El-Rufai to Atiku: You are haunted by corruption demons, says ‘I dare you to visit U.S.’

El-Rufai to Atiku: You are haunted by corruption demons, says ‘I dare you to visit U.S.’

This statement is issued in response to the latest falsehoods to
emerge from Alhaji Atiku Abubukar. He has a record of spewing
outright lies and innuendo against my person. As we struggle to build
a law-abiding society and secure progressive outcomes for our people,
we cannot allow the triumph on these shores of those who will have
us move to a post-factual world. Not even from a man as practiced as
Alhaji Atiku is in the dark arts of damaging other people through a
campaign of lies from him and his media machine.
Therefore, I am constrained to provide a response to the fake news
and irresponsible revision of recent history by Alhaji Atiku.
I never had anything to do with the incorporation of Transcorp. Those
that established that company and fronted it like Festus Odimegwu,
Tony Elumelu, Otunba Lawal Solarin and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke are still
around and alive. As such I could not have and did not offer Alhaji
Atiku any shares in Transcorp. I declined the shares that were offered
to me. Having done that, how could I have offered anyone shares?
In fact, I advised President Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Atiku and then
finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala not to accept the shares that
were then being offered by the promoters of Transcorp. My counsel to
them was based on the grounds that they would face conflicts of
interest when Transcorp bids for privatization assets. At the time Alhaji
Atiku and Ngozi were chair and vice-chair of the National council on
Privatization, and were particularly directly involved in approving the
sales of state-owned enterprises and assets.
It is too late in the day to try to pretend that the fiasco concerning the
attempt by then Senators Ibrahim Mantu and Jonathan Zwingina to
extort money from me for Senate clearance never happened. All Alhaji
Atiku has just done is confirm that he paid the Senators, as I revealed
in Page 139 of my book.
When I published The Accidental Public Servant in 2013, Alhaji Atiku
unleashed his media team in a campaign of vilification. Despite the
viciousness of the attacks, they did not contest or explain away his
shenanigans that were detailed in the book, from the Ericsson
manoeuvre, to the Abuja water treatment plant contract and his
obsession with marabouts and their assurances of the political big
prize. He might also consider a full reckoning for what he and his
acolytes did with public funds in the PTDF imbroglio, rather than
indulging the usual bold face of the Nigerian big-man.
As a federal public servant, my oath of allegiance appropriately stood
with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not the big men whose conduct I
was privileged to witness at close quarters. People like Alhaji Atiku
think that loyalty to them should be the goal of a public officer, and
that it should trump the oath of allegiance to the country.
Our Alhaji Atiku is already running for 2019, and he thinks that he can
make people like us collateral damage in his attempt to rejuvenate his
image. This obsession for power inclined him to support the rebellion
against the party that manifested in the National Assembly, and is
continuing with obvious disrespect for the incumbent president.
Everyone knows that I support and will continue to work for the
success of President Muhammadu Buhari as he leads our country
through tough times.
Everyone is entitled to rehabilitation. But that often requires coming
clean with the people. Can Alhaji Atiku explain the findings in the report
of the United States Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on
Investigations which detailed a pattern of wire transfers of more than
USD 40m from offshore companies like Siemens into bank accounts
controlled by him and one of his wives. The report detailing the US
Senate findings is online, as one of four case histories of foreign
corruption in the USA. Alhaji Atiku should tell a better tale of why he is
avoiding America.
Someone as obsessed by Nigeria’s presidency as he is, should clear
up such matters conclusively. We wait to see how well he does with
that.
Signed
Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai
15th November 2016