When the Holy Bible said “the wicked shall be trapped by their own conceit,” it never had Nuhu Ribadu, Nasir El-Rufai and Umaru Yar’adua in mind. Though the three men are Moslems, this verse of the scripture is being fulfilled in their lives.
By my political distaste of everything that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, now President Umaru Yar’adua represent, it would have been a welcomed development that Nuhu Ribadu, the former EFCC chairman and Nasir El-Rufai the former FCT minister, opted for a thorough smear against Yar’adua but for the fact that the ranting of the two estranged former top government officials were half truths and its becoming very irritating.
Almost all the daily national newspapers of Sunday 21 June, 2009 had on their cover Ribadu’s claims that President Yar’Adua not only forced him into exile but is now after his life.
The first question is: how come an exclusive interview by the BBC Hausa service in London managed to find its way into the cover pages of almost all the major national newspapers? From experience in the media it is almost impossible to have such coincidence except someone paid and planted the story to gain undeserved sympathy and cheap popularity.
Ribadu in the article: “Yar’adua Sent Me Into Exile and Now After My Life,” claimed that “the way we worked in the past (under Obasanjo), this government doesn’t want it.. They said I should go to school, I was in school; they followed me and sacked me. Not done, on the graduation day I was not allowed to receive my certificate. I was forced out with my children and other family members. The president knows that he has sent me out of the country.
“Who would have done this if not him (the President)? Is this even something that we would argue about? Everybody knows that it was the government. God knows what happened and God will judge us.”
Now that both Ribadu and El-Rufai have asked God who knows everything to judge them and Yar’Adua, it has become pertinent to throw more light into this matter before God start judging the three fraudulent Nigerians who were partners in crime against the corporate will of the people of this country.
When Ribadu in his BBC-Nigerian newspapers’ story claimed that Yar’Adua was after his life because “the way we worked in the past, this government does not like,” he was very correct. How can this government like the way they worked in the past when in broad daylight the duo had almost toppled Yar’Adua’s ambition of taking over from Obasanjo. Ribadu almost single handedly jailed Yar’Adua when it was clear to him and El -Rufai that Obasanjo had made up his mind on handing over power to him.
Nigerians deserve to know the truth and this is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Let Nasir or Nuhu challenge the substance of the following account if they think it is a lie.
As far back as 2005, EL-Rufai, Ribadu, amongst other members of the Obasanjo economic team held a meeting in London where they agreed and finalized plans that one of them would succeed Obasanjo as President in 2007.
The second session of the power scheme meeting was held in Kaduna very early in 2006 to finalise strategies for installing Nasir since they have already succeeded in creating an eternal enmity between Atiku and Obasanjo.
Meanwhile, whatever was perceived as irreconcilable differences between Atiku and Obasanjo was created and fueled by El-Rufai and Ribadu, who because of their hidden political agenda saw the disagreement between the President and his vice over the third term agenda as an opportunity to smear and remove Atiku whom they know, as at then, was the only strong force that can withstand and challenge their evil plot. Despite the fact that Atiku single handedly brought the duo into government and marketed them to limelight, they completely destroyed the man that made them and forced him out of PDP. I know God will add this when judging the matter as implored by Ribadu.
It was when Atiku finally left the villa and the PDP that El-Rufai, Ribadu and other members of the economic team held the second session of the London power shift meeting at Kaduna in 2006. At the meeting, they agreed that since Obasanjo failed to consider Buhari as his successor that a member of the economic team must take over from him and they chose El-Rufai for the Presidency.
Some members of the team including Fani Kayode, the former Aviation Minister, Akin OsunTokun, former Presidential Adviser, Media, Mallam Uba Sani former special assistant on public affairs, all now estranged, were sent to inform Obasanjo who was on a short vacation at Ota on their “patriotic decision” to ensure his economic reform agenda continues even when he leaves office.
Meanwhile, Gen Obasanjo had another thing in his mind and so he bluntly refused to consider of El-Rufai as his successor but because he needed members of the team to work for the candidate he had in his mind (Yar’Adua) he simply assured the visiting team that “only God would decide who the next Nigerian president would be.”
Nigerians should know that this bitter quarrel between Yar’adua, Ribadu and El-Rufai actually started in 2006 when Obasanjo finally tipped Umaru Yar’Adua even before publicly announcing him as his successor.
When it was clear that Obasanjo won’t go back on his decision against El-Rufai’s candidacy, Ribadu, the then EFCC boss came up with another agenda to rubbish Yar’adua’s purported corruption-free credentials as governor of Katsina state to create way for duo to make case for El-Rufai as the only credible northerner with corruption-free credentials.
Allegations and charges of fraud and corruption against the Katsina state government were cooked up in 2006 and EFCC agents swoop-in on Katsina state government officials and arrested so many of the governor’s aides. The governor himself knew that he was the actual target so he cried out to Obasanjo who was abroad then “soliciting for foreign investors.”
Obasanjo intervened from abroad and in a plain language threatened to sack Ribadu if he does anything stupid against his anointed successor from Katsina. Obasanjo’s tone and countenance in the telephone warning was enough to tell Nuhu that the president was very serious. This intervention by Obasanjo to save Yar’adua also has been used by Odili to buttress his case against Obasanjo’s deceit and insincerity towards him. Odili had argued that if Obasanjo can so stand for Yar’adua, why not for him when the same Ribadu and El-Rufai came against him and especially in the selection of the vice president at the 2006 PDP convention in Abuja.
Interestingly, Obasanjo planted this seed of hatred that is multiplying when on his return to the country he seriously warned Yar’adua to be “very careful and not to have anything to do with Ribadu and El-Rufai” as they were bent on rubbishing him and making Nasir the next president. Yar’adua hid this in his heart waiting to be president first.
The same Obasanjo, because he needed the economic team particularly Ribadu and El-Rufai to work for the enthronement of Yar’adua against big oppositions like Atiku and Buhari, promised them that they would form the core of the incoming Yar’Adua government.
So Nigerians should be fully informed that the current bad blood between Yar’adua and the duo of Rufai and Ribadu was created by Obasanjo in his scheme to thwart the over-zealousness of the duo of Nasir and Nuhu.
Those that knew President Yar’adua would tell you that he is very vindictive and unforgiving. From the day Obasanjo warned him and revealed the actual plan of Nuhu and Nasir, Umaru sworn to pay them back in their own coin and that was what happened.
All that Yar’adua needed was a genuine excuse to clamp down on the duo and he got it when the national assembly finally exposed the hypocrisy of both Ribadu and El-Rufai as anti-corruption crusaders. Verifiable facts were tendered to prove that the duo were even more corrupt than the people they destroyed politically simply because of their selfish ambition.
SENIOR FYNEFACE, ELELEWON STREET GRA II PORT HARCOURT ([email protected])
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