Don’t set Nigeria on fire with your utterances, APC chieftain tells El-Rufai

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Plateau State, Samuel Kwankur, has cautioned former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, not to set Nigeria on fire with his utterances.

Kwankur, who was National Director of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), stated this at a press conference in Jos at the weekend.

He spoke while reacting to statements allegedly credited to the former Kaduna State governor in which he allegedly told his audience before handing over to his successor that the Islamic dominance in Kaduna had been successfully replicated in Nigeria and that it shall continue.

El-Rufai, he alleged, equally told his audience that in the course of the electioneering campaigns, when “they”(Christians) tried to ask questions on the Muslim/Muslim Ticket, he deceived them that it was not for religious dominance, when in reality, the tickets, both nationally and at the state level, were for Islamic dominance.

He alleged that in the video containing the speech, which has gone viral on social media, El-Rufai further said that the victory of Bola Tinubu had silenced CAN, adding that he would sustain an Islamic-dominated government for 20 years and unending, not only in Kaduna State but also in Nigeria.

Kwankur expressed disappointment at the utterances of the former governor, noting that the classification of the citizens of his state as ‘them’ versus ‘us’ meant that the former governor cannot be exonerated from “the wanton killings, demolition of houses and places of worship of Christians in Kaduna”.

He said he was surprised that El-Rufai who was contemplated as one of the qualified persons to be appointed as the Chief of Staff to the President or Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) had turned himself into a “confirmed religious bigot with a hidden agenda to destroy the country, using religion”.

He, therefore, advised El-Rufai not to use his utterances to mislead Nigerians into thinking that President Bola Tinubu’s electoral victory was purposely to Islamise Nigeria and nothing else.

The former National Director of CAN said: “Ordinarily, I have heard Islamic clerics preach that Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket is in furtherance of an Islamisation agenda, and despite that, I am one of those who contributed in discouraging Christians and Nigerians from accepting such as true because I believed in the antecedents and character of Tinubu but hearing from a political leader like El-Rufai, a close associate of Tinubu and Shettima, an active participant in the campaign who was contemplated as one of the qualified persons to be appointed as the Chief of Staff to the President or Secretary to the Government of the Federation confirmed that there is a hidden agenda to be mindful of.

“In the said address, El-Rufai spoke like one of the religious bigots that have been working underground to set the nation on fire. Among his ill-motivated statements, which I can only paraphrase for now, El-Rufai confirmed that he is a leader of the Islamic terrorist group operating in the Sambisa Forest albeit disguising himself as a governor in a complex nation like Nigeria.

“Firstly, El-Rufai in his speech, wondered why he should give ‘them’ a deputy governor when most of ‘them’ cannot vote for his party.

That he calculated and discovered ‘we’ can win an election without ‘them’ hence why give ‘them’ a deputy? From El-Rufai’s classification of the citizens of his state as ‘them’ versus ‘us,’ one needs no angel to tell you that he cannot be exonerated from the wanton killings, demolition of houses and places of worship of Christians in Kaduna. Secondly, Malam El-Rufai went further to state that Islamic dominance of government in Nigeria will bring peace, justice and fair-play. He assured the gathering that he will sustain an Islamic-dominated government for 20 years and unending.”