Bashir had described Tinubu’s media team as “ineffectual clowns” over their response to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s remarks.
Hadiza El-Rufai, wife of former Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai, publicly confronted her son, Bashir, on X on Tuesday after he criticised the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Bashir had described Tinubu’s media team as “ineffectual clowns” over their response to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s remarks.
“Attacking Obasanjo with the state of the country now has to be a mental illness permeating the whole media comms team. Inflation is at 33% o. Ineffectual clowns,” Bashir posted.
Attacking Obasanjo with the state of the country now has to be a mental illness permeating the whole media comms team. Inflation is at 33% o.
Ineffectual clowns.
— Bashir El-Rufai (@BashirElRufai) November 19, 2024
Responding directly, Hadiza asked her son, “Are you sure you’d be saying this if your father were part of this government?”
Are you sure you’d be saying this if your father were part of this government? https://t.co/I1JSdekyPO
— Hadiza Isma El-Rufai (@hadizel) November 19, 2024
A separate X user, Sunday Eze Gold, weighed in: “Nobody in your family is expected to support the Tinubu admin. Not after the disgraceful outing your father had in the National Assembly during his ministerial screening. The bitterness pervades your entire family.”
Unfazed by his mother’s criticism, Bashir escalated his remarks, replying to another Sunday: “We withdrew from a drug baron’s government and we are still good. I can purchase your wives and your family. We are good inyamuri.”
We withdrew from a drug barons government and we are still good. I can purchase your wives and your family. We are good inyamuri
— Bashir El-Rufai (@BashirElRufai) November 19, 2024
Bello El-Rufai or Bashir as he fondly called is a member of the House of Representatives representing Kaduna North Federal Constituency.
The exchange follows Obasanjo’s statement on Sunday, in which he called the 2023 elections a “travesty” and urged the appointment of credible leaders for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The presidency, through spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, countered, accusing Obasanjo of hypocrisy and claiming he oversaw “the most fraudulent election in Nigeria’s history.”
SaharaReporters had also reported that the President Bola Tinubu-led government asked Obasanjo to use "his remaining years" to reflect on the failures of his government and the scandals which rocked his administration.
In a statement on Monday by Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu's Special Adviser (Information and Strategy), the presidency, while cataloguing the scandals and missteps of the Obasanjo's administration had said "it would be better and more advisable for former President Obasanjo to temper his self-righteousness in his public discussions regarding our nation’s temporary difficulties."
SaharaReporters had on Saturday reported that Obasanjo lamented that Nigeria’s current economic situation was very bad and that the situation was made worse by the "baba-go-slow" and "emilokan" government of Bola Tinubu and his unwillingness to take responsibility.
Obasanjo had made this statement in his keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, held on Saturday at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
In his speech, titled, “Leadership Failure and State Capture in Nigeria,” he expressed concern over the country's dire situation, noting, “as the world can see and understand, Nigeria’s situation is bad.”
Reacting, the Tinubu presidency had said, "In a recent display of his characteristic self-importance, former President Olusegun Obasanjo once again took to the public stage to bestow his unsolicited wisdom on leadership and governance in Nigeria. From his lofty perch, he blamed those who served after his tenure for the nation's myriad challenges."