Nasir El-Rufai, Aisha Buhari, Bola Tinubu
By Our Reporter
Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha and the federal government have disagreed over claims by El-Rufai that there are “elements” in the Presidential Villa working against All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
El-Rufai said the saboteurs in Aso Rock were those whose candidates who lost at the party’s presidential primary and are still bitter.
El Rufui’s submission was ‘endorsed’ by Aisha Buhari.
Aisha uploaded El-Rufai’s video on Instagram on Wednesday, hours after El-Rufai spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
El-Rufai said the unnamed people are now hiding behind President Buhari to pursue their interest
“I believe there are elements in the villa who want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries”
“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.” said El-Rufai.
The Federal government countered El-Rufai and Mrs Buhari’s views, The Federal Government said the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is officially unaware of elements within the Presidency, which El-Rufa’i, accused of working to sabotage the winning chances of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Federal government ‘s position was made known by the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed. The minister was reacting to a question raised by State House Correspondents on the allegation. He said the government, a product of the ruling APC, was unaware of the plot described by El-Rufa’i, saying that what the government is determined to achieve is a free, fair and credible election.
According to him, Buhari is primarily concerned with seeing the elections being credible, not tilted in favour of any particular candidate or against anyone.
“One thing I can assure you is that no matter who, this administration is focused and determined to ensure a free and fair election and I think in this administration, the most important person is Mr. President and I think he has shown by words and by deeds that he’s committed to a free,
“Fair, free and credible election actually means not favouring anybody or disadvantaging anybody and everywhere he goes, he makes that very clear, even as recently as Friday, when he was in Daura, he said the same thing.
“So, if there’s anybody who’s working against any candidate, we don’t know officially,” he stated.
