Former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Deputy National Secretary of All Progressives Change (APC), Malam Nasir El-Rufai has accused the Jonathan's Presidency of infusing Religion and Ethnicity in Nigeria politics.The former Minister who spoke as the Guest of the Week on Liberty FM radio, yesterday in Kaduna said "it is unfortunate for someone coming from a minority ethnic group. His best bet is to de-emphasizes that and try to make the whole of Nigeria his constituency."
According to him, "Jonathan's political handlers thought that if they introduce religion they will be able to divide the north and take the Christian part of the North to vote for Jonathan."
"And if they introduce ethnicity, large enough does it they will get the whole of the South. That's their winning strategy and now they are surprised that after dividing the country they are finding it difficult to get the cooperation of everyone.
The danger of division is that you depict social trust which makes it very difficult for you to cover and they are still playing these games. The moment anyone results to ethnicity and religion its because such person doesn't have a better ground. "
"Everything under Jonathan administration have been reduced to these two things which is unfortunate. Because politics is not about religion neither is it about ethnicity. Politics is about delivering services to the people and when you are good every ethnicity and religion will benefit.
"Our religion is private to us, our ethnicity is an accident of birth. This government have adopted that as a political strategy and by God's grace the people of Nigeria have experienced it and know that those not lead to competence and will defeat them in the next elections," said El-rufai.
Speaking on Crude Oil theft in the country, Malam El-Rufai said "Jonathan knows those who are stealing the crude oil, he knows what they are doing with the money, they are preparing for war and Nigeria will defeat them."
"Nigeria is doing the exact opposite, we are applying 70 per cent of our resources towards running the government and only 30 per cent for other infrastructure and social amenities which includes electricity, road, health, education and the end results are clear. Our schools are failing, our health care is failing. In 2010, Nigerians spend 4 billion naira for medical treatment abroad and this is from CBN records," he said.
Malam El-Rufai blamed bad leadership on the ugly trends in Kaduna State which he believes should be a beacon in the North but had not had a governor after the administration of Governor Ahmed Makarfi.
"We've not had leadership in Kaduna State since Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi left office as Governor of Kaduna State. I know Governor Makarfi performed well in the state in terms of peace, infrastructures put in place. Since he left, Namadi Sambo as a Governor was a disaster. He wasted the resources of the state and the state acquired debt that late Governor Yakowa complained to me about before his death.
"So we need a better government in Kaduna State because Kaduna is too important to be governed below the quality we can see it for instance in Kano. Kaduna should be an example or a beacon in the North that will set standards of governance in the state which we don't have that right now," he said.
BY MIDAT JOSEPH
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