On May 18, 2021, Governor El-rufai said a report from Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital disclosed that some identified nurses disconnected the oxygen supply of a two-day-old baby on Monday, 17th May, 2021. He added that the names of the three nurses from the Special Care Unit have been forwarded to the Kaduna Ministry of Justice to “initiate prosecution for attempted murder or even murder if we lose the child,” said the governor, through a statement.
Two days later, the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives said it was a lie. They added that the nurses even helped by pleading with the generator technician not to switch off the light because of the child. The father and the mother of the child also countered the Governor, adding that the nurses, rather, helped them.
Was it a deliberate and calculated lie from El-rufai meant to discredit the NLC strike? I think so. But El-rufai has been telling terrible and barefaced lies for years.
Some few examples;
1. In June 2012 he told the BBC that President Jonathan sponsored Boko Haram to cover up his corruption.
2. On January 5, 2014, he alleged that he and some people were on the list of people to be killed by the Jonathan government. He even said he was number 7 on the list.
3. On September 8, 2014, he alleged that Jonathan funded Boko Haram with N50 billion.
4. On October 1st 2015, Governor El-rufai tweeted that the Jonathan administration spent 64 billion naira for the Independence Day celebration for five years. It was found out to be a lie when the Buhari-led FG, through the Office of the Secretary-General of the Federation (OSGF), in a letter dated October 12, 2015, showed that the Jonathan administration spent only N333, 600, 000 for four years for Independence Day celebrations. That no fund was even spent in 2011, the year El-rufai said that N13 billion was spent.
Fast forward: El-rufai has made various lies since becoming Governor, mostly against the Southern Kaduna people through several interviews on channels TV. The most recent was;
5. On the 9th of February, 2017, when he appeared on a Channels TV programme and alleged that church leaders in Southern Kaduna were fueling the crisis because they are getting foreign dollars to bury their members and rebuild thousands of burnt churches.
6. On August 17, 2020, the governor, during a Channels TV programme (Sunday Special), alleged that Southern Kaduna people were the ones organizing the killings of their people so that they would be called and given money.
Contrary to the executive immunity that El-rufai enjoys, I have a list of several individuals that have been arrested and locked up since El-rufai became governor of Kaduna state, on allegations of telling lies. I am just wondering what would have happened to El-rufai in a society that operates on rule of law and where morality is institutionalised. Lastly, the least Gov el-rufai could do now is to apologise to the Nurses in Kaduna state for lying against three of their members.
▪︎Buhari is a journalist and former SSA media to late Governor Yakowa of Kaduna State
