El-Rufai says some elements in Aso Villa want APC to lose 2023 election

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State says some people in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration are working toward the failure of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming election.

The governor said some of the people working against the party are embittered because their favourite candidate did not win the primary election that produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the party’s presidential candidate.

El-Rufai revealed this on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Wednesday, February 1, 2023.

He said the currency redesign which has brought untold hardship on Nigerians is a personal decision of some people, adding that the APC has no plan to redesign the currency.

He said, “For the past three to four years, I have stopped trying to understand how the federal government works. I just focus on trying to make my state work because that is why primary responsibility.

“There are some things we sit and agreed with the president to get done and it doesn’t get done. And those that refused to get it done don’t get punished.

“If you were at our party, we didn’t promise that we were going to keep fuel subsidy or redesign the currency. It isn’t in our manifesto. You need to separate the personal decisions of some people in the villa from the manifesto of the party. It is important to understand that.

“Most of the people in the villa are not members of our party. I believe there are elements in the villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t have their way.

“They had their candidates, and their candidates didn’t win the primaries and I think they are still trying to get us to lose the election and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right.”

On fuel subsidy removal, he said the party had agreed to remove it but President Buhari decided to retain it because he felt it would hurt the people.

El-Rufai said, “This fuel subsidy requires a national conversation. It is not a partisan thing, it has been going on for years, we tried to solve it under the Buhari administration but we were sabotaged and we are where we are.

“And to be honest, we have had the conversation at the level of the national economic council chaired by the vice president and we all agreed it should go, it was Buhari himself that took the decision that this subsidy will hurt the poor and he won’t do it.

“That is why our presidential candidate in the same party is saying he will remove it. It is not a party position but the personal position of the president.

Meanwhile, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has extended the headline for the controversial cashless policy till February 10, 2023. He has also said that Nigerians have the opportunity to exchange old notes for new ones after the deadline.