Buhari’s aides attack Obasanjo over el-Rufai’s revelations

Former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd),

Spokesperson for a former head of state, Maj.-Gen Muhammadu Buhari,  Yinka Odumakin, has described revelations contained in a book written by former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’, about political events prior to the 2011 elections, as a factual account.

El- Rufai’, in a yet-to-be released book, is said to have revealed a plot by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to dump President Goodluck Jonathan for Buhari but later changed his mind.

Odumakin told one of our correspondents in a telephone interview on Sunday, “I have read it.  That is the honest truth. It shows that whenever Obasanjo takes a position, people should understand why he is taking the position. Whenever he is taking a position, he is always fighting for his personal interest.

“Jonathan backed Daniel faction of the PDP. That was why Obasanjo made a U-turn and said he would support Buhari/Okonjo Iweala ticket.”

Also, the National Publicity Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, described the revelations as a reflection of the true character of  Obasanjo.

Fashakin, who spoke in a telephone interview, said although he and several others were not privy to the behind-the-scene dealings at the time, he was not surprised by Obasanjo’s behaviour.

He said, “Mallam el-Rufai has opened up on some very intricate issues, giving us very incisive details of some behind-the-scene acts that many of us were not privy to. I was not privy to that, I didn’t know about that.

“But what Nigerians should understand clearly and see here playing out is that of who the real Obasanjo is and has been all his life. I have always told people that Obasanjo sees the world, nay Nigeria through a  four-sided prism.

“That is, Olusegun Obasanjo one, Aremu Obasanjo two, Okikiolu Obasanjo three, and Matthew Obasanjo four. He sees the world through that four-sided prism so that it is first about what is in it for me in this thing?

“Before he now sees what is in it for Nigeria. He has only behaved through to type and you saw the way he sold the dummy to the AD governors in 2003 and all of them had to bite the dust for believing him.

“It is not surprising what Rufai was saying. Thank God, el-Rufai did not say that Gen. Mohammadu Buhari bought into that lie that Obasanjo was trying to sell.

“Because Gen. Buhari knows Obasanjo very well, and he (Buhari) is the man that believes in the truth and believes in going about the Nigerian project in a very clean and decisive manner.

“You need to ask yourself there is a big gap, a world apart between Gen. Buhari and Obasanjo in terms of what they stand for.

“Buhari  is all through and through a patriot, who truly loves Nigeria, who is not in this project for monetary or pecuniary gains  but he is in it to be able to elevate, to be able to emancipate the Nigerian people.”