Following barrages of attacks and condemnation over a controversial reproduction of a tweet conceived by many Nigerians to be blasphemous against the Christian faith, former minister for the FCT and frontline critic of the Jonathan government, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has tendered an apology over the tweet.
El-Rufai who has since leaving office six years ago taken to social media networks to voice his opinion and criticism of the present government retweeted a tweet from one @zebbook who tweeted, “@zebbook: If Jesus criticizes Jonathan's govt, Maku/Abati/Okupe will say he slept with Mary Madgalene.”....LWKMD.....,” and for finding the tweet funny and reproducing it boot on his twitter and Facebook accounts, many Nigerians tackled him on what some described as his “insensibility” to the statement. But El-Rufi who has 132,974 followers on twitter and 163, 736 likes on his Facebook group page, has come out to clear the air on the matter.
He explained in details that he was suprised at the reaction he got from the tweet which he said he reproduced and does not in any way mean he attempting to show godlessness.
"Hello Friends. I have been travelling and try to catch some sleep in between the last 24 hours and missed all the furore arising from my retweet of Ogunyemi Bukola's (@zeebook) joke Maku eat al and Jesus. I must say I am taken aback by the extent of desperate misrepresentation of what was an innocuous attempt to show the godlessness of the Jonathanians to denigrate anyone that dares to ask them to be accountable.
To those who were genuinely offended by the retweet, I apologize. I did not meant to offend anyone, neither did the @zeebook I know and featured as one of the Young Voices in my Friday Column. Jesus or Isa Alaihis Salaam is a respected prophet of Islam. Every Muslim accepts this in addition to his miraculous virgin birth. It is therefore absurd for any Muslim believer to disrespect Jesus Christ.
I hope those in this class will see my point of view and accept my apologies for any offense or disappointment caused. And I advise everyone to read @zeebook's timeline and mine to read EXACTLY what was tweeted rather than the second-hand reports of certain people who ALWAYS twist whatever I write or not write to achieve their morally-repugnant objectives.
To those in that class of liar - the political contractors who tried to attribute the entire statement to me to destroy perceived political capital, I say keep on doing that till the day your cups will be full. Everything these days is reduced to posturing for 2015,but those doing it do not even know which one of us will be alive to witness the events of that time. I leave all those to God and their conscience.
To the Warriors of God, who misinterpret the Scriptures (both Bilble and Qur'an) and pretend to be capable of fighting His battles, please learn from history. The multiple Crusades and Jihads are yet to convert the entire human race into one religion. If God wished us all to be of one religion, He would have made us so. So please leave God's work to Him, and just be good to other humans.
I thank all my friends who stood up for me in this saga. They know me better than what the desperate Jonathanians want to paint as El-Rufai. An those that wish to know me a little batter should please read my forthcoming book. Thanks and God Bless" he said.
Nigeria with a predominantly Muslim North and Christian South has had series of religious crisis which is usually sparked up with the most mundane of issues. In November 2002, the Miss World Beauty Pageant billed to be hosted by Nigeria had to be shifted to London when an article by a ThisDay reporter made inferences about Mohammed which triggered violent religious riots that left more than 200 dead and 1,000 injured, while 11,000 people were made homeless. ThisDay's offices in Kaduna were torched, despite the paper's apology and retraction on the front page
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