*Group berates ex-VP, former Kaduna gov for turning condolence visit to campaign ground
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
Barely 12 years after accusing former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of corruption in his book: ‘The Accidental Public Servant’ published in 2013, a former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has made a U-turn, saying that Atiku deserves credit for spearheading economic reforms during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
This is just as a group, Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN) berated Atiku and el-Rufai for turning a condolence visit to the family of the late Chief Edwin Clark into another political charade.
Debunking El-Rufai’s allegation, Atiku who told Zero Tolerance, a publication of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in November 2016 that El-Rufai betrayed him, further claimed that the former governor of Kaduna State offered him some shares in Transcorp Plc, which he rejected.
As vice president of the Obasanjo government from 1999 to 2007, Atiku supervised the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) headed by el-Rufai, which was in charge of the privatisation of national assets.
But reacting to Atiku’s claim that he offered him some shares in Transcorp Plc, El-Rufai had stated that the demons of corruption were hunting the former vice president.
El-Rufai wondered how he could have offered Atiku some shares when he also turned down the shares that the company gave him.
El-Rufai recalled that when he published The Accidental Public Servant, Atiku unleashed his media team in a campaign of vilification.
“Despite the viciousness of the attacks, they did not contest or explain away his shenanigans that were detailed in the book, from the Ericsson manoeuvre to the Abuja water treatment plant contract and his obsession with marabouts and their assurances of the political big prize. He might also consider a full reckoning for what he and his acolytes did with public funds in the PTDF imbroglio, rather than indulging the usual bold face of the Nigerian big-man,” El-Rufai added.
But speaking at the weekend during a condolence visit to the family of the elder statesman and leader of Niger Delta, Chief Edwin Clark, who died on February 17, El-Rufai said Atiku deserves commendations for spearheading economic reforms during the Obasanjo administration.
He said: “Nobody gives Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the credit for economic policy-making under Obasanjo’s administration. Many of the things we did, we did under his leadership.
“Maybe because we don’t write about it, and people don’t read history, we tend to forget. We only remember negative things. Maybe, it’s part of human nature,” El-Rufai said.
Meanwhile, TAN has berated Atiku and el-Rufai for turning a condolence visit to the family of the late Chief Clark into another political charade.
The National Coordinator of the group, Michael Briggs in a statement issued yesterday described it as a brazen act of disrespect to the dead and a slap in the face of the grieving family.
The group said El-Rufai, known for his penchant for controversy, took centre stage during the visit, turning the solemn atmosphere into a platform to tout the achievements of Atiku.
It noted: “In a disgraceful and calculated move that has left Nigerians stunned, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday during condolences visit to the family of late Edwin Clark, employed Malam Nasir El-Rufai, the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, as a pawn to desecrate the memory of the late Niger Delta leader, Chief Edwin Clark.
“What was meant to be a solemn condolence visit to the grieving Clark family turned into a shameless political charade, that can only be described as a brazen act of disrespect to the dead and a slap in the face of the grieving family,” the group added.
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