The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has attacked Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the outgoing governor of Kaduna State, calling him a religious bigot whose cunning and polarising leadership transformed the state into the hub of abduction and banditry in Nigeria within eight years.
The forum said this in response to the former governor’s claim in a viral video that he and others were working towards the enthronement of Muslim-Muslim rule for 20 unbroken years in Kaduna and at the national level.
National Publicity Secretary of the MBF, Dr. Isuwa Dogo, said this in a statement, in Abuja, on Sunday.
The forum advised President Bola Tinubu and Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani to keep the former governor at an arms length and not allow him sneak into the corridors of power to throw the nation into chaos.
Dogo said the MBF’s attention was drawn to the condemnation of the provocative pronouncements El-Rufai, while he was addressing a select group of Islamic clerics after the conclusion of the highly disputed presidential and governorship polls.
He said, “ In the meeting with Islamic clerics that was conducted on the eve of his departure as Kaduna State Governor, el-Rufai told the preachers on how he, with others, plotted to enthrone the same-faith ticket in the state that was later successfully replicated at the Federal level.
“The former governor recalled that he, with others, was determined to ensure the Muslim-Muslim ticket was sustained for another 20 years to ensure Christians come to terms with the indispensability of the same-faith ticket as a panacea for peace in both the State and the Federal level.
“What he never told his selected preachers was that the state he ruled and ruined for eight years was turned into Nigeria’s headquarters of kidnappings and human barbarities that led to the murder of tens of thousands of people and decimation of over 100 communities under his watch.
“The MBF, as the socio-cultural organisation for ethnic nationalities that are mostly Christians of the Middle Belt Region, is outraged by the deceitful attempts by el-Rufai and his nebulous co-travellers to push our nation down the slippery slope of religious tension and bigotry.
“The outrage over the el-Rufai video clip demonstrates the level of disappointment by Nigerians over the former governor’s outburst that was aimed at inflaming religious conflagration in order to destabilise the Nigerian State.”
The MBF further said, “The unfortunate comments by this bigot, who is erroneously thought of as a nationalist and public intellectual, portray him as a divisive leader who not only thrives in creating chaos, but also reveal him as an irredeemable religious extremist whose antecedents as governor showcases him as a treacherous enemy of Nigeria that must be barred from the corridor of power.
“Even before now, the Forum has never been deceived by the pretentiousness of the former governor whose stock in trade is divisiveness hidden under the thin covering of a public intellectualism and patriotism.
“When the Senate declared the man who speaks before he thinks incapable of holding public office, not a few agreed to the recommendation of the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
“Sadly, he found himself in power and unleashed his venom of sadism on both Christians and Muslims. The video clip exposes him as the most contemptible and appalling divider-in-chief.
“His hypocrisy and innermost desire to work against the secularity of the Nigerian State have left many to ask: What is this little man, who has benefitted greatly from Nigeria, trying to achieve? If there has been any doubt of his complicity and dubiousness in the promotion of heightened political and religious tension in Nigeria; his meeting with selected members of Muslim clerics leaves no one in doubt that he is the most dangerous politician in the country today.
“His eight years in power as governor, characterised with massive killings and decimation of Christian-dominated areas of Southern Kaduna, can now be understood.
“He acted unconcerned with these genocidal attacks on communities located in the south where scores of towns and villages were decimated and tens of thousands killed, including deploying religion to subjugate the area by denying the indigenous groups political appointments.
“Now that the cat has been let out of the bag, those unsure of who El-Rufai is, now understand the chameleonic personality of this treacherous politician whose cunningness is most despicable.
“Nigerians are now aware that despite denials of the Islamisation agenda, el-Rufai has come out to declare in broad daylight the reasons behind the same-faith ticket; thereby driving the imperatives for citizens to wake up to this orchestrated stratagem of enthroning the dominance of one religion over the other.
“There is no doubt that this former governor remains a clear present and future danger to the unity of our nation. He is subtly working for a group that is unremittingly and persistently poised at installing the supremacy of the Islamic faith in the corridor of power.
“Both Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be wary of associating with him.
“This little but dangerous manipulator, who is skilled in the politics of deploying religious sentiments, must not be allowed near the corridor of power. He has become a national evil that must be avoided at all costs.
“The Forum calls on the Nigerian security agencies not only to place the former governor under its radar, but he should be invited by the secret police for a chat.
“Considering the comments he made before the clerics, the man who suffers from an inferiority complex must be considered as a dangerous politician riding on the wings of religion for relevance.
“We hereby denounce el-Rufai’s comments before the clerics as a shameless act of national hypocrisy steeped in the premeditated plot to set adherents of both religions on war path.”