Mallam El-Rufai And His Accidental Discharge

It is on record that since I left office, I have refused to join issues with anybody in spite of several falsehood peddled about me. Honestly, I never wanted to react to issues raised by Mallam Nassir El-Rufai about me in his book, “The Accidental Public Servant”. This was especially as I never took a second look at the book, on account of its poor print quality and a rather pedestrian title.

But inundated with a barrage of calls from both within and outside the country...
I had to reluctantly but painstakingly go through the book. Mark Twain may have had El-Rufai in mind when he wrote: “From the moment I picked up your book until the moment I put it down, I could not stop laughing”. That was the same frame of mind I found myself in after reading El-Rufai’s “The Accidental Public Servant”.

I considered it in the public interest not to allow El-Rufai get away with the falsehood he peddled about me in the book – given especially the fact that the book may find itself in the hands of generations yet unborn and who were not privy to the events of the era. Pleasantly, those other Nigerians who, like me, were victims of El-Rufai’s “accidental discharges” have faulted aspects of the book.