Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has described a former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, as a drowning man.
Mr Omokri stated this on his Facebook page while reacting to Mr El-Rufai’s attack on National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.
Recall that Mr El-Rufai had defended claims by activist and politician, Najatu Mohammed, who in a TikTok video lashed out at Mr Ribadu for serving in the Tinubu administration despite describing him as a corrupt person while serving as the chairman of the EFCC.
Rising in Mrs Mohammed’s defence, Mr El-Rufai said Mr Ribadu must be suffering from amnesia to deny making such claims.
But Omokri described Mr El-Rufai as frustrated man, who “lost out in Kaduna, where the Governor has wisely refused to be his Man Friday, and he lost out in becoming a minister after Kaduna residents raised several petitions against him.
“In his bitterness, he has started drowning politically, and he wants to take Malam Nuhu Ribadu, perhaps the most honest Nigerian who ever lived, a man who rejected the largest bribe in Nigeria’s history.
“If you look at the so-called evidence he displayed against Malam Ribadu, in the form of a sensational headline from 2006, it does not invalidate what Malam Ribadu said. The then Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission did not say that then-Governor Bola Tinubu was corrupt, had been investigated, found guilty, or had been indicted.
“He made a general statement about ALL serving Governors at that time, without excluding anyone. Malam Ribadu said that based on the general feeling at that time, they were lucky not to be in the same position as Governors Dariye and Alamieyeseigha.
“He did not say they had been investigated and found to be corrupt. He was speaking about the general perception about those Governors. Perception, as Nasir el-Rufai knows, is not reality.
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was a new agency at the time of that statement in 2005/6, and the head of the Commission needed to instil the fear of God in all Governors by reminding them that the EFCC was watching.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation also applies that psychological operations strategy, which is called a show of force. Shows of force are rhetoric or actions designed by a military or law enforcement body to instil fear of committing a crime in those vulnerable to temptation.
“Nasir el-Rufai mentioned the transcripts of the Federal Executive Council for that period, which he claims corroborate his assertions. If they exist, which they do not, then he is challenged to provide them.
The fact is that Malam Nuhu Ribadu did not say that President Bola Tinubu was corrupt when he was the Chairman of the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission.
“And how could Nuhu Ribadu have done that and become close friends with the same Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who engineered his emergence as the Presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria a mere four years later?
“Malam Nasir el-Rufai will have to do better than his current manipulations. On the contrary, it was he who accused General Buhari of corruption, only to turn around and become his chief vuvuzela within months.”
