el-Rufai, Aisha Yesufu at “war” over Tinubu

Two prominent political enemies of President Bola Tinubu, rights activist Aisha Yesufu and former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai were on Sunday evening at odds with each other over a critical article about the President’s alleged lopsided appointments.

The article was written by Farooq Kperogi, a Nigerian professor of journalism based in the United States.

Kperogi in the article had accused President Tinubu of running Nigeria with a “Lagos mindset” and pointed out that many of the President’s key economic appointments favor people from the South-West region. Kperogi compared Tinubu’s choices to those of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who he claimed filled the security sector with northerners.

Advertisement

el-Rufai shared the article on his social media handle, quoting Kperogi’s views and adding “two wrongs don’t make a right,” and that “sensible inclusion trumps senseless exclusion.”

In response, Aisha Yesufu questioned el-Rufai’s motives. She asked whether the former governor would have spoken out if Tinubu had appointed him as a “super minister,” a position el-Rufai had hoped for. Yesufu accused el-Rufai of supporting Tinubu and his actions, even when they were harmful.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but when a wrong is supported by sycophants like you, it becomes a precedent for wrongdoers to justify their wrongdoings,” Yesufu said.

She further criticized el-Rufai for backing Tinubu’s rise to power, which she claimed was partly aided by el-Rufai’s influence and support for the 2023 election. Yesufu also recalled how el-Rufai had ignored serious issues, like the case of Dadiyata’s tweets, while he was in power in Kaduna.

She concluded that if el-Rufai had been rewarded with the position he wanted, he would not have been sharing Kperogi’s article, just as he had not supported dissenting voices during his own time in office. [With GWG report]