First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has endorsed claims by the Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, that some unnamed persons or “elements” in Aso Rock were working against the ambition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
El-Rufai made the disclosure on Wednesday while featuring on Channels TV’s breakfast show, ‘Sunrise Daily’, monitored in Abuja.
The First Lady shared the video of the Kaduna State governor’s interview on her verified Instagram page with the caption ‘Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria’.
Her sharing of the video on her social media page is seen by many as an endorsement of the governor’s view.
The Kaduna governor also cited the sudden removal of petrol subsidy and the naira redesign policy as measures targeted at the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, who himself, had made a similar allegation.
El-Rufai told his interviewers on TV: “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 discussed with the President and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200 billion 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.”
