By Clement Udegbe
Nasir El Rufai appears to be one of the arrows aimed at making Christians very
uncomfortable in Nigeria by anti-Christian forces of this country. In January 2013, the former FCT Minister wishing to please his godfathers in politics, as a governorship
aspirant in Kaduna
State, tweeted an insult
on the person of Jesus Christ.
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*Gov Nasir el-Rufai |
Christians
reacted to his insensitive, irresponsible and offensive saying about
Christ, and his attack on the sensibilities of Christians globally, which
betrayed his lack of respect for our Lord Jesus Christ and obvious hatred for
Christians. His reply which added insults to the injury includes “I must say I
am taken aback by the extent of desperate misrepresentation of what was an
innocuous attempt to show the godlessness of the Jonathanians to denigrate
anyone that dares to ask them to be accountable...To those who were genuinely
offended by the retweet, I apologise. I did not mean to offend anyone. Jesus or
Isa Alaihis Salaam is a respected prophet of Islam. Every Muslim accepts this
in addition to his miraculous virgin birth. It is therefore
absurd for any Muslim believer to disrespect Jesus Christ,” he added.
The Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN) scribe said there was a portion of the response that insulted the Christian
faith, pointing out that the association is convinced Mr. El-Rufai "is set on a
war path with Christians in Nigeria.” The association warned him to stop taking
Christians for granted with such foolish comments.
Unfolding events have
confirmed that CAN was right, El- Rufai hates Christians! Malam El-Rufai was a
Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not a Minister of any person or
party. The problem is godfatherism, and that is why such an uncouth comment
could come from a Minister of this nation, and he went ahead to become a
Governor! In Igboland, a proverb says that when a child is dancing on the main
road, someone must be beating the drums for him in the bush. Someone
must be beating the drum from a hidden position, to which Malam El-Rufai is
dancing in the public.
In 2013, the APC wanted to field a
Muslim-Muslim ticket for the posts of President and Vice President. In 2014,
they quickly abandoned a muslim-muslim ticket, and exploited an in road via the
Redeemed Christian Church of God, where Vice President Osibanjo SAN, was a
Senior Pastor, and that did the job for All Progressives Congress (APC). While the north voted massively
for APC on both ethnic and religious grounds, votes were divided elsewhere in
the country. The church had a distracted or shifted focus, and in what appears
now like a compromise by the church, Kaduna
state Governor became emboldened to unleash more insults on the Church of God. The fears expressed by Christians
over APC and Buhari’s leadership persists, in spite of the campaign promises of
a changed Buhari.