Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has described President Goodluck Jonathan as a drowning President, who relishes at distorting facts.
"It may interest the President to know that Nigerians are much wiser now and will not be deceived by the antics of a drowning president and his desperate aides."
"If Jonathan is not playing the ethnic card, can he possibly explain to Nigerians why Bayelsa, which has the smallest population in Nigeria and the fewest number of local government areas, has more than double the number of federal appointees measured by population and weight of responsibility than that of the next state?"
El-Rufai, in a statement on Wednesday, insisted that Jonathan had resorted to ethnic and religious politics to score cheap political points.
President's spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, on Sunday described el-Rufai as "a serial liar" while responding to an interview the former minister granted Liberty FM, Kaduna, on Saturday.
El-Rufai, in the interview, had said Jonathan was playing religious and ethnic politics.
The former minister, who, on Wednesday, insisted that Jonathan was playing the ethnic game, noted that the Presidency had not addressed the issues he raised.
El-Rufai, for instance, said Jonathan favoured his home state, Bayelsa in federal appointments, citing a report by Governance and Sustainable Initiatives Limited, entitled "Analysis and Lessons of the Current Geopolitical Distribution of Federal Appointments", to support his claim.
He said, "The Jonathan administration is said to have favoured his home state of Bayelsa 200 per cent times more than the next states with the highest federal representation – Delta, Edo and Anambra.
According to him, the most populous states, Lagos and Kano are at the bottom of the representation ladder.
He recalled that the President was quick to exonerate those he called "my people" from the October 1, 2010 bombings in Abuja. El-Rufai said Henry Okah, convicted of the offence in South Africa, revealed that a Presidency official contacted him to implicate some northerners.
He also said after the 2011 elections, Jonathan told a delegation of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo that the only votes he got from the North were from Igbo residents in the region.
He asked, "Are those the words of a patriot or an ethnic bigot? This was after an election where he received nearly 100 per cent of all votes cast in the South-South and South-East states, in some cases getting more votes than there were registered voters or even residents."
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