On
Thursday, 25th May 2017, Malam Nasir El-Rufai presented an interim
report of the National Economic Council (NEC) Ad-Hoc Committee on the
Management of Ecological Fund. This committee was set up on 27thApril
2017, with 11 members, including seven governors, ministers and
Permanent Secretaries.
Following
the presentation of the Interim Report, Malam Nasir El-Rufai briefed
the press on the highlights of the report in his capacity as chairman of
the ad-hoc committee. The Interim Report detailed how 17 states each
received N2bn direct support from the Ecological Fund in 2013. The
states are:
1. Abia
2. Anambra
3. Bauchi
4. Bayelsa
5. Benue
6. Cross River
7. Gombe
8. Kaduna
9. Katsina
10. Kebbi
11. Kogi
12. Ondo
13. Plateau
14. Ebonyi
15. Delta
16. Enugu
17. Taraba
19
other states and the FCT did not receive this direct support. Any
perusal of this list shows clearly which party controlled them as at
2013. Fifteen of the 17 recipient states had governors from the PDP,
while the governors of Ondo and Anambra were from PDP-allied parties. As
the chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Malam Nasir El-Rufai drew the
attention of NEC and the public to this skewed pattern of allocating the
Ecological Fund.
Former
President Goodluck Jonathan has responded to this disclosure by
launching a personal attack on Malam Nasir El-Rufai. He did not make a
distinction between a committee of the National Economic Council and the
person chairing it. While this is unfortunate and calculated to draw
the headlines, Dr. Jonathan strained to explain away this strange
pattern of fund allocation. But the facts are not deniable. They are in
official records, and cannot be erased by slinging mud at people.
As
chairman of the NEC Ad-hoc Committee on the Ecological Fund, Malam
Nasir El-Rufai wishes to advise Dr. Jonathan to wait for the
presentation of the final report of the Committee before he responds.
While we all await the final report, Malam Nasir El-Rufai wishes to respond to the personal attacks as follows:
1.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan is not a man that can take
responsibility for anything. In March 2015, not long after making a
concession call to President Buhari, he summoned his party and asked its
leadership to reject the results of an election whose winner he had
congratulated in private. That effort at duplicity failed spectacularly
and the will of the people prevailed.
2.
So, no one should be surprised that he is denying presiding over the
skewed distribution of ecological funds. His denial begs the question.
What special circumstances ensured that only states that were controlled
by the PDP and its allied parties qualified for N2bn each? Is it not
curious that not only were his allies the only ones who got the funds,
but that the various ecological problems in all 17 statesrequired the
same N2bn across the states?
3.
Almighty God made it possible for the Sun to shine on all. But Dr.
Jonathan exercised his powers as president as if he governed for only
his party or his family. The Jonathan government was so conscious that
there was something untoward with sharing public funds in that manner
that they did not publicize the payments to their preferred states.
4.
Dr. Jonathan cannot argue with the facts. The payments are in the
records of the Ecological Fund. He knowingly engaged in discriminatory
disbursement of federal funds. The legality of that is open to question,
despite the existence of presidential discretion.
5.
Thankfully, Dr. Jonathan did not deny that the N2bn payments were
skewed to certain states. His mindset in trying to create to create an
equivalence between those payments and federal support for the green
wall projects in some of the northern states can be easily seen as a
disingenuous argument.
6.
Dr. Jonathan claimed El-Rufai is a liar, quoting sources that did not
once mention any lie that can be attributed to him. One of El-Rufai’s
identified weakness in the Nigerian political space is his bluntness and
fidelity to principles. Even his enemies admit that grudgingly about
him.
Malam
Nasir El-Rufai will not allow Dr. Jonathan to make him the issue when
the criteria the former president used in allocating N2bn each to allied
state governments remain so murky. There is no need to cry wolf before
the Final Report of the Committee is presented.
In
the aftermath of the success attained with Zaria Water, some cowards
have been using the anonymity of social media to spread lies. The
comments attributed to Dr. Jonathan on social media posts falsely
alleging that Malam Nasir El-Rufai sought an appointment with the
Jonathan government and got N200m contribution for his campaign is one
of the latest smears. Dr. Jonathan cannot make such claims because he
knows they are not true.
For
the avoidance of doubt, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has not only never sought
to work with Dr. Jonathan, but he actively persuaded others not to
accept any offers to avoid destroying their credibility!
But
the Governor draws the line at those making religiously-charged posts
with fabricated quotes about his position on fasting. This is a governor
that has insisted that religion is a private matter. He pulled the
state government out of sponsoring religious pilgrimage and Ramadan
feeding within weeks of taking office in 2015.
When
a citizen was attacked in June 2016 in the Kakuri area of Kaduna for
reasons attributed to religious differences during Ramadan, Malam Nasir
El-Rufai and Deputy-Governor Barnabas Bala visited the victim at the
Saint Gerards’ Hospital on 8th June 2016, and he made an emphatic
statement for religious freedom, declaring that “there is no compulsion
in religion. It is a free country, and that means no imposition of faith
or religious practices on anyone.”
The
governor added that “nobody can impose the tenet of his faith on
another person. The decision to observe any religious activity is the
prerogative of the individual.” He explained that even a Muslim cannot
be compelled to fast.
What
Malam Nasir El-Rufai would not do is to allow anybody to get away with
bad behaviour by citing their religious, regional or ethnic identity.
Equality before the law requires that every citizen must be held
responsible for their conduct. The legion of cowards and fraudsters ever
ready to spread and amplify falsehood on social media, without any
effort at verification, must know that they can be held responsible for
what they share. The laws of our land rightly protect the freedom of
speech, but the same laws provide remedies against defamation and
incitement, even in cyberspace.
Samuel Aruwan
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor (Media and Publicity)
30th May 2017
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