EL-RUFAI BOOK LAUNCH: OBASANJO ANGRY, HIS ‘BOYS’ TO BOYCOTT TODAY’S PRESENTATION
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has literally declared war on
one of his cronies and former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Mallam
Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, over what he said about him in his memoir which will be
presented to the public today, even as his ‘’boys’’ vowed to boycott the
presentation of the book today.
According to the controversial former minister, now a chieftain
of the opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Obasanjo wanted a
third term at all cost despite the warning of the duo of senators David Mark
and Tunde Ogbeha, his points-men in the Senate. El-Rufai also portrays Obasanjo
as an unreliable, undependable, greedy, power seeker.
But speaking to our correspondent under anonymity, a former
minister who served in the same Obasanjo cabinet yesterday disclosed Obasanjo’s
disappointment in el-Rufai and said the former president had drawn a battle
line with him. Obasanjo’s loyalists would not honour their colleague’s invitation
today, he said.
The minister said, ‘‘What Nasir wrote about Baba (Obasanjo) was
done in bad faith. He threw caution to the wind, he really ridiculed him and
this is not fair. Baba is angry and he has told some of us that el-Rufai is
walking on a path angels could not run. I have read the book, it does not paint
Baba well at all. I wonder what came over our friend while writing the
manuscript.
‘‘What we are suspecting was the refusal of Baba to endorse
Nasir as recommended by the economic team and he was not happy about it. It was
our dream that a member of the economic team should succeed Baba in order to
avoid a situation where the foreign reserves would be depleted as we are
witnessing today, but President Obasanjo thought otherwise and we all worked
for the candidature of the late Umaru Yar A’dua which we are all regretting
today including Baba.
But for Nasir to write such crap about the former president whom
we all have tremendous respect for despite his shortcomings is disappointing,’’
the source said.
Speaking further, the former minister said although the author
singled out a former minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili, for praise: ‘‘I
doubt it if Oby would go to the programme where Baba would be the object of
ridicule. I know Nuhu (Ribadu) would not go, Femi (Fani-Kayode) would not, Uba
Sani would not move closer to that place, and I would be surprised if Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala would be there. This is what Nasir has caused and someone like me
would not be there. Hear someone abusing Baba and I would keep quiet? Never.
So, it is better we leave Nasir and his new friends to do their thing.’’
El-Rufai, in the book, discloses how Obasanjo laboured in vain
to remove term limit from the 1999 Constitution using his foot soldiers in the
National Assembly like Senator Mark (now the Senate president) and Senator
Ogbeha. According to him, if Obasanjo had listened to the two, the shame and
disgrace suffered on the floor of the Senate would have been avoided.
Obasanjo’s last day in power – el-Rufai
Even on the eve of the inauguration of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as new president, outgoing president Olusegun Obasanjo and some members of his inner cabinet were still engaged in a war of wits over what they felt were Obasanjo’s ‘huge mistakes in his presidency’.
Even on the eve of the inauguration of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as new president, outgoing president Olusegun Obasanjo and some members of his inner cabinet were still engaged in a war of wits over what they felt were Obasanjo’s ‘huge mistakes in his presidency’.
Former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir
Ahmad El-Rufai, in his book, The Accidental Public Servant, presents a vivid
account of Obasanjo’s last night in power, where he was invited to a meeting in
the Aso Rock presidential villa by the former chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, with Obasanjo.
El-Rufai recounts on page 362 that when he arrived the venue of
the meeting, he heard Obasanjo and Ribadu shouting at each other.
“When I arrived there, I could hear them shouting at each other
the moment I got out of my car. ‘You are wrong! We will recover them!’ Nuhu
said. He was banging the table. I entered the room and all of a sudden they
both went silent.”
El-Rufai says that after that meeting he had left with Ribadu
who alluded to the conversation he was having with Obasanjo before he intruded.
According to him, the former president made four huge mistakes in his
presidency.
On page 363 of the book, the former minister writes: “Many of us
felt that Obasanjo made four huge mistakes in his presidency.
The first was that Obasanjo had borrowed money to purchase
shares in Transcorp, a company known to have plans to acquire certain
government assets. The shares were offered to many government officials. Atiku
Abubakar was offered, Ngozi (Okonjo-Iweala) was offered. I dissuaded both of
them from taking up the offer because they were the chair and vice chair of the
Privatisation Council respectively.
“This Transcorp share acquisition made Nuhu very angry and this
was what he was arguing about with Obasanjo when I arrived that night, as well
as the other three mistakes of Obasanjo’s presidency: the third term effort
which we all thought was a blemish for us as an administration, the fundraising
for the Obasanjo Presidential Library while he was still in office, and the
mistake of handing power to persons who had no idea or any experience in
running the federal government.”
Besides this meeting, el-Rufai also recalls in the 627-page book
that, on that night of May 28, 2007, they had gone to the guest house where
Yar’Adua was staying to put finishing touches to the inaugural speech.
“Up to that point, Yar’Adua was consulting me, virtually every
day, on things in general and also on his inaugural speech. To Yar’Adua’s
credit, he delivered a speech that called the very elections that brought him
to power ‘flawed’. We finally convinced him to accept this, then follow it up
with a pledge to set up a high-powered commission so that we learnt from the
mistakes. We adjourned at about two in the morning.”
Source: Leadership
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