El-Rufai Names Jonathan As Godfather Of Oil Thieves In Niger Delta……Says VP Namadi Sambo A Disaster Outspoken former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Nasir El-Rufai today described President Goodluck Jonathan as the godfather of Nigeria’s oil thieves, saying the president should stop pretending he doesn’t know those stealing the nation’s crude oil blind. He equally accused the president of shielding the oil thieves because the proceeds are being used to buy and stockpile arms and ammunition for the ijaws to launch a war against Nigeria should Jonathan fail to win the 2015 elections. El-Rufai who spoke as guest of the week on the popular Liberty FM radio station based in Kaduna did not mince words when he declared that ”Jonathan knows those who are stealing the crude oil, he knows what they are doing with the money, they are preparing for war and Nigeria will defeat them.” While warning of the consequence of arming Ijaw youths for the purpose of rebelling against the country, the ex-minister said: “This country has gone through one civil war and I don’t know if any country has survived two civil wars. And those that are stealing crude oil and buying arms and stockpiling should know that its not the number of arms that determines who defeats a war. So they should think deeply and learn from history. One who doesn’t learn from history will be a victim of it. “Unfortunately, Jonathan’s political handlers thought that if they introduce religion they will be able to divide the North and take the Christian part of the North to vote for Jonathan. And if they introduce ethnicity, they will get the whole of the South. That’s their winning strategy and now they are surprised that after dividing the country they are finding it difficult to get the cooperation of everyone. “The danger of division is that you defeat social trust which makes it very difficult for you to cover and they are still playing this game. Now if Jonathan is from minority, how did he get elected? Was he elected by his minority groups or by other Nigerians? “If we all decided to follow ethnicity, Jonathan cannot even win election outside Bayelsa State because apart from Bayelsa no any other place where the Ijaws are not a minority in Nigeria. So when people like Edwin Clark, Jonathan play the ethnic and religious cards, I just look at them because its not going to work. The moment anyone results to ethnicity and religion, its because he doesn’t have a better ground. “If you are performing and doing the work of the people why do you need to resort to that. It is really wrong and one of the tragedies of the Jonathan’s leadership that whoever inherits the leadership of Nigeria will have to spend the first or second year repairing is the trust and relationship between the various ethnic and religious groups. Everything under Jonathan administration has been reduced to these two things which is unfortunate. “Politics is not about religion neither is it about ethnicity. Politics is about delivering services to the people and when you are good every ethnicity and religion will benefit. Our religion is private to us, our ethnicity is an accident of birth. This government has adopted that as a political strategy and by God’s grace the people of Nigeria have experienced it and know that that does not lead to competence and will defeat them in the next elections. “There are many dangers confronting the Nigerian nation. What is more worrisome is the kind of rhetoric coming out. Whenever Asari Dokubo and Edwin Clark speak, just know that a week earlier they were called to the Villa and given some money to say it. How can a small ethnic group like the Ijaws threaten Nigeria. And the government is keeping mute over it. And the expected reaction is that you’ll also have people from the North threatening similarly. What kind of country do we live in such that nobody is in charge to bring people to order. “It is sad and again it is this political strategy of Jonathan to always use ethnicity and religion whenever there is a problem. When excess crude account is down or when there is a big story about subsidy case, they bring this religion or ethnicity into play and this is unfortunate” El-Rufai who is from Kaduna state did not also spare the former governor of the state, Namadi Sambo who is now the nation’s Vice President. He described his tenure in Kaduna state as a disaster while applauding the administration of Sambo’s predecessor, Ahmed Makarfi for ensuring peace and infrastructural development of the state. His words: “We’ve not had leadership in Kaduna State since Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi left office as Governor of Kaduna State. I know Governor Makarfi performed well in the state in terms of peace, infrastructures put in place. Since he left, Namadi Sambo as a Governor was a disaster. He wasted the resources of the state and the state acquired debt that late Governor Yakowa complained to me about before his death. “So we need a better government in Kaduna State because Kaduna is too important to be governed below the quality we can see for instance in Kano. Kaduna should be an example or a beacon in the North that will set standards of governance in the state which we don’t have that right now.” When asked about the incumbent governor of the state, the controversial ex-minister said ”Its too early and I have not analysed Governor Ramalan’s budget of 2013 and I don’t want to rush to judgement but I’ve not seen any changes.”
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 02:42:42 +0000