Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai on Wednesday said there were some “elements” in Aso Rock working against the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television breakfast programme, the governor said these persons were aggrieved that Tinubu defeated their candidate in the APC presidential primaries.
El-Rufai’s bombshell is coming a week after the ruling party’s presidential candidate said there were plans to stop him from winning the election. Tinubu had said fuel scarcity and naira redesign were targetted at him.
According to him, the people working against the APC candidate are more powerful than all the G5 put together and control critical government agencies. Despite his forthrightness, he refused to reveal their identities.
He said these elements were hiding behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire to do what he thinks is right.
He said:”I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries.
“They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed.
“In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200billion for federal roads and then spend N2 trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.
“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as president. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention. The president has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”
Reacting swiftly to this, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC) said the conspiracy against the presidential aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by forces within the presidential villa should not be seen as a surprising development.
APC PCC’s Director strategic communications, Mr. Dele Alake insists that Tinubu remains unbeatable in the presidential poll scheduled to hold on the 25th of this month.
Alake maintained that with President Buhari solidly behind Tinubu’s aspiration, the subterranean plots by his adversaries would not achieve their goal.
On the claim by Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai of Kaduna State on the development, he said Tinubu has the large heart to accommodate dissenting voices within the APC.
He pointed fingers at the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for doing all within their powers to undermine the chances of Tinubu in the presidential poll.
He noted: “For Nasir El Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, to state the obvious is nothing for us to clear again. We know that mischief makers, especially from the opposition, will latch on it and twist it out of context.
“That has always been the way of the opposition that we are contending with in Nigeria today. I made bold to say and you can quote me. The PDP opposition that we have today has been conducting the most pernicious, divisive, abusive, ineffective and most irresponsible campaign in the history of this country.
“They have no issues, no track record, no nothing. No record of performance to put before the Nigerian voters. What then do they do? They resort to personal abuses, issue fabricated and fake stories to denigrate our presidential candidate. That is also because they have no track record of performance to push out to the public.
“That is also because they know that our principal is the candidate to beat. He is a front runner in this race. And where I come from in this country, there is an adage that says it is only the tree that is full of fruits people throw stones at.
“You won’t get to see anybody throwing stones at a tree that is barren or dying. It is clear that Asiwaju is the only fruitful candidate and that is why all of them are throwing stones.
“We understand that and also know it has never won them any election. This one too will not be different. It will also not win them this election because Nigerians are discerning. They can see through their shenanigans.”
Continuing, he said: “As a campaign council, it is very simple. There’s really nothing spectacular about what El Rufai has said. And it’s even self-explanatory. He did say that some people but he never said the president. In any organisation including your own individual media houses, you have editorial policies, and there are elements within your organization’s that won’t agree with those policies. Yet, they still work there.
“It is, therefore, not a spectacular thing. It is merely a natural phenomenon. In all organisations and institutions, you cannot have 100 per cent of the operatives see issues exactly the same way. However, it is the preponderance of views that matter.
“Now in terms of the presidency, who is the power base? Of course, it is the Commander in Chief. He holds all the aces. We do not expect that he would actually see all his staff eye to eye. But they’re still there.
“Again, you also need perspectives from various angles. That is why we even say even our own principal, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, one of his strengths is to accommodate dissenting views within his own milieu. I have a personal experience of this and I continue to have it. We argue a great deal when we sit down to strategise and plan policies.
“Asiwaju is one leader, from my experience, who has a very large heart, whose horizon is so wide, who is so accommodating of opposing views with a view to reaching a logical conclusion from which germane policies are made. An example of that is what we have in Lagos today.”
Also reacting, the Federal Government on Wednesday said it was not “officially aware” of any entity in the Presidential Villa working against the victory of Bola Tinubu.
It also said President Buhari was neither favouring nor disfavouring any presidential candidate ahead of the February 25 election.
“If there’s anybody who is working against any candidate, we don’t know officially,” the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, told State House Correspondents after this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by the President at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, alleged that some “elements” in Aso Rock are working against Tinubu’s emergence as President.
But fielding a question on the issue on Wednesday, Mohammed argued that the Buhari government has been fair to all candidates regardless of party affiliations.
He said, “On a more serious note, one thing I can assure you is that no matter who this administration is focused and determined to ensure a free and fair election. And I think this administration, and for that matter now, the most important person in this regard is Mr. President.
“I think he has shown by words and deed that he is committed to a free, fair and credible election. And fair, free and credible elections mean not favouring or disfavouring anybody.
“Everywhere he goes, he makes that very clear, even as recently as Friday, when he was in Daura. He said the same thing. So, if there’s anybody who’s working against any candidate, we don’t know officially.”
Speaking in Ogun State last Wednesday, the APC presidential candidate alleged plans to sabotage the coming election.
Tinubu cited the naira redesign policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the lingering fuel crisis and as part of plots to thwart the polls and his expected victory
