Debo Adejugbe: El-Rufai, Oritsejafor and the great ‘CAN’ debate In his usual fiery self, Nasir El-Rufai had stirred the hornet’s nest when he granted an interview to the Sun Newspaper last Saturday. He answered questions on many issues; Presidency under Jonathan, Buhari, APC, CAN and several others. As far as I am concerned, he is free to throw punches at Jonathan and whoever he deems fit. This is still a democracy and people are still guaranteed the freedom of speaking freely on National or private issues, so far they are true. The presidency, reactionary as they are, through Mr. Reno Omokri has already lambasted him. Petty to a fault. The major point of the interview has been CAN’s response to his attack on their President, Ayo Oritsejafor. El-Rufai without mincing words had labeled the fiery pastor “the propaganda chief of the PDP. He lacks credibility……” juicy words if you ask me. The man was not done. He went on to summarize his thoughts on Pastor Oritsejafor as: “He is not a religious leader. He is a religious pretender. From his statements, he is a bigot, he is an ethnic irredentist and no one should take him seriously. It is sad that such a person is the head of CAN. So, he can say whatever he wants to say but we know who he is working for, we know who gave him his private jet. So, why should we worry about someone like that? He has zero credibility.” Those were choice combinations that CAN couldn’t ignore; they let out their vicious scream almost immediately. They had compelled the ‘noisy Mallam’ to shove it up his…… and book an appointment with a psychiatrist to determine his level of ‘craze’ or ‘grace’ as it applies accordingly. They brought up the subject of the expired and erroneously classified ‘Jesus tweet’ retweet and sent a subtle, veiled and conditional ‘holy threat’. Permit me to extract from their glamorous statement: “We can no longer fold our hands and allow Christian leaders to be abused by no person than el-Rufai. We can no longer take it; enough is enough. Anytime he abuses Christian leaders and Jesus Christ, we Christians will let him know that he has many forces to contend with.” “The fact that el-Rufai in his tweets abused our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and Christians ignored him doesn’t give him the impetus to make unguarded comments about Pastor Ayo (Oritsejafor) who is the leader of Christians in Nigeria. As Christians, we respect other faith and never have we abused the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar 111, who is the leader of Muslims in Nigeria. The fact that Christians are not violent doesn’t mean he should go far with his utterances. He is not in a position to tell us who should be the leader of Christians in Nigeria.” “It was this same el-Rufai that was abusing Buhari when he was in the cabinet of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo that is now fighting ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Obasanjo. “We want to let Buhari know that his problem with the country is el-Rufai. It was this same el-Rufai that was abusing Buhari when he was in the cabinet of Obasanjo that is now fighting ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo and all the fingers that fed him just because he has lost out of the PDP hoping that when Buhari becomes President in 2015, he would be given a job. “We are giving el-Rufai seven days ultimatum to inform Nigerians and the world the person he claims to know that gave Pastor Ayo his private Jet. If he fails to do that, we will open up on him and his dirty life. El-Rufai stinks to the highest heaven. He is morally depraved and lacks credibility.” I’ll like to meet whoever drafted this petty statement and give him a holy smack. WTH! Do you have to wait for him to insult your president before exposing him if it is in public interest? Are those in the executive arm of CAN this silly to resort to idiotic retort? Does it have to be Muslim versus Christian all the time? I really don’t get it; El-Rufai tweeted/granted his interview as a private citizen of Nigeria, he did not take the Christians on or CAN for that matter. He expressed an opinion about Ayo Oritsejafor as a person and it is up to readers to weigh the sensibility of his words and expressions, deduce and put him in his place – if necessary. Christians have equally lambasted Oritsejafor. Why didn’t they cry over it? And by implications of their statement, it seems Pastor Oritsejafor is on a higher pedestal than Jesus Christ. For CAN to go defensive, unbearably silly and threaten to expose El-Rufai’s moral depravity when pushed to the wall, says more about them and the cult of an organization they run. Wouldn’t it have been wiser to disprove El-Rufai’s claim on the private jet or the near-silly way their president purrs anytime the presidency calls than the silly, irresponsible and religiously childish statement they have released? El-Rufai might have been too harsh in his statements, but it necessarily doesn’t make them untrue or derogatory. We have had to listen to Asari Dokubo, Wykes, Oronto Douglas, Reuben Abati, Doyin ‘Lion’ Okupe, Labaran Maku, Reno Omokri and several others weave their stupidity around words, castigating reason and canonizing devilish intents. Never did they respond to these statements by cautioning these men but their president jumps on his high horse whenever Buhari or El-Rufai sneezes. Why won’t they respond? And to add substance to the arguments, El-Rufai wasn’t wrong. Forget El-Rufai. Forget the great Muslim-Christian debate. Forget CAN. Now, just examine the attack and the subsequent threat it elicited. Examine Pastor Oritsejafor’s previous statements and posturing. Some people build, some people destroy but those who stay in the middle are the real villains. CAN have not been a religious body for a while, joining NLC, TUC, NANS etc. in ignominy. They are the religious arm of the presidency and their president flaunts it at any opportunity given, so a little jolt isn’t bad to remind them of their responsibilities. Have they checked out how the Sultan of Sokoto carries himself around lately? If not, they should. It might teach them a thing or two about civility and decorum. That’s all.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 21:12:11 +0000
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