Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state has provided more clarity as to the make-up of ‘elements’ he earlier claimed were working to sabotage the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard-bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu ahead of Nigeria’s presidential poll which holds in 22 days from today.
The Governor has now said the elements in the presidential villa working against the ruling party are Northerners and not Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo as erroneously speculated by some media outlets, not The New Diplomat.
“And that person did not win the elections and that someone else is not the vice president because I saw some reports in the newspapers saying that, you know, mentioning Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, no, not at all,” El-Rufai said.
The New Diplomat reports that a former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan emerged as runners-up respectively as Tinubu clinched the APC ticket during the 8th June, 2022 presidential primary of the party.
The New Diplomat had reported that El-Rufai while speaking with Channels TV raised alarm on some unnamed elements within the Presidency who were working against the presidential candidate of APC, Tinubu.
Speaking again on Arise TV, monitored by The New Diplomat, late Thursday, El-Rufai said the saboteurs he referred to were against Tinubu because their preferred candidate did not clinch the party’s ticket.
The governor added that these individuals are the ones responsible for selling what he termed dummy ideas and policies to President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said, “I will not get to the people yet. But those of us that have been around in Abuja know that. I will know if it has to get to that point we can name and shame them. Right now we prefer to do that after we have won the elections.
“But you know, we are convinced that there is such a plan. And it is using the primary innocence of President Buhari and relying on his past records and past decisions, to sell a dummy to him.
“The issue is we’ve been in government for eight years, if it was the policy of APC government to change currency, we would have done it much earlier. Our policy stance in every sector of the economy is clear in our manifesto. And we went from day one and tried outrightly to try to implement it.
“This thinking to change the currency is designed just to bring a serious bottleneck that will affect the outcome of the elections because these same people wanted President Buhari to be succeeded by someone else. And that person did not win the elections and that someone else is not the vice president because I saw some reports in the newspapers saying that, you know, mentioning Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, no, not at all.
“These people are northerners like us. They are northerners like Buhari but they are intent on undermining his legacy by ensuring that they cause a crisis. Because after eight years of Buhari if he’s succeeded by another northerner there are chances that we will have more bucket of crisis in the country,” he added.
