and religious bigotry levelled against President Goodluck Jonathan by former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, whom he  described as a “serial liar.”

He described  the allegations made by the  ex-minister made during a radio interview monitored by national dailies as wild.

According to the statement, “this most recent interview, like others he gave in the past, only shows that el-Rufai is a serial liar and the facts of history bear me witness.

“el-Rufai accused President Jonathan of playing ethnic and religious politics, however, any objective watcher of the president knows that this is untrue. 
“For instance, the Muslim Ummah just emerged from the Ramadan fast and the president, though a Christian, joined them in fasting and severally broke the fast with Muslims at the Presidential Villa.

“Also, in the history of the existence of Nigeria as a nation, no leader has spent the quantum of funds that President Jonathan has spent on education specifically tailored for Islamic itinerant scholars known as the almajiri.

“In the composition of his cabinet, the president has appointed Muslims into sensitive positions and ensured a balance that has been commended by many in the Islamic fold.

“But it is most curious that this allegation is coming from Nasir el-Rufai, a man who profaned the name of Jesus Christ on Twitter by tweeting 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.

“It is only a measure of his inconsistency that el-Rufai is today accusing the presidency of being afraid of General Muhammadu Buhari whom the same el-Rufai said was perpetually un-electable.”

The statement added that “in fact, the accusation el-Rufai is now making against the president is precisely the same accusation he made against General Buhari on October 4, 2010, when he said Buhari’s insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known. Today, el-Rufai is serving this same Buhari.”

The presidency added that a proof that el-Rufai was not above lying to the media to achieve his political objective was proven in Segun Adeniyi’s book, “Power, Politics and Death,” when el-Rufai was quoted to have confessed in the presence of multiple witnesses still alive today that “there was no cabal, we created the myth to neutralise Turai (Yar’Adua).”

The presidency, in the statement, added that “we have a record of what el-Rufai truly thinks of President Jonathan from a leaked secret diplomatic memo from the United States embassy in Abuja, which 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.”

It also carpeted el-Rufai over his comment on the vice president, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, saying that it was unfortunate.

The report quoted el-Rufai as describing the administration of Sambo in Kaduna State as a disaster, purporting that the vice president, as a former governor of Kaduna State, incurred a huge debt profile that compelled his successor to complain.

“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.  

“For the records, when the vice president was in charge as governor of Kaduna, 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,” the statement added.

It advised Nigerians to subsequently take el-Rufai’s words with not just a pinch of salt, but a spoonful, because “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways