Like father like fraud, by Sam Omatseye

THE NATION

A tweet went viral last week from the fingers of lawmaker and son of former Kaduna State governor, Bello El Rufai. I did not see it until quite a few people forwarded it to me. A former minister also sent it to me with a comment, “This little prick needs to be put in his place.” What did Bello, a member of House of Representatives, write? “Thanks. I left the office early to see him off at the airport. I just told him a lot of you do love him and have been supportive. I shared some tweets to him. We also laughed at a shameless idiot, Sam the houseboy at 70, of the Toilet Paper called The Nation.” He accompanied the tweet with a picture of the back of his father, the former governor who bleeds rather than talk.

So, that is the quality of a lawmaker in today’s democracy of the 21st century. A father is accused of stealing over N400 billion, the son goes to the toilet to defend him. Is that the sort of family that should spill into the public square? So, if father is an accused thief, son is a liar. What a combo of family.  Who is shameless if not a thief or a liar? The Nation is toilet paper but it was not so when it defended him in the past, when he made headlines against his enemies. It is because he has a toilet imagination that Bello’s father can be accused of stealing and he does not hide himself in the shadows.

He calls me 70, where is his fact? His father returned to Atiku, the man he betrayed for OBJ. he has returned to his own vomit. So, it is a case of a traitor cohabiting with a defector. What a marriage. And they say they love this country? Bello himself has been pampered by his father. He never had any real job in this country before he became lawmaker, except a stint at a Chinese firm his father helped him get. He schooled outside this country. I recall challenging his father at Sheraton sometime ago in front of my editor colleagues when he wanted to advertise his integrity. He said his salary was small. I asked him how he funded his children, including Bello, from a government salary that could not pay more than a month’s rent abroad. He could not answer me then. Now I know why, and why his son must defend his father.

THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN THE NATION