El-Rufai said this in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, where he spoke about some people and forces he characterised as elements whose patterns and conducts are consistent with plans to subvert or topple a civilian-to-civilian transition after the next presidential election.
The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that he knows those in Aso Rock who are not only working against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) but are conspiring to derail the forthcoming general elections and enthrone an interim government.
El-Rufai said this in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, where he spoke about some people and forces he characterised as elements whose patterns and conducts are consistent with plans to subvert or topple a civilian-to-civilian transition after the next presidential election.
PREMIUM TIMES quoted El-Rufai as saying, “It turned out that some of the wildest stories of conspiracy to derail the transition at best for APC to lose, preferably for the whole system to result in no election leading to an interim arrangement began to rear their heads.”
El-Rufai, however, failed to name the alleged conspirators, insisting they are not worth the conventional Nigerian appellation of a political cabal.
He said, “I have no problem naming them. I’m not afraid of anybody. But for me, naming them is giving them traction. They are nothing. They are not capable of winning elections. They have no idea of electoral or political legitimacy. They can only hide behind the likes of President Buhari to achieve their objectives.”
Governor El-Rufai reportedly took time to address contentious issues around President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Also speaking on the mixed signal perceived from the president’s lukewarm attitude to Mr Tinubu’s campaigns, he insisted there are no mixed signals, saying, “President Buhari considers the APC like a child he conceived and held in pregnancy for 18 months and gave birth to. He will never, I am ready to stake my neck and my life, President Buhari will never work against the APC. He will never work against the candidate of the APC even if the candidate is the devil himself.”
According to him, President Buhari is “a party man and an establishment person whose support for Mr Tinubu is sure”.
“What is happening is that there are people around the president that had their presidential candidates. They had two candidates that they preferred to succeed Buhari – Godwin Emefiele from the South and Ahmad Lawan from the north – and they got neither,” he said.