The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has alleged that some forces in the presidential villa are working against the victory of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, in the forthcoming elections.
The governor stated this on Wednesday when he appeared on the Channels TV breakfast programme Sunrise Daily.
While admitting that there is a cold war in the APC presidential campaign council, Mr El-Rufai explained that some forces whose candidates lost out at the APC primaries have refused to concede defeat, hence their resolve to fight back and make the party lose the election.
Mr El-Rufai said, “I believe there are elements in the (Aso Rock) villa that want us to lose the elections, they had their candidate, and the candidate didn’t 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 had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200billion for federal roads and then spend N2trillion 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.”
Speaking on fuel subsidies and the naira redesign, the governor alleged fifth columnists are behind some of the President’s decisions.
Mr El-Rufai emphasized that the APC never promised to retain fuel subsidy or redesign the Naira.
”Our party never promised to retain fuel subsidy or redesign the currency. It’s not in our manifesto.
“You need to separate the personal decisions of some people in the villa from the manifesto of the party. It’s important you understand that,” the governor stressed.
