Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, has taken aim at former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, by sharing biting excerpts from former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s memoir My Watch (Volume 2).
This came in response to El-Rufai’s recent critical comments about the Tinubu administration during an appearance on Arise TV.
In the interview, El-Rufai, who supported Tinubu in the 2023 election, claimed: “God saved me from the disaster called Tinubu’s government,” adding that the president “would be lucky to come third” in the 2027 election as there was “no pathway to win.”
Reacting via social media, Onanuga posted segments from Obasanjo’s book, where the former president offered a scathing character assessment of El-Rufai, suggesting the former governor suffers from “small man syndrome” and deeper psychological issues possibly rooted in childhood trauma.
Obasanjo is quoted as writing:
“Nasir’s penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological. Why does he do it? Very early in my interaction with him, I appreciated his talent. At the same time, I recognised his weaknesses; the worst being his inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue consistently for long, but only to Nasir El-Rufai.
Obasanjo described El-Rufai as someone who had a habit of lying and harming the reputations of those close to him:
“He lied brazenly, which he did to me, against his colleagues and so-called friends. I have heard of how he ruthlessly savaged the reputation of his uncle, a man who, in an African setting, was like a foster father to him. I shuddered when I heard the story of what he did to his half-brother in the Air Force, who is senior to him in age.”
The former president explained why he never considered El-Rufai as a potential successor during his presidency:
“Character-wise, Nasir does not have much going for him. But he is a talented young man who can always deliver under close supervision. So, when Osita Chijoka approached, among others, propping Nasir as my possible successor, believing that whoever I supported would make it, which was a false belief, I did not hesitate to point to Nasir’s naivety and immaturity, talk less of his inability to give honour to whom honour is due.”
Obasanjo further said:
“My vivid recollection of him is a penchant for lying, for unfair embellishment of stories, and his inability to sustain loyalty for long. Two years after I had left office, Osita came to me to confirm how right I was in my assessment and judgement of Nasir.”
Despite his concerns, Obasanjo acknowledged El-Rufai’s capabilities—though he believed those talents must be tightly managed:
“I knew what I could make him achieve, and he achieved it for my administration and the country. I believe that he can still be used in public service, but under guidance and sufficient oversight, making allowance for the psychology of his petite size and his elephantine brain. He was described as a malicious liar. He was more than that; he is a pathological purveyor of untruths and half-truths with little or no regard for integrity. In all of this, he unwittingly does more harm than good to himself.”
Obasanjo concluded his assessment with a reflection on El-Rufai’s personality and background:
“He’s always playing himself up to give himself more ‘height’ than he has. Whichever way, he has my sympathy. It was characteristic of him. Unfortunately, his character could also be seen as a reflection of his upbringing, which may spread the blame beyond him.”
“In a typical African society, it would be asked, ‘Did he not receive home training, or did he reject home training?’ Is there nobody in the family to call him to order? One may also wonder how much his losing his father at the tender age of eight years had rendered him devoid of fatherly care, guidance, paternal direction, and home training.”
