The former Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir El Rufia, has dismissed the public belief that he was politically aligned with President Bola Tinubu.
El-Rufai, while speaking during an appearance on Arise News Television’s PrimeTime show on Monday, revealed details about his strained relationship with Tinubu and his deep regrets about supporting him to power in the 2023 elections.
El-Rufai stated that the Northern Governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) agreed to zone power to the South after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure, ultimately paving the way for Tinubu’s emergence.
The former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) asserted that despite concerns about Tinubu’s candidacy at the time, the APC governors examined his record as Lagos State governor and believed he could replicate that performance at the national level.
He said, “For us, as Northern APC governors, we felt that eight years after Buhari, power should go to the South. The second question was who would win owing to the party. Bola Ahmed Tinubu became a beneficiary of that.
“I was never close to Bola Tinubu. I was a Buhari Boy; he (Tinubu) had his boys. I was a Buharist. My job was delivering Kaduna for Tinubu when he won the party.
“There were questions about him, and it worried me. We checked how he governed Lagos, and it was an inclusive government; he did a decent job in Lagos. Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future. So we said if he can do half of that in Nigeria, then it’s good.”
