A former presidential aide and social media commentator, Reno Omokri, has criticised the immediate past Kaduna Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, for his attempts to tarnish the reputation of the National Security Adviser Malam Nuhu Ribadu, by manipulating a 2006 statement made by the former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman.
El-Rufai, had waded into the war of words between National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, and Hajia Naja’atu Muhammad, a former Commissioner at the Police Service Commission (PSC).
Ribadu had demanded public apology and retraction from Muhammad whom he accused of lying against him in a Tik Tok video.
In the Tiktok video, Hajia Muhammad accused the NSA of serving in President Bola Tinubu’s government, whom he castigated when he was the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
But in a letter through his lawyer, Dr Ahmed Raji, SAN, the NSA said publicly or privately, he has never maintained such viewpoint.
He said the damage that had been done as a result of the Tiktok video was unquantifiable.
“Clearly, in the text of your recording [reproduced and translated above] you stated that when our client served as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes, [EFCC] he allegedly named President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, alongside Sen. George Akume and Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu [all former Governors, and in that order] as the governors in Nigeria who stole the most from public treasury.
“You also stated that today, our client who once held the above odious view about President Tinubu has turned around to be his staunchest defender; especially, with regard to what you stated to be the government’s agenda to silence voices of dissent to the government, citing the alleged arrest of a certain Prof. Usman Yusuf as an example.
“You also stated that our client’s alleged attitudinal change towards President Tinubu means that he has either become a liar or that he lied when he allegedly described President Tinubu, Sen. Akume, Sen. Kalu and other governors as thieves,” read the letter dated February 4, 2025, and signed by Dr. Raji.
Maintaining her stance, Muhammad said she had no reason to tender any apology as the records were there.
Backing Muhammad’s claims, El-Rufai in a rebuttal post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, accused Ribadu of selective memory.
“Nuhu must have serious amnesia. The record of proceedings in the Senate will confirm that Nuhu made those statements sometime in 2006. A Daily Trust report from February 2007 reconfirms the essence of the statements,” El-Rufai posted.
He further referenced the Federal Executive Council conclusions from 2006, suggesting they contain evidence of Ribadu’s allegations against Tinubu and others.
“In that Special FEC meeting, which I was a member of, Nuhu’s EFCC made similar presentations accusing many sitting officials at the time. These Council conclusions can be subpoenaed from the Cabinet Secretariat of the SGF’s office to remove all doubts.
“This is for the record and to remind the morally flexible that at some point in our national life, silence is no longer golden,” he added.
However, in a statement on social media, Omokri noted that Ribadu never said President Bola Tinubu was corrupt.
According to Omokri, El-Rufai is using this tactic to shift focus from his own declining political fortunes.
Omokri explained that the allegations against Ribadu, which El-Rufai tried to sensationalize with a 2006 headline, were nothing more than a misunderstanding of a statement that was general in nature.
Ribadu, Omokri pointed out, never specifically accused anyone, including Bola Tinubu, of corruption.
His words: “Malam Nasir el-Rufai is frustrated. He lost out in Kaduna, where the Governor has wisely refused to be his Man Friday, and he lost out in becoming a minister after Kaduna residents raised several petitions against him for paying killer herdsmen, who perpetrated the Southern Kaduna Genocide, which rather unsurprisingly stopped as soon as Nasir left office.
“In his bitterness, he has started drowning politically, and he wants to take Malam Nuhu Ribadu, perhaps the most honest Nigerian who ever lived, a man who rejected the largest bribe in Nigeria’s history.
“If you look at the so-called evidence he displayed against Malam Ribadu, in the form of a sensational headline from 2006, it does not invalidate what Malam Ribadu said.
“The then Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission did not say that then-Governor Bola Tinubu was corrupt, had been investigated, found guilty, or had been indicted.
“He made a general statement about ALL serving Governors at that time, without excluding anyone. Malam Ribadu said that based on the general feeling at that time, they were lucky not to be in the same position as Governors Dariye and Alamieyeseigha.
“He did not say they had been investigated and found to be corrupt. He was speaking about the general perception about those Governors. Perception, as Nasir el-Rufai knows, is not reality,” Omokri said.
Omokri stated that El-Rufai’s attempt to use Ribadu as a political pawn is an example of his pattern of shifting allegiances and attempting to discredit others to preserve his own position.
He concluded by saying that El-Rufai’s attacks on Ribadu are a classic case of projection, where a politician with low moral standards tries to bring down those with higher ethical grounds.
