Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has revealed that there are saboteurs In Aso Rock, the Presidential villa working against the emergence of the Presidential flag bearer of All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the next President in the forthcoming presidential election slated for February 25th 2023.
The Governor dropped this revelation on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television breakfast programme.According to him these persons, whose identities he did not disclose were aggrieved that Tinubu defeated their candidate in the APC presidential primaries.
He said these elements were hiding behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire to do what he thinks is right.
He said, ”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 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.”
El-Rufai’s bombshell comes a week after the ruling party’s presidential candidate said there were plans to stop him from winning the election.
It will be recalled that the APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had said while campaigning in Abeokuta the Ogun State capital that the fuel scarcity and naira redesign were targeted at him .
