Posted by By LUCKY NWANKWERE, Abuja on
The Presidency yesterday disparaged the former Kano State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi calling him a ‘cash and carry' politician for accusing President Olusegun Obasanjo of planning to plunge the country into crisis and perpetuate himself in power.
•Says he's a political mercenary
The Presidency yesterday disparaged the former Kano State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi calling him a ‘cash and carry' politician for accusing President Olusegun Obasanjo of planning to plunge the country into crisis and perpetuate himself in power.
The Special Assistant to the president on Public Affairs, Mallam Uba Sani told journalists in Abuja that corruption had persisted in the country because of politicians like Rimi.
As the country's march towards the 2007 gathers momentum, he said Rimi must have as usual calculated that it was time for him to make big money, hence his weekend's call on the president to resign from office over the recent events in the country.
He said many corrupt political actors must have picked up one or two things from the likes of Rimi whose quest for self-glorification and material acquisition, he stressed transformed him into one of the deadliest and vindictive politicians that ever graced the country's political landscape.
Saying the Presidency was doing an unusual thing by ‘dignifying' an unprincipled and mercenary politician of the Rimi calibre with a response, Sani said the former governor had no moral rectitude to accuse anyone.
Said he: 'Rimi's disposition for dirty jobs is well known. He is a master of proxy wars. This is a man who rose to national prominence on the banner of populism. In no time, Abubakar Rimi's quest for self glorification and material acquisition transformed him into one of the deadliest and vindictive politician that has graced the Nigerian political landscape."
'Alhaji Rimi is merely fighting a proxy war. We know his paymaster. But the issue for which he has exposed his underbelly is one that has pained the president to no end. The president's deputy is indicted for corruption and abuse of office. It took uncommon courage and the love of Nigeria for the president to lean on the side of the law," he stated.
He said it was Rimi's greed that culminated in the factionalisation of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and eventually led to the untimely death of his political mentor, Mallam Aminu Kano, adding it was to the credit of Rimi that he contributed towards the untimely demise of Aminu Kano.
According to the presidential aide, issues-based politics got relegated to the background by people like Rimi and their cohorts because of their love of materialism, adding that for Rimi, the fight against corruption is needless.
He described as unfortunate, Rimi's desperation to curry the favour of governors by insinuating that the investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of the governors was an attempt by the president to perpetuate himself in office.
'We are not surprised because Rimi is one of Nigeria's foremost political merchants. They have elevated political corruption to an art. Left to people like Rimi, Nigerians politics should be quoted on the Stock Exchange," he further pointed out.
Sani said there would be no work again for the likes of Rimi by the time Nigerian politics was cleaned up, pointing out that President Obasanjo's determination to root out corruption remained unshakeable.