The governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has been in the news lately, and for the right reasons too. He is at the moment a very angry individual. He is angry with some individuals within the presidency who have been fingered to be responsible for the grueling situation Nigerians are passing through right now. He is even more angered by the fact these men are individuals who are very close to President Muhammadu Buhari and who should also be desirous of a Nigeria that is making steady progress towards conducting a peaceful elections that should hopefully bring about the emergence of the APC flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to ensure continuity of the Buhari legacies. But that is not the case. These individuals have a different game plan, another agenda, and they are not ready to put an end to their nefarious plans until they have achieved their selfish goals.
The bubble burst a couple of weeks ago when at a campaign rally in Abeokuta, the presidential flagbearer of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, stunned the nation when he declared that the fuel scarcity currently going on in the country, the scarcity of the redesigned naira notes and the perpetual power outage in the country are the handiwork of some people within and outside the government. He specifically mentioned the PDP and its cohorts. But the ever confident and hugely experienced Jagaban, the man commonly referred to as the Master Political Strategist, has assured the mammoth crowd to ‘calm down, nothing will stop this election from holding and we shall emerge victorious.’
Asiwaju declared: “Let them increase the price of fuel, let them continue to hoard fuel, only them know where they have hoarded fuel, they hoarded money, they hoarded naira; we will go and vote and we will win, even if they changed the ink on naira notes. Whatever their plans, it will come to naught. We are going to win. Those in the PDP will lose.”
This outburst generated lots of reactions. Many, indeed, have agreed with Tinubu that he has made a valid point. Many others have argued that he is part and parcel of the government and so shouldn’t be complaining now that the tables appear turned against him. Others believe he chose the right moment to speak out and distance himself from all the madness that’s going on in the country. Several other powerful members of the ruling party have all come out to reecho Asiwaju’s declaration and stand by him every step of the way. The very first strong voice to come out publicly to support Tinubu is Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. He said that he agrees with Asiwaju that there are indeed some elements within the presidency that do not want the party to win the coming elections. This is the reason why Asiwaju has spoken out now so that the electorates will be armed with this information and be discerning enough to separate him from the cruel antics of these people in government and the agony they are putting the masses through. He knows the whole idea is to turn the people against him and the party so that he can lose the election. But trust, Asiwaju, he is not ready to go down without a fight. He will fight tooth and nail to ensure that nothing erodes his chances of winning the coming presidential elections and becoming the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is not taking things lightly either. As would be expected of a dedicated party leader that he is, he is worried, he is angry and he is drawing the battle line with those he called ‘elements within the Aso Villa.’
“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 but their candidate didn’t win the primary election,” El-Rufai said. “I think they are still trying to get us to lose the election and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right.”
The Kaduna State governor insisted that the ‘elements’ are behind the non-removal of petrol subsidy after he had a conversation with Buhari where it was agreed that subsidy should be removed.
El-Rufai noted that the same Aso Rock ‘elements’ are allegedly behind the faulty implementation of naira notes swap introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“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 N200b 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.”
Governor El-Rufai has been firing on all cylinders, drawing first blood and calling out these ‘elements in the villa’, otherwise known as the Cabal. He stated that they are angry because their preferred candidate did not win the APC primary election. It will be recalled that a few years ago, the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, also lost her cool at some point and alleged that some people had hijacked her husband’s government – she was referring to these individuals. Governor El-Rufai has also appeared on several national television stations and granted a handful of television and newspaper interviews, in a bid to present to Nigerians the true picture of what is actually going on.
Days after El-Rufai dropped this bombshell on national television, the federal government, through the minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, reacted to Governor El-Rufai’s claims and insisted there were no persons in the villa working against the party’s victory. He said the presidency is not aware of those in its fold working against the APC. Mallam Nasir El-Rufai then promptly responded:
“Let me restate exactly what I said. What I said was that we are convinced that there are elements in the villa that want APC to lose the elections, I did not say the federal government. I did not say Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I said APC. So I don’t understand why the federal government is responding to what I said because the federal government is not part of it. I referred to elements in the villa, and with the greatest respect, even Lai Mohammed knows who I am referring to.”
And the Kaduna State governor has declared that he is not afraid to fight for what he believes is right, just and fair. The APC had an agreement, an understanding, that power will go back to the South, particularly the South-West, after the expiration of Buhari’s administration. Mallam Nasir El-Rufai believes it will be totally unjust for President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, to finish his term and another northerner takes over. That was not the agreement. He believes anything short of the agreed arrangement will make the Northern people look like a group of betrayers, a people that cannot and should not be trusted when it comes to national matters. He was wary of a situation where people from other regions of the country will no longer be comfortable sitting with the north unless with a long spoon. He believes these elements in the villa keep hiding behind the president and often bully their way through by saying, ‘the president said…’.
But for him, using the line, ‘the president said,’ cannot work because they know he can walk straight to the president’s office and ask him to confirm if he said what they claimed he said or not. And for this, the cabal detests him. They loathe him. But they also know he is untouchable because President Buhari respects him a great deal. President Buhari respects his intelligence, he respects his views on national issues and respects the fact that he has so far proven to be a man of integrity with his an anti-corruption stance. For these, he will always have the ears of the president. It also means he will always be well positioned to take on those he considers enemies and detractors who desire nothing but to see that the APC loses the coming presidential elections.
– WALE LAWAL
(08037209290)
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