Former
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday denied claims by the Governor of Kaduna
State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai that his administration shared among Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) states N2bn each from Ecological Fund.
SUN NEWS reported that He contended
that the governor’s claims were not only spurious, but also a clear case that
the former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would go to any length
to malign him.
In a
statement by his media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, Jonathan said, “we are not
surprised at his recent comments after the just concluded National Economic
Council meeting, where he accused former President Jonathan of only sharing the
National Ecological Fund to PDP states.
Malam
El-Rufai lied as follows: “What President Goodluck Jonathan did was to take
N2bn each from the Ecological Fund and give to some PDP states. Any PDP state
that was not his friend, like Kano and Kwara, didn’t get.”
The
statement continued, “it is so easy to expose Malam Nasir El-Rufai as a liar
being that Akwa-Ibom, a PDP state governed by the then Chairman of the PDP
Governors Forum and a close confidante and major supporter of the then
president, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, did not get the monies alluded to by
Malam El-Rufai from the Ecological Fund as did multiple other PDP states
including Ekiti, a state governed by a thoroughbred patriot and Jonathan
supporter, Ayo Fayose.
“Also, it is
false that non-PDP states did not get monies from the fund. Nemesis catches up
faster with liars than any other agent of evil.
El-Rufai was probably led by the gods against his own sinister plot to
confess in another breathe that states under non-PDP parties like APGA and
Labour Party also benefitted.”
He stressed,
“the fact remains that the Ecological Fund is a specialised fund with certain
constitutional requirements, which must be met before a state can access the
funds. Every state benefitted from the fund under
President
Jonathan who bent over backwards to accommodate states that had difficulties
meeting the criteria for accessing the fund.
“El-Rufai’s
sinister narrative was intentionally silent on the over N10 billion specially
deployed to fund the Great Green Wall (GGW) project in some northern states, in
view of the need to work with the rest of
Africa on
the African initiative to check desert encroachment in the
Sahelian
states. These states included: Zamfara, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto,
Katsina and
Adamawa. Others are Yobe, Borno and Kano, which belong to “El-Rufai’s class of
‘non-friendly’ states that he alleged never benefitted from any discretionary
fund.
“Similar
principle applies to the conditions for accessing the Universal Basic Education
fund, where some states have not had access to what is due to them, because
they are yet to fulfill the mandatory criteria for allocation. Would it then be
right in the name of El-Rufai’s position on equity to blame the failure of
those states to access their UBEC funds on Jonathan?”
“It is
really sad that judicious presidential interventions to tackle emergencies and
other pressing national needs are being interrogated in a rather facile manner,
by those who never get tired of playing dirty politics.
“Nigerians
may recall that this is not the first time that El-Rufai has vented his known
passion for lying against the former President.”
The former
president maintained, “the public will recall that in October 2015, he falsely
alleged that former President Jonathan spent a whopping N64 billion on
Independence Day celebrations, during his tenure when in fact only N333 million
was spent.
“Nigerians
may also recall that this same El-Rufai falsely accused former Presiden
Jonathan and former CAN former President, Pastor Ayo
Oritsejafor
of founding and funding Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion”.
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