The All Progressives Congress (APC) has strongly criticized former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, over his recent attacks against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu.
Naijaonpoint reports that Dr. Ijeoma Arodiogbu, APC’s National Vice Chairman (South East), condemned El-Rufai’s comments during a Monday night interview on Arise TV, calling them “pathetic.”
In the interview, El-Rufai criticized the president’s economic policies, arguing that the sequencing was flawed.
He said: “I support some of (Tinubu) policies; most of the economic policies are the right orthodox policies, but the sequencing is wrong, and the quality of the people implementing the reforms leaves much to be desired. And I think that some of the reforms are just wrong.
“You don’t address food inflation by destroying domestic agriculture. Food prices may be going down, but farmers are being impoverished because they are being made to compete with subsidized agricultural products from Europe and other countries.
“So, I have issues with many of them, and I’m in touch with many senior officials of the administration, and I give them my opinion privately.”
El-Rufai also claimed that it was Tinubu, not the National Assembly, who rejected his ministerial nomination, contrary to earlier reports.
He recounted how the president had publicly urged him to stay close after leaving office but later changed his stance on the appointment.
“Since I left office and the President begged me publicly to come and serve in his government, I had my plans and told President Tinubu from day one when he asked me to support him, I said I would, but I don’t want anything because politics in Nigeria is always about what do I get for giving you support.
“I’m not in politics for that reason. I’m not in politics to get anything. I have a surname, and I’m a self-made man. I’ve made money before coming into public office.
‘’I don’t need anything. After eight years in Kaduna, I was nearly burnt out. I was struggling for eight years, and I wanted to take a break, and I had my private plans.
“The President publicly appealed to me to put my plans on hold and through two months of negotiations, we finally agreed that he would nominate me as minister and there were certain conditions I attached to that.
“I think along the line, either the President changed his mind or something else. Please don’t believe the story that the National Assembly rejected me. The National Assembly had nothing to do with this, the President didn’t want me in his cabinet, he changed his mind. Whatever it is, I don’t care and I’ve moved on,” the former Kaduna State Governor said.
El-Rufai also criticized Ribadu’s appointment as NSA, arguing that he lacked the necessary qualifications for the role. He accused the NSA of plotting to tarnish his reputation in pursuit of a 2031 presidential bid.
He said: “This project of destroying Nasir el-Rufai is Nuhu Ribadu’s conception. He is the architect and builder of that project. He is the one working with Uba Sani to implement it. So far, it has been frustrating for them.
“Somebody wants to destroy my reputation. Why? Nuhu Ribadu wants to be president in 2031. He has to eliminate every northerner that he thinks is on the radar.”
Responding to these allegations, Arodiogbu dismissed El-Rufai’s criticisms, describing him as a “grudging man” whose personal expectations were not met by the administration.
He said: “El-Rufai is a grudging man. I think his personal expectations and selfish needs of the government were not met. So, he’s grudging for that. Nothing less than this is expected. That could also define what he meant by that the party left him. He didn’t leave the party.”
When asked whether the APC was concerned about losing El-Rufai to the opposition, Arodiogbu dismissed the possibility of any significant impact.
“It is not a threat at all. I’ll tell you, in the past couple of weeks, almost any politician of note, whether Senators, House of Reps members, former candidates of Labour Party in House of Reps and Senate, former or current PDP serving lawmakers and other parties have come to the APC.
“So, you can see the optics are very clear. So, if everybody, if every politician of note in the states is defecting to the APC, what do you expect? So, El-Rufai’s support amounts to nothing.
‘’It’s just like seeing the lizard every day on the wall doing press-ups. It doesn’t matter the press-up it does, the biceps can’t grow to that of a crocodile. That is how I see it,” he said.
Arodiogbu further claimed that El-Rufai was bitter over losing influence in Kaduna politics.
“What is the right thing he was asking the APC to do? Is it for his selfish expectations or needs? I don’t think that the party is missing him so much because we have harvested so many people in Kaduna State. He is only pained because people are leaving him and joining the APC.
“That’s why he could muster up the courage to come and grant what he termed his first interview. He is only yearning for attention after discovering he was lost,” he said.