The Special assistant to President Jonathan on New Media, Reno Omokri, has called on well meaning Nigerians to remember former FCT minister, Nasir elRufai in their prayers as he could need “psychological assistance”.
Omokri made the remarks in a statement entitled’ President Jonathan’s Competency And Elrufai’s Sour Grapes’.
It partly reads, “I am compelled to present facts to set the records straight in order that the general public is not misled by the machinations of a man who is in dire need of prayers and perhaps psychological assistance.”
Thee statement was in response to claims by elrufai in an interview granted Saturday Punch newspaper that President Jonathan was less than competent and lacked understanding of the issues.
Nasir Elrufai said “Nothing can make Jonathan succeed. He is grossly incompetent, he doesn’t listen, he doesn’t even understand the issues. I am sorry! I know the man more than those that are shouting with Jonathan because when he was my friend, none of them even knew him. I knew Jonathan as a deputy governor in 2002. That was when I first met him and we have been relating. So, all these new found Jonathan lovers should just shut up. I know him and I know what he can do and what he cannot do. So, please, they should just leave me alone. Those that want jobs can go and take jobs. I don’t want”.
Omokri gave instance of how elrufai lied. He said, “Nasir Elrufai lied when he said this and there is documentary evidence to prove this. For instance, contrary to what he said in this interview, Nasir Elrufai at a meeting with Ambassador John Campbell in April of 2007 said that the then Vice Presidential nominee of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan “is clean and honest”. Going further, Elrufai told the ambassador that “Governor Jonathan was the only candidate that met Obasanjo’s guidelines- honesty and Ijaw”.
Unknown to Elrufai, the ambassador kept a record of their conversation which is now a public record in America.”
Omokri further stated that elRufai had gone to see President Jonathan for a job in 2010. He said “When Elrufai returned to Nigeria, in 2010, he visited the President at Aso Rock Presidential Villa on May 11, 2010, and was the first major political figure to call on
President Jonathan to contest for the 2011 presidential election.
“Nasir Elrufai wanted something from the President which was why he visited him at the Presidential Villa to heap unsolicited
praise on the president in 2010. When he did not get what he wanted, he became bitter and since the days of yore when the fox that could not get the grapes tagged them ‘sour grapes’ to mask its frustration, it has always been the habit of persons who cannot compete on the basis of ideas to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Thus, Elrufai, having run out of ideas, has tagged this administration as ‘incompetent’.”