El-Rufai accuses certain people working in the presidency of frustrating Tinubu's ambitions

GOVERNOR Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has accused certain persons working in the presidency of working against the presidential ambitions of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu despite the facts that he comes from the same party of President Muhammadu Buhari.

On February 25, Nigeria goes to the polls to elect a new president. In the presidential race, the frontrunners include former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and Peter Obi, the former Anambra State governor of the Labour Party.

Asiwaju Tinubu was nominated by the ruling APC to stand as its successor to outgoing President Buhari but according to Governor El-Rufai, certain individuals working in the presidency ate trying to frustrate his ambition because their candidate did not win the party primaries. He said those individual elements are hiding behind President Buhari’s desire to do what he thinks is right.

Governor El-Rufai added: "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 but their candidate did not win the primaries.

“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.

“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.

"The Buhari-Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”

President Buhari's wife, Aisha Buhari, might have given credence to these claims after she shared a  video clip of Governor El-Rufai’s statement on her Instagram page. She posted it without any comment attached to it but the  act us being seen as tacit support for the governor’s claims.