Former presidential aide Reno Omokri has taken a swipe at ex-Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, over his comments condemning the emergency rule declared in Rivers State.

In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, Omokri accused El-Rufai of inciting Nigerians against the federal government, while failing to persuade his own son, Bello El-Rufai, a member of the House of Representatives, to challenge the emergency declaration in the legislature.

Omokri mocked the former governor, suggesting that while he sought to mobilize public sentiment online, he had shielded his own family from direct involvement in the issue.

“He cannot get his son to do his dirty work, so it is you here on social media that he has come to incite, because your life and future do not mean as much to him as his son’s life and future,” Omokri wrote.

The statement comes amid heightened tensions over the Rivers crisis, with opposing political factions debating the legality and necessity of the emergency rule declared by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Former presidential aide Reno Omokri has described the former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, as a drowning man who is trying to drag Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, NSA, down with him.

Omokri made this assertion on his verified Facebook page, stating that el-Rufai found himself increasingly sidelined in both state and national politics.

He stated that El-Rufai lost out in Kaduna, where the governor has wisely refused to be his Man Friday, and he lost out on becoming a minister after Kaduna residents raised several petitions against him for allegedly paying killer herdsmen, who perpetrated the Southern Kaduna genocide, claiming that the killings unsurprisingly stopped as soon as Nasir left office.

Omokri added that El-Rufai is now turning his attention to Malam Nuhu Ribadu, a man widely regarded as one of Nigeria’s most principled public servants.

El-Rufai recently resurfaced with claims allegedly implicating Ribadu, the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in past corruption-related remarks against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

However, Omokri insisted that a closer look at the evidence provided by El-Rufai suggests that his assertions lack substance.

“In a 2006 statement, Ribadu made a general remark about all serving governors at the time, stating that they were fortunate not to have faced the same fate as convicted former Governors Joshua Dariye and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

“Contrary to el-Rufai’s claims, Ribadu did not single out or accuse then-Governor Tinubu of corruption, nor did he confirm that an EFCC investigation had found him guilty of any wrongdoing,” the statement read.

Omokri argued that Ribadu’s statement was part of a broader law enforcement strategy aimed at deterring corruption among political officeholders, similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “show of force” tactics.

“The EFCC, at the time still in its infancy, sought to establish its authority and reinforce the perception that all public officials were under scrutiny,” Omokri added.

El-Rufai has further cited transcripts from Federal Executive Council meetings to support his claims. However, Omokri challenged him to produce these documents, arguing that their existence is questionable.

He noted that Ribadu’s later relationship with Tinubu, including the former EFCC chairman’s emergence as the Action Congress of Nigeria’s presidential candidate in 2011—a move reportedly facilitated by Tinubu—contradicts el-Rufai’s allegations.

Omokri stated that El-Rufai’s latest manoeuvre comes as no surprise, given his history of shifting loyalties.

“In 2010, he was a vocal critic of then-General Muhammadu Buhari, describing him as ‘perpetually unelectable’ due to his authoritarian past. Just months later, el-Rufai aligned himself with Buhari, becoming one of his most ardent supporters,” he said.

The former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday, slammed Reno Omokri, the former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, over comments accusing him of being frustrated for not being appointed a minister by President Bola Tinubu.

El-Rufai described Omokri as “a political mercenary retained by any paying person or government.”

He also referenced a past case of alleged identity theft, where an American woman accused Omokri of using her son’s name, Wendell Simlin, in an attempt to link the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Lamido Sanusi, to the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Omokri had tweeted on Sunday, “Nasir el-Rufai is just being clever by half in expressing his frustration at not being made a minister by attacking the funding of a rail project in Lagos by the Federal Government. Under Buhari, Nigeria took out a $2 billion loan to build a railway in Niger Republic. Did el-Rufai complain, then?

“Not at all! Today, that same Niger is now hostile towards Nigeria. If we can build a railway worth $2 billion (which was 10% of the Niger Republic’s GDP at then) for a foreign country, simply because General Buhari’s father was from the Niger Republic, why shouldn’t the Federal Government contribute towards building a railway in Lagos State?

“After all, 8% of Nigeria’s population lives in Lagos, while 35% of our GDP comes from Lagos, which contributes ₦44.17 trillion to our economy. How much does Niger Republic contribute to our GDP? Did the Federal Government under Jonathan not also spend $1.2 billion building the Abuja-Kaduna superfast 187-kilometre railway?”

In response, El-Rufai shared pictures on X of Omokri protesting against Tinubu’s election and making unflattering remarks about him.

El-Rufai wrote, “The interesting lifecycle of Wendell Simlin, also sometimes retained as a political mercenary by any person or government that can pay.”

El-Rufai’s comments sparked reactions within the political sphere, particularly among All Progressives Congress chieftains. Some viewed his remarks as an affront to President Tinubu’s administration.

Senator Shehu Sani, a former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central, criticised El-Rufai for commenting on alleged nepotism in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

Sani accused El-Rufai of hypocrisy, stating that he failed to criticise former President Buhari for nepotism during his eight-year tenure.

Sani, via his X handle, wrote, “There were people who were silent when Buhari was filling political offices with his kinsmen and have now found their voices to speak out when the equation doesn’t favour them. Let’s not make reference to the nepotism that marginalised Southern Kaduna for eight years. Kaduna was an apartheid state for eight years.”

Sani added that while anyone could critique Tinubu on alleged lopsided appointments or nepotism, El-Rufai lacked moral standing.