GROUPS ACCUSE EL-RUFAI OF 'DANGEROUS NARRATIVES' AFTER CRITICAL TV INTERVIEW

BY: ABUBAKAR LABARAN

KADUNA – Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai is facing sharp backlash from Southern Kaduna and Middle Belt groups following his television interview on Channels Television, with leaders accusing him of promoting division and vendetta politics.

The groups, including the Southern Kaduna Awake Group and the Middle Belt Forum, Kaduna chapter, took issue with El-Rufai’s characterization of Southern Kaduna people as violent and entitled during his appearance on One-on-One with Seun

At a press conference, the National Youth Leader for the Middle Belt Youth Forum, Comrade Nasiru Jagaba, connected El-Rufai's comments to the rejection of his ministerial nomination by the Senate last year. “His bitterness is a direct result of the petitions from Southern Kaduna that led to that rejection,” Jagaba alleged.

The forum also cataloged what it called the failures of El-Rufai’s eight-year rule, citing “mass sackings of civil servants, expansion of grazing reserves at the expense of indigenous landowners, and failure to protect communities from relentless attacks.”

They particularly faulted El-Rufai’s comparison of Southern Kaduna to the Shiite Islamic Movement, calling it a “reckless attempt to criminalise an entire population.”

In a rebuttal to the former governor's claims, the groups pointed out that President Bola Tinubu’s administration had sited major projects in Southern Kaduna, including the University of Applied Sciences and a Federal Medical Centre.

Publisher Bomba Dauda of the *Gurara Accord* asserted that El-Rufai had lost political relevance and was now resorting to incendiary rhetoric. “He suppresses one side to gain relevance in another using religion, but that tactic no longer resonates with today’s reality,” Dauda said.

The groups collectively called on Nigerians to hold El-Rufai accountable for what they termed “dangerous narratives capable of pitching communities against one another.

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