El-Rufai: Aso Rock elements working against Tinubu’s victory

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Wednesday featuring on Television program has revealed that certain elements in Aso Rock Villa are working to frustrate the victory of All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, owing to the failure of their preferred candidate to clinch the party’s primaries ticket.

He said, “I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries,” El-Rufai said while featuring on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily.

The governor explained that those working against Tinubu’s victory were those whose the APC presidential flag bearer defeated their candidates during the party’s presidential primary election. He highlighted the examples of petroleum subsidy and naira redesign as basis for his argument, faulting the timing for the implementation of such policy.

“They are trying 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.”