The former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday, slammed Reno Omokri, the former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, over comments accusing him of being frustrated for not being appointed a minister by President Bola Tinubu.
El-Rufai described Omokri as “a political mercenary retained by any paying person or government.”
He also referenced a past case of alleged identity theft, where an American woman accused Omokri of using her son’s name, Wendell Simlin, in an attempt to link the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Lamido Sanusi, to the terrorist group Boko Haram.
Omokri had tweeted on Sunday, “Nasir el-Rufai is just being clever by half in expressing his frustration at not being made a minister by attacking the funding of a rail project in Lagos by the Federal Government. Under Buhari, Nigeria took out a $2 billion loan to build a railway in Niger Republic. Did el-Rufai complain, then?
“Not at all! Today, that same Niger is now hostile towards Nigeria. If we can build a railway worth $2 billion (which was 10% of the Niger Republic’s GDP at then) for a foreign country, simply because General Buhari’s father was from the Niger Republic, why shouldn’t the Federal Government contribute towards building a railway in Lagos State?
“After all, 8% of Nigeria’s population lives in Lagos, while 35% of our GDP comes from Lagos, which contributes ₦44.17 trillion to our economy. How much does Niger Republic contribute to our GDP? Did the Federal Government under Jonathan not also spend $1.2 billion building the Abuja-Kaduna superfast 187-kilometre railway?”
In response, El-Rufai shared pictures on X of Omokri protesting against Tinubu’s election and making unflattering remarks about him.
El-Rufai wrote, “The interesting lifecycle of Wendell Simlin, also sometimes retained as a political mercenary by any person or government that can pay.”
El-Rufai’s comments sparked reactions within the political sphere, particularly among All Progressives Congress chieftains. Some viewed his remarks as an affront to President Tinubu’s administration.
Senator Shehu Sani, a former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central, criticised El-Rufai for commenting on alleged nepotism in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
Sani accused El-Rufai of hypocrisy, stating that he failed to criticise former President Buhari for nepotism during his eight-year tenure.
Sani, via his X handle, wrote, “There were people who were silent when Buhari was filling political offices with his kinsmen and have now found their voices to speak out when the equation doesn’t favour them. Let’s not make reference to the nepotism that marginalised Southern Kaduna for eight years. Kaduna was an apartheid state for eight years.”
Sani added that while anyone could critique Tinubu on alleged lopsided appointments or nepotism, El-Rufai lacked moral standing.
