Bashir, one of the sons of a former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai, in a now deleted tweet, threatened increased bloodshed in the Christian-dominated Southern Kaduna if the people continue to attack Fulani.
Mr El-Rufai tweeted this on Tuesday in response to an X user, @qykali, who berated his father, accusing him of supervising ethnic cleansing of Southern Kaduna people for eight years as Kaduna State governor.
“Look at this Giraffe neck calling the president Pablo whereas your midget dad is a Fulani irredentist who engaged in industrial scale ethnic cleansing of people of southern Kaduna for the eight years he was Governor,” @qykali tweeted,
Triggered by @qykali’s tweet, Mr El-Rufai responded saying, “It is your stupid mother that is an elephant. And Southern Kaduna residents will keep seeing sheghe if they continue to attack indigenous Fulani herdsmen. Oloshi.”
“Shege,” an Hausa word, used by Mr El-Rufai suggested Southern Kaduna, a hotbed of violent killings by Fulani herdsmen and bandits in recent times, will not know peace, a threat many on X condemned, forcing Mr El-Rufai to delete the offensive tweet.
Mr El-Rufai’s statement comes a few years after his father admitted he had appealed to his Fulani herdsmen “brothers” in Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, paying them to stop killings in Kaduna during his tenure.
An X user, @EmmyPromise71, said Dear @BashirElRufai, are Southern Kaduna residents not dead enough? To even say that your father hasn’t come out to condemn this senseless comment of yours shows the kind of person he is. WHAT? Like really?”
“If Bashir El Rufai can confidently say this about Southern Kaduna with his full chest. Do you think your people down west or south will be safe from the Fulani herdsmen,” @timmonsion said.
A former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission and critic of Mr El-Rufai, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, in a tweet, said “So, get this: #VileLittleMan, @elrufai, is now officially opposition and his son is already threatening the people of #SouthernKaduna with #MassMurder. Guess what will happen when they get into the @NGRPresident. These people are sociopaths; #Genocidaires.”
This tweet followed another vile and controversial tweet from Mr El-Rufai, who once said the mysterious disappearance of Abubakar ‘Dadiyatta’ Idris, a critic of his father, was a good consequence for lying to the public.
Amid trending #WhereisDadiyatta on X in December 2019, Mr El-Rufai described Nigerians pushing the campaign on X as clowns, claiming that Dadiyatta was suffering for the consequences of lying.
“The same clowns who encouraged him when he was creating false stories and capitalising on lies that could endanger lives solely for political ends are the same individuals trending hashtags asking #WhereisDadiyata. Dangerous lies in the public space have consequences,” Mr El-Rufai said.
Howevver, amid backlash and criticisms, Mr El-Rufai, notorious for making vile and controversial statements, tendered a public apology for his deleted tweet in another tweet on Tuesday.
“My tweet about Southern Kaduna residents and persecuted Fulani herdsmen was in bad taste and also badly written in an attempt to make a point in the heat of the moment. I apologize for that to those that know me, and are aware that I don’t harbor such sentiments,” Mr El-Rufai said.
