Chatterbox Nasir el-Rufai has landed himself in hot water after retweeting a sick joke about Jesus Christ having sex.

The Christ was unmarried and sinless but Mallam el-Rufai, a fundamentalist Muslim who once held office as Minister of the country’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, yesterday insinuated that while on earth as a man the Son of God slept with family friend Mary Madgalene.

“IF If Jesus criticizes Jonathan’s govt, Maku/Abati/Okupe will say he slept with Mary Madgalene,” the man who is reportedly nursing presidential ambition on opposition platform, tweeted. It was his way of responding to government/President Goodluck Jonathan’s spokesmen who took one-time minister Oby Ezekwesili to task over her recent allegation that the administration and its predecessor squandered $67 billion foreign reserves inherited from the Olusegun Obasanjo regime.

The vile tweet has expectedly outraged Nigerian Christians, who consider it insensitive, especially as the pint-sized el-Rufai has many followers on Twitter.

Leading the criticism of the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) chieftain is cleric Dr Thomas Agande, who issued a statement entitled “El-Rufai Defiles Jesus Christ on Twitter,” in which he said:

“Earlier today, in his futile attempt to defend Mrs Oby Ezekesili, former FCT minister, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai derided Christians by the use of sexual epithets when referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. He simply defiled Christ on twitter.
“He went overboard when, on his Twitter page, today January 27, 2013, said our Lord Jesus Christ had sex with Mary Magdalene. We see this as a very insensitive, irresponsible, and a offensive thing to say about Christ, and an attack on the sensibilities of Christians globally.
“El-Rufai betrayed his lack of respect for our Lord Jesus Christ and obvious hatred for Christians. How else can one explain his effrontery and buffoonery when he seemingly jokingly twitted that Christ had sex with Mary Magdalene.
“El-Rufai who aspires rule a multi religious nation, should have been circumspect in his use of words when referring to the sacred.
“It is on record that less offensive things have been said about the Prophet Mohammed which led to loss of Christian lives.
“The former minister has just told Nigerians that he lacks the decency to rule a multi religious nation, if he should display such disrespect for the sacred and thinks it is funny. His Tweet shows he is not a decent man.
“He has disregarded the collective sensibilities of Christians all over the world by this very offensive reference to our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Many more Nigerian Christians have taken to social networks to condemn el-Rufai. “That is going overboard. And I must say that I am disappointed. We should always mind our utterances,” says Azuh Arinze, Publisher of the weekly YES International magazine.

According to Gbenga Lawal, until lately an Information Officer with the Federal Ministry of Information, Abuja: “With such utterance, El-Rufai has lost the respect of about 70 per cent of Nigeria. You cannot trust him with power. He has lost relevance. He is truly not fit to lead a nation such as ours. This is blasphemous.”

On her part, Ngozi Isiekwena, a graduate of University of Lagos, says: “My annoyance is that he calls himself a leader, yet he lacks the attributes of a true leader. A true leader respects all constituencies (religions) of his followers. I know that he has many fans who believe in Jesus, yet he disrespects their beliefs. Too bad. The fact that he retweeted it means that he likes the comment and is endorsing it as his tweet. Will a Bakare support such a tweet? What was el-rufai trying to achieve with the obnoxious tweet? A pun on Jonathan or a mockery of Jesus. What a blasphemy.”

News Express predicts that the storm is just brewing, as Nigeria’s Christian leaders are likely to soon join in condemning el-Rufai, who has yet to apologise for the evil tweet as at the time of this publication.

•Photo: Nasir el-Rufai has stirred an unnecessary controversy.

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