El-Rufai says Atiku doesn’t get deserved credit
By Jeffrey Agbo
Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has praised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for his contributions to economic reforms during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
Atiku, who served as vice president from 1999 to 2007, was tasked with overseeing the privatisation of national assets, a responsibility that included supervising the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), which was led by El-Rufai at the time.
During a condolence visit on Friday to the family of Edwin Clark, a prominent elder statesman and Niger Delta advocate who passed away on February 17, El-Rufai commended Atiku’s leadership in shaping economic policies during the Obasanjo era.
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He stated that Atiku’s role in driving economic reforms has often gone unrecognised.
“Nobody gives Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the credit for economic policy making under the Obasanjo administration. Many of the things we did, we did under his leadership,” El-Rufai remarked.
“Maybe because we don’t write about it, and people don’t read history, we tend to forget. We only remember negative things. Maybe it’s part of human nature.”
El-Rufai’s acknowledgement marks a significant shift from his previous stance toward Atiku. In 2016, he accused the former vice president of spreading falsehoods and claimed that Atiku was plagued by “demons of corruption.”
