In response to Nasir El-Rufai’s purported assertions of the state’s Islamization, the chairman of the Kaduna State Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Joseph Hayab, pleaded with Nigerians to disregard him.
He further asserted that the ex-governor’s recent comments on the Muslim/Muslim ticket, the fact that President Bola Tinubu’s victory hushed his opponents, and CAN were all part of a plot to advance his (El-Rufai’s) purported presidential ambition.
El-Rufai is claimed to have said that the Muslim-Muslim ticket in the Kaduna governorship race would be sustained for more than 20 years in the state. The CAN chairman was responding to this trending video on social media.
The former governor, who talked in Hausa in the video, asserted that Muslim dominance was replicating itself at the national level.
Nevertheless, Hayab responded to El-Rufai’s purported remark while El-Rufai was a guest on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Wednesday, saying Nigerians shouldn’t be concerned about El-Rufai’s remark as he was simply looking for relevance and playing to the crowd in an effort to enrage unwary Nigerians.
El-Rufai is allegedly living out his dream of participating in these religious competitions and one day becoming the president of Nigeria.
He said, “You know, since he (El-Rufai) is up to something, he is playing a game and what he would do is to confuse people and set up Christians against Muslims; set up Christians against the present government, and then he would stand to benefit from it tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will say to him, he has failed from the onset.
“With this, he has actually proved to Nigerians that he is not in the first place fit to be a leader and I think that is one of the problems in Nigeria. We give people power without testing their emotional stability whether they are mentally alright to lead.”
When asked to respond to El-Rufai’s statement in a formal capacity, Hayab responded, “Our simple reaction is that ignore the maniac. Don’t even take the man seriously if he is trying to get your attention, pulling a prank on you, or pursuing an agenda. Ignore all of these people.
“If his Muslim/Muslim ticket has actually succeeded, we wouldn’t have had the killings, the division, and the problems we have in Kaduna. So, there was not even success to record this in his administration.
“El-Rufai is just trying to play games and we don’t even want to glorify his game, we simply see him as someone whose era, influence, and power are over but he wants to still be relevant and he wants to bring up something that will give him relevance because he knows that there are so many ignorant people around who may think that he is defending faith but I can tell you so many Imams will remind him how he demolished their mosque; how he maltreated them and never respected them as people of faith, so he is just playing politics and trying to take advantage of the situation.
“Buhari, in all his three initial attempts to be president, played all these games and it never worked for him. But because he (Buhari) had played that game before, then he went into alliance with other political party and he eventually became the president.
“But Buhari, who he (El-Rufai) is trying to mimic has three things El-Rufai does not have. Buhari was at that time seen, to be honest; Buhari was not talkative nor talk carelessly like you (El-Rufai), and Buhari was seen by people to some extent as someone who they can deal with. But you (El-Rufai), 90 per cent of the people know that everything you (El-Rufai) say is a lie and only for your own gain. So, we know that Kaduna Muslims know that El-Rufai is not speaking for them and we know Muslims won’t think along El-Rufai’s way.
“Someone (El-Rufai) who has eaten and becoming fat from our commonwealth should not because of his selfishness divide us and create unnecessary confusion, Nigeria must not take such a person seriously because if truth be told, he (El-Rufai) needs some checks at the psychiatric (hospital) so that we will be sure whether he is healthy.”
El-Rufai was allegedly constructing a trap for President Tinubu with his purported purpose, the Kaduna CAN chairman continued.
“El-Rufai is deliberately also setting a trap and setting a slippery ground for Bola Tinubu because the moment these things became heated, then people will go to Bola Tinubu but we know the difference between El-Rufai and Bola Tinubu and others,” Hayab said.
Calls to Muyiwa Adekeye, the ex-governor’s special adviser on media and communication, did not connect, making attempts to reach him for comment fruitless.
Additionally, as of the time this report was filed, he had not replied to a text message that had been sent to him.
