El-Rufai

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State said yesterday that some elements in the Presidency were working assiduously to ensure the failure of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in ths month’s presidential elections.

He also said the same forces were responsible for the current crisis created by the petrol subsidy, which is making the country waste over N6 trillion annually.
But the Federal Government in a swift reaction yesterday, said it is not aware of any element working against the ruling party, insisting that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ensuring that the forthcoming elections are free, fair and credible and wil not favour any presidential candidate.

He also said the same forces were responsible for the current crisis created by the petrol subsidy, which is making the country waste over N6 trillion annually.

But speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Governor el-Rufai said most of those working against APC’s chances in the presidential election are not even members of the party.

He said they are embittered because their preferred candidate didn’t win the party’s presidential ticket.
The governor said:  “Nigerians should stick with the APC because they should see what we have been able to achieve in the last eight years in very difficult circumstances.

We were sabotaged on subsidy’
“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.

To be honest, we have had the conversation at the level of the National Economic Council, NEC, 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.

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 my primary responsibility.
‘We didn’t promise subsidy, Naira re-design’
“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.”
Speaking further on fuel subsidy, Governor el-Rufai said:  “The problem is not the APC government but the people of Nigeria who are not willing to face the truth. People are paying N300 to N500 per litre in parts of the country and they have to queue for hours to get fuel because of this unsustainable and broken down subsidy regime that we have chosen to maintain for the past 50 years. It has not worked.

It is not an APC problem, it is a Nigeria problem because today, if President Buhari said remove subsidy, the NLC will be out on the streets protesting. We have had that anytime the price slightly increases.
‘Next govt must remove subsidy, or else…’

It is a national conversation. The presidential candidates, including Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Bola Tinubu have said they will remove fuel subsidy. They have to, unless the country will go bankrupt. The next government must remove it, otherwise the country will collapse.
“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.
“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.
“If you were at our party, we didn’t promise that we were going to keep the 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.

These elements 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 N200 billion 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.