Some Persons In Aso Villa Against Tinubu, Says Gov El-Rufai

Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has revealed that there are certain persons or “elements” in the Presidential Villa seeking the defeat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in upcoming February 25 general elections.

El-Rufai disclosed this during a live appearance on Channels Television’s breakfast show, ‘Sunrise Daily’ on Wednesday morning monitored in Abuja.

He said the unnamed ‘elements’ had their preferred candidate, who lost at the APC presidential primary election, hence they were hell-bent on making sure that the winner of the party’s ticket, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, lose the election.

“I believe that there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the elections because they didn’t get their way.

“They had their candidate; their candidate didn’t win the primaries and I think they are still trying to get us to lose the elections and they are hiding behind the President’s desire to do what he thinks is right,” El-Rufai said.

Buttressing his argument, the Kaduna governor cited the sudden removal of fuel subsidy as well as the current naira redesign and cash swap policy implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as purportedly part of the moves to punish the ruling party.

El-Rufai noted that the timing of the policy did not make both economic and political sense.

“This petroleum subsidy which is costing the country trillions of naira was something that we all agreed should be removed. In fact, I had a discussion with the President and showed him why it had to go.

“How can you have a capital budget of 200 billion [naira] for federal roads and then spend two trillion on subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the President in 2021 when the subsidy started rising. He was convinced. We left; it changed. Everyone in the government agreed.

“The second example I would give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the President. People are blaming the governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign.

“No, you have to go back and look at the President’s first outing as president. He did this,” El-Rufai said.

He recalled that the military government of the then General Muhammadu Buhari between 1983 and 1985 also changed the Nigerian currency and did so in secret with a view to catching those that stashed away illicit funds.

He, therefore, claimed that the timing of the current policy leaves the APC vulnerable ahead of the forthcoming elections.

“It’s a very good intention – very clear intention. The President’s heart is white. But doing it at this time within the time allotted just doesn’t make any political [or] economic sense.

“And for such a programme to work, we have to be involved as governors, as sub-nationals,” the governor stated.

LEADERSHIP recalls that just last week, the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while speaking at his campaign rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, attacked the Federal Government’s currency swap policy and its inability to curtail biting fuel scarcity.

Tinubu had said the scenarios created by both currency swap and fuel scarcity were targeted at his chances in the February 25 presidential election.