‘El-Rufai Is Desperate, We’re Not Worried Over His Romance With Atiku’s Camp’ – APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asserted that the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, is desperate for recognition, and the party is not losing sleep over his political romance with the camp of ex-Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and the Social Democratic Party, (SDP).

Naijaonpoint recalls that El-Rufai, a prominent APC chieftain, held a closed-door meeting with the SDP leadership and some allies of Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The meeting, which took place at the national secretariat of the SDP, also had Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer of General Sani Abacha and a former spokesman of Atiku Abubakar, Segun Showunmi, among others.

Although the agenda was not made public, there were speculations that El-Rufai was aligning with the major opposition figures to oust President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

However, the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Shehu Musa Gabam, dismissed reports suggesting an alliance between the party, Atiku Abubakar or El-Rufai.

Gabam, during an appearance on TVC’s Politics Today, categorically stated that there had been no discussions about forming alliances with political figures or parties.

Reacting to the development, the National Vice Chairman of the APC (South-East), Ijeoma Arodiogbu, in an interview with Punch, said the ruling party was not worried over the moves by the opposition figures.

Arodiogbu stated that after the 2023 election, El-Rufai has displayed himself as someone who cannot be trusted across the regions of the country.

He argued that the controversial reforms that the opposition may be planning to campaign with are currently yielding the desired results Nigerians anticipated.

The APC chieftain also said Nigerians are beginning to understand Tinubu’s reforms and cannot afford to surrender the leadership to desperate politicians whose sole interest is state capture.

He said, “As it is in the Bible, surely they shall gather and they shall scatter. We are not worried that they are gathering because they will definitely scatter. We are not worried about what El-Rufai does next. We know that his trajectory in politics is highly disturbed now.

“After our election (in 2023), he displayed himself as a man who cannot be trusted across the regions. The way he disparaged Christians in Nigeria, a secular society, has made him a leper. Nobody goes anywhere close to him. El-Rufai is just desperate for recognition now and I wonder why the media is giving him that attention.

“We are not worried about the unholy alliance because it will amount to nothing. It is just a gathering of disgruntled people trying to lick their wounds. Tinubu remains the president and there is nobody that can stop him in 2027.

“So we are not worried about El-Rufai and their union. When 2027 comes, what will they use to campaign to Nigerians? Will you tell them that you plan to reintroduce fuel subsidy? Not possible. We are already bouncing back to the days of glory. They have seen that the forest is stabilised, and the people are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

“People are now beginning to understand the essence of all the reforms he (President Bola Tinubu) has implemented. Did you read where they reported that PMS is likely to sell at N500 before the middle of this year? You can see that the benefits and gains of the policy reforms implemented by the President are beginning to yield fruit.

“That is because we have allowed the market forces to determine the price and taken off the pressure that fuel subsidy has on our economy and currency. We are now looking at exporting fuel outside Nigeria. That is a massive gain for Nigeria. I am telling you that we have hope for a very brighter tomorrow for Nigeria.”