Senator Shehu Sani, an ally of President Bola Tinubu, has lashed out at Nasir El-Rufai, calling him a “midget professor” and a jobless, frustrated ex-governor bent on discrediting President Bola Tinubu’s government.

Mr Sani’s outburst came on the heels of Mr El-Rufai’s recent criticism of the All Progressives Congress, claiming Mr Tinubu’s government is pushing to destroy opposition parties.

In a post on his official X handle on Thursday, Mr Sani accused Mr El-rufai of hypocrisy, practising “tyranny” and unleashing evil while the governor of Kaduna.

“Out of power, he is sanctimoniously preaching democracy to the country he helped to wreck, plundered and persecuted,” the former senator said. “He demonised the opposition when in the palace and now embracing them when in the wilderness.”

Berating Mr El-rufai for saying the country is being governed by an illiterate, Mr Sani said the former Kaduna governor is attacking the Tinubu-led government because he was denied appointment in the government.

“He (Mr El-rufai) is like a man who is turned down by a woman and resorted to speaking ill of her. Tinubu was his angel until when he was ‘evicted from the house’ now telling the world he is a demon,” Mr Sani said. “The government is led by illiterates because they refused to hire professor midget.”

He added, “He is now jobless, most times seeking to be invited to northern public events where he will whip up sectional sentiments.”

On Monday, at a national conference in Abuja on strengthening democracy in Nigeria, Mr El-rufai alleged that the ruling party now operates as a “one-man show,” tagging the state of governance and opposition in the country as a “national emergency.”

Mr El-Rufai attributed the challenges in the country to poor leadership, emphasising the need for political parties to raise their standards for quality leaders to emerge. 

The former Kaduna governor said, “You cannot afford to have illiterates, semi-illiterates, and cunning people as your leaders. This is why we end up with the poor leadership we have today.”