Examine el-Rufai’s Mental Status, Sani Writes Psychiatric Hospital
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – Following a speech by Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai where he described the three senators from Kaduna State as “useless” and “cursed” for their opposition against the World Bank $350 million loan request, the lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial zone, Senator Shehu Sani, has called on the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital Kaduna to examine the mental condition of the governor.
In a letter to the CMD, dated May 7, 2018 and entitled, ‘Request for a Mental Examination and Analysis of the Speech of Governor Nasir El-Rufai,’ which he personally signed , Sani said he was shocked at the speech by the governor which was an open call for violence against the three federal lawmakers.
Attaching an audio copy of the said speech, Sani noted, “As a citizen and serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I am shocked and deeply concerned that such inciting expletives and profanity could be uttered by a public servant who is also the Chief Security Officer of the state.
“The delicate security balance in our country in general and Kaduna state in particular which has suffered from debilitating election related violence is very well known to any sane and responsible person. This open call to violence, disorder and the inflammatory predisposition of the speech of a man who occupies such an exulted office is, in my humble opinion symptomatic of a paranoid personality disorder. It is in the ‘safe interest’ of the state and the nation, that the mental state of the governor be clinically and professionally verified. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 182 (1) (c) stipulates inter alia, that no person shall be Governor who… ‘under the law in any part of Nigeria, (he) is adjudged to be a lunatic or otherwise declared to be of unsound mind.’
“Sir all over the world people continue to witness bloodletting, mayhem of the conflict inducing mindlessness of those in power who by action and/or utterances, such as the one by El-Rufai precipitates collective violence – that is the use of the instruments of violence by one group against another group or sets of individuals. The tribunal of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague guided by Article 25 (3) (c) of the Law of the Rome Statute of the ICC has since criminalized the form of behavior as tending towards genocide and other crimes against humanity. The cases of Rwanda, Cote d’ Ivoire, and Kenya, among many others readily comes to mind.”
Calling on the CMD to expedite action on his request, the lawmaker said he has concluded plans to initiate an addendum on the nation’s Electoral Act where prospective elective office holders must undergo mandatory psychosomatic evaluation to ascertain their mental stability.
