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El-Rufai is biting the fingers that fed him, says Ibrahim
Senator Umar Ibrahim, (Katsina Central Senatorial district is the Chairman Senate committee on Rules and Business. He spoke to OLAWALE TUNDE in Katsina on how the Senate will deal with the "insult" by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Malam Nasir El-Rufai.
HOW would you explain the recurrent controversies between the FCT Minister Malam Nasir El-Rufai and the Senate? There is no controversy between El-Rufai and the Senate. It is a creation of the media. The media made El-Rufai what he is, and he is now trying to overstep his boundaries because he knows the media will support him. However, if there are problems between him and some senators, El-Rufai should have been more specific rather than attacking the Senate as an institution. He should not have generalised. How do you see the Senate's response to his apology? It depends on what is regarded as apology. My religion Islam says that if somebody offends you, and you do not show your anger, you are an animal. If the person who offended you apologises and if you do not take the apology, you are a devil. There is a tendency that we may forgive him if we go by what our religion says. That is if he sincerely apologises. What we have learnt from the media is that he owes nobody any apology. What will the Senate do if the President refuses to sack El- Rufai? He is a minister because of the law. President Olusegun Obasanjo is a President because of the law. There are provisions of the law and we know what to do. Societies have established law governing them. If there is any allegation against anybody, what you expect is proof. El Rufai could not prove what he claimed during the bribery saga. Why can't he be punished? If you brought an allegation against me and you withdrew it, will I punish you before you go? El-Rufai could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that he gave gratification, what he said initially was that a demand was made. He swore an oath to tell the truth. The ICPC Act says the person who demands, the person who knows of the demand and conceals, and the person, who gives, are guilty. El-Rufai confirmed that somebody approached him and he later said that he never knew whether the approach was materialistic or not. Was the recent attack on the Senate an echo of the bribery saga? The Senate is a constituted authority established by the constitution. The Senate can impeach Mr. President, but the President cannot remove any senator. The Senate can ask the President or anybody to appear before it. The President appointed El-Rufai, and we made El-Rufai because even if we did not confirm him as minister there is nothing the President can do. El-Rufai went from house to house, pleading with senators for forgiveness for what he did when he was DG of BPE. Based on that, everybody regarded him as a born again and he was confirmed. When we confirmed him, the crisis he had with some members of the Senate was personalised, but this time the Public Account Committee indicted him. El-Rufai was found to have paid his two aides to the tune of N19 million monthly. The question is that if they were brought from Mars, they are now in Nigeria and should conform to the operations of Nigeria. The issue is why are you paying these people this amount and this money was got from the Ministry of Finance? Since El-Rufai could not say anything, we said in the interest of democratic justice, get the money back into the treasury and issue out a receipt. Or adopt a system where you will pay the money back either at intervals or when is convenient to you. He said that was okay. He did not talk beyond that when he came out of the Senate. When the press questioned him, he said 'silence is the best answer to a fool.' This is Senate committee, not Mantu, Zwingina, or Wabara. If you test the committee, you test the entire Senate. Silence is the best answer to a fool, means that the best answer to the foolish Senate is to keep quiet. He was indicting an institution that was stronger than the person who appointed him. Again he was asked if he was sure the statement was not too strong, he said he owes nobody any apology. I respect El- Rufai because he is young and I believe intelligent. However, that statement was reckless, unfortunate and I think childish for a minister. His Vice Chancellor when he was in the university, Prof. Saro is in the Senate. I think we have about 26 PhD holders in the Senate, and you call them fools. If he is talking of competence there are senators more competent than he is. If he is talking of youth, there are younger people in the Senate. The National chairman of PDP told him that he was not a politician and that his position as minister was based on competence and so 'hold your competence, do your work and leave the politicians alone.' El Rufai is only answerable to the President, who is also answerable to the Senate. If he is only answerable to the President, he should leave office as a minister and the President should take him to his Ota farm. The recent travails of El-Rufai is been linked to a scam uncovered by the Minister in the land allocations in Abuja. Who will victimise the minister because he is doing a good job? We all know that he is doing a good job, but that does not mean that he should be reckless. Nobody is against his revocation of land certificates as far as the process is illegal. For anybody to say the minister is being victimised, I think the person is only being mischievous. Do you think it is out of place to make somebody a minister who does not belong to any political party? It is wrong, but when he was appointed a minister, he was not brought without a party. I believe PDP brought him. It is now that something is getting into his head and he is growing wild wings. Unless these wings are clipped, he will try to fly above his boss. There is no way he can be a minister without having loyalty to a party. He was not brought by opposition party, he was brought by the ruling party. The Senate is seen in some quarters as incapable of holding its own, especially when President Obasanjo insisted on the confirmation of the Prof. Babalola Borishade as a minister. The Senate transacts its business in the open. People go to the gallery to witness the proceedings. The issue of portraying the Senate as a toothless bulldog is unfortunate. When Borishade was presented before the Senate, if we were toothless bulldogs, he would have been confirmed immediately. He was re-presented four times before he was confirmed. Politics is a game of numbers and one of the cardinal principles of democracy is lobbying. What is wrong if after intense lobbying for one year, Borishade is confirmed? This is politics, we are aware of what we are doing.
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