Rev. Joseph Hayab, Chairman, Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, on Wednesday called on Nigerians to disregard the alleged Islamization claims made by the state’s former governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
Hayab also stated that El-Rufai’s recent remarks about a Muslim/Muslim ticket and President Bola Tinubu’s victory silencing his critics and CAN were tactics aimed at advancing his alleged presidential ambition and promoting division among Christians and Muslims in the country.
El-Rufai had stated that the Muslim-Muslim ticket would continue in Kaduna for more than 20 years. The former governor also claimed that Muslim dominance was being replicated at the national level.
Rev. Hayab said, “Some of us that have known El-Rufai for saying this kind of thing, for plotting these kinds of issues and for masterminding these kinds of issues, many people thought we were just fighting or stopping him for something else. God has helped us for El-Rufai to come out publicly and make Nigerians know who exactly is El-Rufai.”
“If you have known El-Rufai for the past 20 years and you watch the video, you will know that this is El-Rufai because El-Rufai has not changed, he has remained a Chameleon, remains a pretence and remains who he is, thinking he will outsmart people by playing games, but God has helped us that he openly said his mind.”
Hayab further remarked that El-Rufai is living in a fantasy where he can play religious games and possibly become the future president of Nigeria.
The Kaduna CAN chairman said, “You know, since he (El-Rufai) is up to something, he is playing a game and what he would do is to confuse people and set up Christians against Muslims; set up Christians against the present government, and then he would stand to benefit from it tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will say to him, he has failed from the onset.
“With this, he has actually proved to Nigerians that he is not in the first place fit to be a leader and I think that is one of the problems in Nigeria. We give people power without testing their emotional stability whether they are mentally alright to lead.”
According to Hayab, if the Muslim/Muslim ticket had actually succeeded in Kaduna state, we would not have had the killings, the division, and the problems we have in Kaduna, stressing that there was no success recorded in his administration.
Hayab said, “El-Rufai is fond of making these kinds of allegations and later turns to water it down. In 2015, he said that the Christians in Southern Kaduna did not vote for him, personally, l went to him and reminded him of the votes he got in Sanga, Jema’a, Kachia and other local governments where he got almost the same votes with the PDP and that ended the lies and argument and he apologised to me.
“In 2019, he needed 2/3 in the 23 local government areas and he could not have gotten it without the votes from the Christian dominated local government areas.
“El-Rufai is just talking about himself. El-Rufai has no respect for even the Islamic clerics, he is doing everything for himself to get what he wants and not about the religion of the people.”