The All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential election campaign is taking what political commentators say is an ugly turn, as infighting appear to be brewing within the party.
Days after the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, criticized lingering fuel scarcity and federal government’s decision to redesign naira notes and introduce new weekly withdrawal limits, the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has alleged that some “elements” in the Presidential Villa want the APC to fail in the forthcoming elections.
He made the allegation on Wednesday during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily morning program, supporting rumors that the recent decisions of the federal government are politically motivated.
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“I believe that there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the elections because they didn’t get their way,” El-Rufai said.
“They had their candidate; their candidate didn’t win the primaries and I think they are still trying to get us to lose the elections and they are hiding behind the President’s desire to do what he thinks is right.”
Tinubu emerged the winner of APC presidential primary after the party dropped its purported plan to have a consensus candidate. The ruling party was said to have intended to choose the consensus candidate from other aspirants, including the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi.
At last, the APC allowed delegates, who voted overwhelmingly for Tinubu, to choose its presidential candidate. It is believed that the outcome of the June 8, 2022 APC presidential primary angered big wigs in the presidency, who are now working to ensure that the party fails.
El-Rufai said that recent government’s decisions such as the delay in removing fuel subsidy and currency swap resulting from the CBN’s decision to redesign naira notes few months to the election underline the work of people who want to make the APC vulnerable.
“This petroleum subsidy which is costing the country trillions of naira was something that we all agreed should be removed. In fact, I had a discussion with the President and showed him why it had to go.
“How can you have a capital budget of 200 billion [naira] for federal roads and then spend two trillion on subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the President in 2021 when the subsidy started rising. He was convinced. We left; it changed. Everyone in the government agreed.
“The second example I would give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the President. People are blaming the governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign,” he said.
However, the Kaduna State governor exonerated President Muhammadu Buhari, citing a similar step Buhari had taken in the past to buttress the president’s innocence in all of it.
“No, you have to go back and look at the President’s first outing as president. He did this,” El-Rufai said.
The governor noted that, as the military head of state between 1983 and 1985, Buhari also changed the Nigerian currency and did so in secret with a view to catching those that stashed away illicit funds.
He however, faulted the timing now. El-Rufai said the policies coming at this period leave the APC vulnerable ahead of the forthcoming elections.
“It’s a very good intention – very clear intention. The President’s heart is white. But doing it at this time within the time allotted just doesn’t make any political [or] economic sense,” he said.
More voices from the ruling party have joined Tinubu in echoing that fuel scarcity and the naira redesign were all meant to scuttle the election.
During his campaign on Tuesday in Calabar, Tinubu again took a swipe at Buhari, accusing the president of being clueless and mismanaging the economy.
“He took dollar from N200 to N800,” he said. “He couldn’t arrest the Naira from falling because he don’t know how to think, he don’t know how to do [it].”
The frontal criticism of Buhari, which is in sharp contrast to Tinubu’s earlier campaign speeches, where he had promised to continue the president’s legacy, is seen as evidence of ongoing war in the APC.