The immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has highlighted the reasons behind the merger that removed President Goodluck Jonathan from power in 2015.
El-Rufai was responding to what now appears to be a general belief that whenever a Southerner is in power, that is when this issue of coalition comes up.
Recall that when President Jonathan was in office, political parties merged to form what is today known as the All Progressives Congress, APC, and now with Tinubu in office the issue of coalition has come up again.
El-Rufai was one of the political leaders who formed the APC and watched President Muhammadu Buhari, whose government is widely criticised as the most clueless, ruled for complete eight years without complaining for even a day.
Asked why the issue of coalition always comes up when a Southerner takes the seat, El-Rufai said he never thought about that.
“I don’t care about that. The reason why the Jonathan coalition came up was as a result of two developments,” he explained.
He continued, “First, the feeling that Jonathan was not governing the country very well. Second, Jonathan made a commitment not to run in 2015 so he had problems even within his own party.
“The third was simply we realized, those of us in small parties, opposition parties at the time, CPC, NPP, ACN, we realized that unless we came together, step by step, election cycle after election cycle, the PDP will be destroying us in bits and pieces.
“So it was an act of self preservation in the first instance for the political parties. That’s why three major political parties decided we must come together.
“There was of course, the feeling that, you know, Jonathan was doing a bad job. Let’s get him out. I don’t think it has anything to do with north or south.”
El-Rufai has now dumped the APC for the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
Some Nigerians feel that the former Governor is angry over the fact that Tinubu refused to hand him a ministerial position.
However, he is now a leading member of the coalition of opposition political leaders who have vowed to send President Tinubu back to his residence in Lagos State in 2027.