El-Rufai Is A Very Troublesome Particular person To Advise  — Hakeem Baba-Ahmed

Former Particular Adviser on Political Issues to President Bola Tinubu, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has mentioned former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai ought to deal with clearing his identify over corruption allegations, describing him as “a really troublesome particular person to advise”.

Baba-Ahmed spoke on Tuesday on Political Paradigm, a present affairs programme on Channels Tv, amid an escalating public dispute between El-Rufai and the Nationwide Safety Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.

“If I have been to advise El-Rufai, there are so few fronts that you just’d battle, so try to restrict the harm, focus your consideration on getting your self cleaned up on allegations that you just stole cash from the individuals…,” Baba-Ahmed mentioned. He added that, by temperament, “Mallam El-Rufai by character is a really troublesome particular person to advise…”

He argued that the varied allegations and counter-allegations surrounding the previous governor shouldn’t be dismissed as political drama however examined in court docket.

“I’d say that the easier strategy to go about that is put all these allegations on the desk. They’re authorized points, from the allegations of corruption in opposition to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to the allegations that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu… to the allegation of imported, poisoned chemical compounds.

“All these weighty points should be introduced on the disposal of the judicial course of, and we should know what the truths or in any other case of those allegations are; we can’t sweep them on the grounds that that is politics, it’s not adequate,” he mentioned.

The rift intensified after El-Rufai accused Ribadu of ordering his “abduction” on the Abuja airport, claiming that associates had tapped Ribadu’s telephone and heard directions to safety operatives to detain him.

El-Rufai additionally alleged that the NSA was influencing investigations by anti-corruption companies and the Kaduna State Home of Meeting for political causes linked to an alleged 2031 presidential ambition. He additional raised issues over the reported procurement of thallium sulphate by the Workplace of the Nationwide Safety Adviser and known as for public clarification.

Ribadu has denied all of the claims, insisting that the alleged ambition was baseless and that companies such because the {Economic} and {Financial} Crimes Fee function independently.

Reacting to the deterioration of their relationship, Baba-Ahmed mentioned the dispute mirrored a deeper downside in Nigeria’s political tradition.

“I’m extraordinarily saddened by the event. I do know each gents and the way deep their private relationship was, and I see one of many toxic components of our politics.

“When you can really poison a relationship with this nature this deeply, then we’re in very critical hassle… it is rather saddening to see this relationship simply merely degenerate to some extent that their private relationship is now so poisoned that no person thinks in regards to the penalties… we’re coping with a scenario of two pals threatening to take authorized motion in opposition to one another,” he mentioned.

Each males have been influential figures in the course of the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a interval through which they constructed an in depth skilled and private relationship that later continued by means of El-Rufai’s tenure as Kaduna governor.