Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir
el-Rufai
- Says he is grossly misunderstood
By Olusegun Adeniyi
Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir
el-Rufai, has acknowledged that the revelations in his controversial
book, The Accidental Public Servant, would not make former President
Olusegun Obasanjo happy with him over his portrayal of his former boss.
In the interview, which will hit the newsstands Monday, el-Rufai added:
“He (Obasanjo) is very important to me and he gave me the opportunity
to be in public service. I will always be grateful to him.
“But I can’t pretend that Obasanjo as president was perfect. I argued
with him as a minister, even in cabinet meetings. There were people that
were surprised I survived because anytime he brought something that I
believed was not in the best interest of Nigeria, I argued.”
El-rufai said as public figures, “we will continue to be scrutinised
and we should understand that whatever we do will be public.
“This is the age of transparency and accountability. Anything you say
or do, if you don’t want it to be public you better not say it. This is
the age we live in.
“I don’t know whether Obasanjo will be happy with this book or not, but
it is my truth and I think overall, all of us should sacrifice our
pleasures for this country to make progress. Let the country make
progress and we will all benefit from it.”
On the allegation by Obasanjo’s supporters that he was unfair to the
former president in his memoir because he did not pick him as his
successor, el-Rufai said: “I am a permanent suspect, you know. The late
Yar’Adua went after me because of that. But I have stopped explaining
myself or defending myself on that.
“I have written my book and those that say this is the reason should
write their own book and prove that I wanted to be president at any
time. I am not an aspirant and I am not a contestant for any office. I
have said so and nobody believes me and people have gone after me,
people are still going after me because of that.”
On Obasanjo’s continued denial that he ever sought a third term in
office, el-Rufai told the magazine that if the former president said he
didn’t want a third term, his experience was different and he related it
in the book, challenging the former president to write his own
experience on the issue.
“Let him write his own experience. Condoleezza Rice published her
memoirs and she mentioned something about Obasanjo going to George Bush
and talking about third term.
“This is not the first time and he can continue denying. But let him
write a story that contradicts some of these stories. For me it’s not an
issue of betrayal. We have a responsibility to this country to say the
truth,” he stated.
On why he turned against former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who was
once his immediate boss in his capacity as chairman of the National
Council on Privatisation (NCP) and had recommended him for a ministerial
post, el-Rufai said he took sides against the former vice-president
because he was wrong.
“Yes, I did because I think in his fight with Obasanjo he was wrong. I
had to balance who was more right than the other, and I took sides. I
did not hesitate in that regards.
“If you read the book, you will see what I went through with Atiku,
which was something he was doing regularly to people. But even after
those things we worked together on many things, because to be fair to
Atiku, while I was in BPE I never had any complaints about him apart
from when he tried to stick the Motorola issue on me, then I threatened
to resign.
“But when I came to FCT, I saw a completely different face. And I just
had to make a choice. In this life you make choices, you balance good
and bad and make choices. And I made my choice,” he said.
On reactions to the book since its release, el-Rufai said he had been
grossly misunderstood, adding that writing the book was meant to set the
record straight and had been an exhilarating experience.
“Writing the book was both exhilarating and challenging for me.
Exhilarating because I believed I had a story to tell after nine
interesting years in public service. I thought that my mistakes and
achievements, if any, and my interactions all add up to useful lessons
for those that aspire to a life in public service. But as someone
trained to think numerically, it was really difficult writing the book.
It took me three years,” he said.
He insisted that the book was not a manifesto for the 2015 general
election, stating that it was a story that had to be told.
“It is a story which I had decided to write while in government because
I think we don’t document experiences enough. I said so in the book.
“For instance, I came out of council chambers after being sworn in as a
minister and two people approached me. One of them said he was my chief
of protocol and the other said he was my chief security officer. In
truth, I had never in my life imagined that once you were sworn in as
minister you would get this.
“It’s not something that anyone had written about or told me. So there
are a few things about senior-level government positions that no one
prepares you for. I think that we need to prepare people.
“Secondly, of course, there are aspects of my public service that have
been distorted, misrepresented and misunderstood. And unless I tell my
story, that misrepresentation will become the history.
“I recall it was Winston Churchill that said ‘history will be kind to
me because I intend to write it’. But one thing this book is not about
is any political aspiration. If you have political aspirations you won’t
write the book the way I did,” he said.
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