By Reno Omokri
Recently, Nasir El-Rufai, a man I know quite well as one of the most destructive and vindictive liars in existence, came out publicly to caution people against lying. When I read his words, I was appalled! Here was a man who had told the most harrowing lies.
El-Rufai has not just told lies, but his lies have probably led to the deaths of people. Lies which set Nigeria back years. And this man now presents himself as a champion of truth. Really? Are Nigerians that gullible? I am afraid we are.
El-Rufai’s grandstanding was so brazen that it reminded me of Scripture which says in 2 Corinthians 11:14 as follows:
“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”
At a book launch on September 11, 2019, Mr El-Rufai, who is currently the Governor of Kaduna State, said:
“If you want to tweet anything about Kaduna, be very careful because I am watching and …we have a very very strong law to get you.”
I have never seen anything so hypocritical. A liar of the highest order presenting himself as a champion for truth? No way. My conscience could not take it. If all Nigerians were cowards and fearful of him, I, Reno Omokri, will not be one of them.
I will now present a list of Nasir El-Rufai’s lies and show how he is most guilty of the law that he introduced in Kaduna, allegedly to stop liars. I encourage him to charge me to court, and I will expose this Father of Liars in court.
On September 8, 2014, Nasir El-Rufai falsely accused former President Jonathan and then President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of founding and funding Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion.
On that day he tweeted as follows:
“Those interested in understanding the metamorphosis and variants of Boko Haram will find this compilation helpful.”
El-Rufai then attached a phoney document alleging that “Christians to use it to tarnish the name of Islam” were actually behind Boko Haram. He after that claimed that former President Jonathan had funded this conspiracy against Islam.
The false information he tweeted had before that been repeated by El-Rufai at an event at Portcullis House in Parliament, England. I paid a young man to attend that event and record what Nasir El-Rufai said, just in case his demonic lying tendencies get the better of him, and he denies this.
Because of this propaganda, there was an upsurge in attacks against Christians in Northern Nigeria and dissension rose among the rank and file of the military as Northern Muslim officers and men began to be suspicious of their Southern Christian officers and men.
Furthermore, according to the UK Charity, Open Doors, killings and attacks against Christians and churches peaked at just about the time El-Rufai made this reckless lie. Read it and decide for yourself if El-Rufai has the blood of Christians on his hands.
Even before this, El-Rufai had tweeted a tweet insulting Our Lord and Saviour, The Messiah, Christ our Lord. The tweet is so repugnant that I cannot quote it here. But you may choose to Google it yourself.
Interestingly, this same Nasir El-Rufai, who is notorious for spreading falsehood, engineered the arrest and prosecution of one Audu Maikori, who erroneously tweeted about some killings in Kaduna that had not happened and almost immediately apologised after he learnt of his errors.
Even before that, El-Rufai had been lying with damaging effect.
In 2010, when Yar’adua was battling for life, El-Rufai was spreading lies about a so-called Cabal around his wife Turai Yar’adua. Did you believe him?
Well, if you did, you should read page 272 of ‘Power, Politics and Death: A Front-row Account of Nigeria Under the Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’, written by former ThisDay editor and spokesman to President Yar’adua, Segun Adeniyi. I quote excerpts below.
“On the way, Balat, himself a former minister in Obasanjo’s government, asked, ‘Segun, this cabal thing, were you really a member?’ Before I could respond, former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who played a prominent role in the campaign that eventually brought Jonathan to power, interjected, ‘There was no cabal, WE CREATED THE MYTH IN THE MEDIA TO NEUTRALIZE TURAI’.
What type of man would tell lies against a woman in Turai’s condition of 2009 when she was so distraught about her husband’s health? That man is El-Rufai!
An ex-official in Obasanjo’s government admitted that Nasir El-Rufai once told him that “a Fulani will come to your home and even tuck you into bed, but his objective is to find out what side of the bed you are sleeping on so he can stab you later at night”.
Again, on October 1, 2015, Nasir El-Rufai falsely alleged that former President Jonathan spent a whopping N64 billion on Independence Day celebrations, during his tenure when in fact only N333 million was spent.
Till today, Nasir El-Rufai has not apologised to the public and to the former President for such an egregious lie. You can read how he was exposed by yourself by Googling El-Rufai Independence Day Lie.
Moreover, El-Rufai’s former boss, Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, who brought him to the limelight, had this to say about Nasir El-Rufai in his book: My Watch Volume 2 as follows:
“Nasir’s penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological. Why does he do it?…… I recognised his weaknesses; the worst being his inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue consistently for long, but only to Nasir el-Rufai.
He barefacedly lied which he did to me against his colleagues and so-called friends. I have heard of how he ruthlessly savaged the reputation of his uncle, a man who was like, in the African setting, his foster father. I shuddered when I heard the story of what he did to his half-brother in the Air Force who is senior to him in age.”
Given such a long and illusory history as a liar, it is quite brazen for El-Rufai to now turn around and rebrand himself as an advocate for truth. But as El-Rufai once told me himself, ‘Nigerians have short memory’. That is what he is banking on.
Reno Omokri
Thinker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Avid traveller. Table Shaker. Buhari Tormentor. Sharer of the Gospel, not the gossip.
