•’I didn’t collect campaign money from you’
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai yesterday told former President Goodluck Jonathan not to personalise the report on the ecological fund.
The governor asked Jonathan to address the issue raised by his (El-Rufai) committee on payments made from the fund.
El-Rufai said he never collected any campaign money from Jonathan and never asked the former President for ministerial appointment.
The governor, who spoke through his media aide, Samuel Aruwan, said the former President should have waited for the presentation of the final report of the committee before responding.
Aruwan described the comments attributed to Jonathan alleging that El-Rufai sought an appointment with his government and got N200 million as contribution for his (El-Rufai) campaign as one of the latest smears.
He said: “The comments attributed to Dr. Jonathan on social media posts falsely alleging that Malam Nasir El-Rufai sought an appointment with the Jonathan government and got N200 millionas contribution for his campaign is one of the latest smears. Dr. Jonathan cannot make such claims because he knows they are not true.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has not only never sought to work with Dr. Jonathan, but he actively persuaded others not to accept any offers to avoid destroying their credibility!
“But, Malam Nasir El-Rufai will not allow Dr. Jonathan to make him the issue when the criteria the former President used in allocating N2 billion each to allied state governments remain so murky. There is no need to cry wolf before the final report of the committee is presented.”
According to the governor’s aide, “On Thursday, May 25, 2017, Malam Nasir El-Rufai presented an interim report of the National Economic Council (NEC) Ad-Hoc Committee on the Management of Ecological Fund. This committee was set up on April 27, 2017, with 11 members, including seven governors, ministers and permanent secretaries.
“Following the presentation of the interim report, El-Rufai briefed the press on the highlights of the report in his capacity as chairman of the ad-hoc committee. The interim report detailed how 17 states each received N2 billion direct support from the ecological fund in 2013. The states are: Abia, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Ondo, Plateau, Ebonyi, Delta, Enugu and Taraba.
“Nineteen other states and the FCT did not receive this direct support. Any perusal of this list shows clearly which party controlled them as at 2013. Fifteen of the 17 recipient states had governors from the PDP, while the governors of Ondo and Anambra were from PDP-allied parties.
“As the chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Malam Nasir El-Rufai drew the attention of NEC and the public to this skewed pattern of allocating the Ecological Fund.”
He explained further: “Former President Jonathan has responded to this disclosure by launching a personal attack on El-Rufai. He did not make a distinction between a committee of the National Economic Council and the person chairing it. While this is unfortunate and calculated to draw the headlines, Dr. Jonathan strained to explain away this strange pattern of fund allocation. But the facts are not deniable. They are in official records, and cannot be erased by slinging mud at people.
“Dr. Jonathan cannot argue with the facts. The payments are in the records of the ecological fund. He knowingly engaged in discriminatory disbursement of federal funds. The legality of that is open to question, despite the existence of presidential discretion.
“Thankfully, Dr. Jonathan did not deny that the N2 billion payments were skewed to certain states. His mindset in trying to create equivalence between those payments and federal support for the green wall projects in some of the northern states can be easily seen as a disingenuous argument.”