Ex-governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar deserves significant credit for leading economic reforms during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
While he was Obasanjo’s deputy, Atiku was responsible for overseeing the privatisation of national assets. The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), led by El-Rufai at the time, operated under his supervision.
During a condolence visit on Friday to the family of Edwin Clark, a respected elder statesman and Niger Delta advocate who died on February 17, El-Rufai praised Atiku’s influence on economic policy-making during the Obasanjo era.
“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 stated. “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 remark marks a notable departure from his previous criticisms of Atiku. In 2016, he accused the former vice president of spreading falsehoods and even suggested that Atiku was haunted by “demons of corruption.”
Atiku shared a video of the visit to Clark’s family on X captioned: “Today, I led a delegation that included the former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai on a condolence visit to the family of foremost statesman and nationalist, Chief Edwin Clark. I prayed for comfort for the family of the man whose work was defined by his pan-Nigerian credentials.
“I reminded them that the passing of Clark was not only a loss to the family, PANDEF, and the Niger Delta but the whole of Nigeria that he had adopted as his constituency. The best way to immortalise him is for our leaders to promote unity and inclusiveness for which he lived and died for. May his soul continue to rest in peace.”
