‘If Faced With Facts, El Rufa’i Often Chickens Out Of His Propaganda Onslaught’, Katuka Tells Obi



The Oasis Reporters
November 14, 2018

Miffed by the reported media onslaught of Nasir Ahmad El Rufa’i, Kaduna State,governor in Nigeria’s north west against Peter Obi, PDP vice presidential candidate, a citizen of the state, Meshack Katuka has written an open letter to Mr. Obi, revealing the underbelly of his state governor as regards hIs scurrilous attacks and how to contain them.
He went straight by first, paying compliments to Peter Gregory Obi,
PDP Vice Presidential candidate by writing in response to “your reply to Gov. Nasir Ahmad El Rufai of Kaduna state who in his usual fashion of half truths alleged that you were a tribal bigot as then governor of Anambra State as a result of a story he probably cooked up regarding being restricted in movement around the state, possibly in a move to foment trouble in Anambra state during a particular election.
“I was pained at first to read in a newspaper post that you dignified Mal. Nasir with a reply but became happy reading the first paragraph of your reply that carried the clause “my attention has been drawn to” suggesting that you didn’t even notice he said something until you were notified.
“Sir, Mal. El Rufa’i has been known for years to have launched media propaganda against many public figures,but eventually chickens out when facts are brought to the public for scrutiny.
He gains a lot of political capital in churning out half truths and lies, hatred, daylight deception. Little wonder, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo described him as “A pathological liar” in his book ; “My Watch” ; a clear description of how Nasir’s modus operandi works.

“Kindly recall sir, on, April 7th , 2017, Mal. Nasir Ahmad El Rufai launched a media war on the very distinguished speaker of the House of Representatives ; Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara after he personally invited him to Kaduna for a state function. This media war led to the display of pay slips to the public where the governor claimed that he earns less than 500,000 naira a month. When Dogara challenged him about the over 4.5 billion naira he collects monthly as security votes, he chickened out and claimed he used the security votes to buy CCTV cameras scattered across Kaduna State; a development residents of Kaduna are yet to see to this moment. Dogara brought facts to the public and since then, we never heard from El Rufai as regards the matter.
“On 8th September, 2017, Mal. Rufai attacked the former Minister of Women Affairs, Haj. Jummai Alhassan. He claimed that she never supported Muhammadu Buhari’s candidacy and that they warned Buhari not to appoint her as a minister but Buhari went ahead and did. From the stories we read, we learnt that Jummai Alhassan replied El Rufa’i with a threat to expose him regarding his role in the boko haram kidnap of School girls to discredit former president Jonathan’s government. Whatever that meant, we were surprised not to have received another reply from Rufai as he went numb with tails between the legs after the alleged threat.
“On 1st October, 2015, El Rufa’i launched another media propaganda claiming that the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan spent
N13 billion in 2011, N15 billion in 2012, N14 billion in 2013 and N22 billion allegedly spent in 2014 for Independence day celebrations while only 70 million naira was spent in 2015 by the Buhari led administration. He got a rebuttal from Abubakar Sulaiman, the immediate past Minister of National Planning during the Goodluck Jonathan presidency.
Abubakar told Nigerians that El Rufa’i had lied as a breakdown of the spending for this event between 2012 and 2014 goes thus; 2012-107.6million naira ; 2013- 45 million naira and 2014 had 180 million naira as expenditure. Mallam El Rufa’i knowing that his claims were false, kept mute and never spoke about it again.
Most recently, Mr. El Rufa’i told everyone that it was President Muhammadu Buhari that asked him to punish Shehu Sani for being disobedient to their party. In less than 24 hours, the presidency came out openly to clear the air, affirming that there is no truth in what El Rufa’i had said.
If one is to dwell on many of the inconsistent statements of Nasir El Rufa’i, a whole book with twelve chapters will be written but to save time, let’s embrace the description to which our former President Olusegun Obasanjo described him with: the pathological liar.”
“Dear Mr. Obi, we thought El Rufa’i was going to compare his achievements with yours as in :
1. Education:
Your educational reforms in Anambra state is unequalled as I am a witness to how you heavily invested in infrastructural development in public schools. You were concerned about developing ICT skills among young students, no wonder no public secondary school in Anambra state has less than a hundred computers in their computer labs with First grade Hummer buses for all the secondary schools in Anambra state, making transportation easy.
As a corp member back then in Anambra State, I learnt of how you always had periodic meetings with class monitors of secondary schools in Anambra for the sake of monitoring and evaluation and how you expressly gave them permission to call you directly and report any problem in their various schools. Your educational reforms yielded positive results as Anambra state emerged best in WAEC back to back during your period as governor.
El Rufa’i on the other hand spent 10bn naira for a wasteful school feeding in 8 months on ‘moi-moi’, fried yam, Jolly Jus drinks and the likes which all went down the drain with results of Kaduna state coming 12th position in WAEC examination in 2017 as against the 10th position they were in 2014.
2. Roads:
Sir, your Administration paid a lot of attention to construction of roads across Anambra state and because of you, Anambra today has the highest kilometres of state owned roads in Nigeria. The Awgbu bridge which is the longest bridge built by a state government in Nigeria, links my friend’s community; Obi Trice Emeka to the metropolis.
El Rufa’i cannot boast of any 10 kilometers of standard road, anywhere around Kaduna State.
3. Security:
While you invested heavily on local security, empowering Vigilante service to reduce all forms of killing, your friend in Kaduna state mobilised funds to go as far as Chad and Mali to appease foreign mercenaries without any permission from the Minister of foreign affairs, DSS, Defence ministry etc an act of insubordination, treasonable felony, novel arrogance that yielded no results as the kidnap along Kaduna-Abuja highway, Kachia-Kaduna road and the killings in southern Kaduna has heightened.
4. Debt Profile:
While you left Anambra state with 75 billion naira for the next government, El Rufai tirelessly seemed to collect a loan of $350 million that will take Kaduna State about 50 years to repay; something he had always criticised when he was in the opposition.
5. Modest Lifestyle:
Your lifestyle as governor in Anambra State was characterised by modesty. In Kaduna today, we know more about El Rufai’s children and their flamboyant lifestyles; snapping photos in parties abroad with white women which they post on social media while insulting and denigrating poor Nigerians.
It will interest you to know that we don’t know the names of Ahmed Makarfi’s children, Namadi Sambo’s, Patrick Yakowa’s or even Ramalan Yero’s children, the aforementioned who were all governors in Kaduna State but even kids on the streets today know the likes of Bello El Rufa’i, Bashir El Rufa’i and the likes for the flamboyant and wasteful lifestyles they live.
Sir, if El Rufa’i says he was stopped from moving around in Anambra state during election, it is not new to us as he claimed he was also stopped from moving around in Ekiti during the elections there in 2014. This affirms the possibility of Security operatives seeing him as a trouble maker, crisis entrepreneur that has capability of erupting a crisis wherever he lands.
El Rufa’i seeks to compare himself with your personality; something President Buhari himself will never attempt to.
In view of this, I will kindly advise that you pay no attention again to any tantrums El Rufa’i will throw in the near future as it is only a trick to draw attention to himself. Your integrity and statesmanship is bigger than 50 Rufai’s combined in this life and the one thereafter.
Until we meet, accept the assurances of my highest esteem.
Kind regards”.
Written by Meshack Katuka.
He’s from Jaba Local Government Area in Kaduna South.
katukameshack@yahoo.com
Twitter: @McMeshman




