El Rufai Became ‘Demented’ After Losing Ministerial Appointment

A former presidentil aide, Reno Omokri says former Governor Nasir El Rufai is suffering from dementia due to his loss of ministerial appointment.

Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan made the remark on his verified X handle on Sunday, in his reaction to the former governor’s criticism of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for alleged nepotism and favouring Lagos with federal projects.

The magazine reports that the former governor has been trenchantly criticised  by not a few Nigerians, including former Senator Shehu Sani, over his allegation that Tinubu’s appointments are lopsided in favour of the South west.

For instance, Sani described Governor El Rufai Tenure in Kaduna as an ‘Apatheid’ era where the people of ‘Southern Kaduna’ were highly marginalised in terms of appointment.

Reacting, Omokri said the former governor is still very angry with President Tinubu for losing the ministerial appointment last year.

Recall that El Rufai failed to scale the Nigerian Senate Ministerial screening, since then, not a few insist that he has been angry with President Tinubu for failing to pull his weight behind him after his nomination.

According to Omokri, the former governor failed to speak out against former President Buhari despite the fact that the former leader favoured the north with appointments and projects, describing El Rufai’s outbursts against Tinubu to be ‘clever by half’.

The height of Buhari’s intransigence, Omokri said, was when “Nigeria took out a $2 billion loan to build a railway in Niger Republic” because the former president’s mother hailed from the country. El Rufai did not speak against the act, he said, adding that if the former leader could construct a railway in another country due to his affiliation, nothing is wrong with President Tinubu approving loans for a railway to be built in Lagos, which will benefit most Nigerians.

Below Omokri’s remark

Nasir el-Rufai is just being clever by half in expressing his frustration at not being made a minister by attacking the funding of a rail project in Lagos by the Federal Government.

Under Buhari, Nigeria took out a $2 billion loan to build a railway in Niger Republic. Did el-Rufai complain then? Not at all! Today, that same Niger is now hostile towards Nigeria.

If we can build a railway worth $2 billion (which was 10% of Niger Republic’s GDP as at then) for a foreign country, simply because General Buhari’s father was from Niger Republic, why shouldn’t the Federal Government contribute towards building a railway in Lagos State?

After all, 8% of Nigeria’s population lives in Lagos, while 35% of our GDP comes from Lagos, which contributes ₦44.17 trillion to our economy. How much does Niger Republic contribute to our GDP?

Did the Federal Government under Jonathan not also spend $1.2 billion building the Abuja-Kaduna superfast 187-kilometre railway?

Did el-Rufai register a complaint then? Even el-Rufai himself used government money to pay herdsmen not to kill (they collected the money and increased the killing). But he does not want government money to go towards building infrastructure to benefit Nigerians?

Secondary schools are constitutionally the responsibility of the Federal Government, yet under Jonathan, the Federal Government spent $769 million in building 165 Almajiri Schools in every northern state. Why did El-Rufai not complain then? Why only complain now that the Federal Government is contributing towards a rail project in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial capital?

Losing out on being a minister should not make you so demented that you begin to attack a government you once begged to be a part of.