Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has disclosed that some people in Aso Rock Villa, the seat of government are working assiduously hard to frustrate the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the February 25, 2023 election.
El-Rufai, who disclosed this on Wednesday when he featured on Channels Television programme; ‘Sunrise Daily’, noted that the elements within the Villa are using the fuel subsidy and Naira redesign as part of their game plan to truncate Tinubu’s victory even as he said that the president had good intention in the currency redesign.
He pointedly said that he believed that there are elements in the Villa that the APC to lose the election since they failed to get their way during the Party’s presidential primary.
He said that the Villa elements had their candidate, who did not scale through the primary, stressing that they are the same people that are working against Tinubu’s victory.
According to El-Rufai; “Those whose candidate was defeated by the APC presidential flagbearer during the party’s presidential primary election are working seriously against Tinubu’s victory.
“They are trying so hard to get us to lose the election and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right.
“I will give two examples. This petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed. In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because, how can you have a capital budget of N200b for federal roads and then spend N2 trillion on petroleum subsidy?
“This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed and it changed.
“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but no. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as president. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds.
“It is a very good intention. The president has his right but, doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense,” El-Rufai said.
