Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has claimed that some “elements” in the Presidential Villa who failed to have their way during the All Progressives Congress primaries are working to make sure Bola Tinubu, the party presidential candidate loses in the February 25 election.
He made the claim during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
El-Rufai said, “I believe that there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the elections because they didn’t get their way.
“They had their candidate; their candidate didn’t win the primaries and I think they are still trying to get us to lose the elections and they are hiding behind the President’s desire to do what he thinks is right.”
The Kaduna governor supported his claim by citing the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recently enacted cash swap policy, the allegedly tardy elimination of the fuel subsidy, and other factors.
He said, “This petroleum subsidy which is costing the country trillions of naira was something that we all agreed should be removed. In fact, I had a discussion with the President and showed him why it had to go.
“How can you have a capital budget of 200 billion [naira] for federal roads and then spend two trillion on subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the President in 2021 when the subsidy started rising. He was convinced. We left; it changed. Everyone in the government agreed.
“The second example I would give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the President. People are blaming the governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign.
“No, you have to go back and look at the President’s first outing as president.”
He pointed out that the Nigerian currency was changed secretly by President Muhammadu Buhari’s military regime between 1983 and 1985 in an effort to arrest people who had hidden away illicit assets.
However, the governor acknowledged that the policy’s timing makes the APC vulnerable before the upcoming elections.
“It’s a very good intention – very clear intention. The President’s heart is white. But doing it at this time within the time allotted just doesn’t make any political [or] economic sense.
“And for such a programme to work, we have to be involved as governors, as sub nationals,” El-Rufai said.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, won the APC presidential primary on June 8, 2022. Rotimi Amaechi, a former Minister of Transportation, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo finished far behind in second and third place respectively.