The federal government has spurned claims by Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, that some elements in the presidential villa are working against the success of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, in the forthcoming presidential election.
It said President Muhammadu Buhari will not deviate from his commitment to ensure the conduct of free, fair and credible general elections.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this to State House correspondents after the federal executive council meeting presided over by President Buhari at the presidential villa.
Mohammed maintained that President Buhari, being the main occupant of the villa, had stressed times without number that he wants his administration to deliver a credible exercise.
According to him, if there are elements within the seat of power who are working against the victory of the ruling party, it has not been brought officially to the president’s notice.
He said, “On a more serious note, one thing I can assure you is that no matter what, this administration is focused, determined to ensure free and fair elections.
“But I think with this administration the most important person is Mr. President, and I think he has shown by words and by deeds that he is committed to free, fair and credible elections. And fair, free, credible elections actually means not favouring anybody or disadvantaged anybody.
“And everywhere he goes, he makes that very clear even as recently as last Friday when he was in Daura, he said the same thing. If there’s anybody working against a candidate we don’t know officially.”
Aisha Buhari Endorses El- Rufai’s Claim
But in what is considered to be an endorsement of the claims by the Kaduna State governor that some elements in Aso rock were working against the presidential ambition of the APC presidential candidate, wife of the president, Aisha Buhari, yesterday shared the video of El-Rufai’s interview on her verified Instagram with the caption, ‘long live the federal republic of Nigeria’.
Her sharing of the video is seen as an endorsement of the governor’s views .
The Kaduna State governor had made the allegation on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, on Wednesday, citing petroleum subsidy issue and the naira redesign policy targeted at Tinubu who himself had made a similar allegation.
el-Rufai told his interviewer: “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.”
FG Faults TI Over Ranking Of Nigeria On Corruption
The federal government also took Transparency International (TI) to task over its latest report which saw Nigeria dropping five places in the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking.
The Information minister said, “We are not fighting corruption because we want to impress Transparency International or any organization whatsoever.
“We’re fighting corruption because we believe if we do not fight corruption, there’ll be no growth, either in terms of the economy or even politically. Therefore, what we do and what we’re putting in place to fight corruption is not because we want to be rated by anybody.
“If, for instance, what we’re doing catches the attention of transparency international and they improve and give us better marks, so we’ll go. However, I can assure you that we do not know what template TI is using.
“Whatever template they’re using, it is clearly oblivious of what this administration is doing to fight corruption.
“Corruption fighting is not just by how many people have you arrested? How many people have you tried? How many people have you convicted? Of course, even in that respect, we have a very impressive record. Is it the EFCC or is it the ICPC?”
Mohammed maintained that the Nigerian government had been more proactive in fighting corruption, but people are not willing to see what it has put in place in fighting corruption.
“Again, the courage of this administration even to expose high ranking officials of the administration who have run foul of the law is evidence of our determination and courage to fight corruption.
“So, we are not really worried or bothered about rating of the TI because we know that everything we do is to ensure that we fight corruption the best way we know how to do.
“Like I said, if TI is not seeing this, then again, I think they have to change their template. But again, we’re not fighting corruption to impress them.”
