The Wife of the Nigerian President, Aisha Buhari, corroborated the claim by Kaduna Governor Nasir el-Rufai that some elements in Nigeria’s Presidential Villa are working against Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Aisha Buhari shared the video clip of el-Rufai’s statement on her verified Instagram page without any comment attached to it, an act which might be seen as tacit support to the governor’s claim.
EL-rufai’s claim
The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, had said that there are some elements in the Buhari administration working towards the failure of the APC at the February 25 presidential election.
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‘‘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.
‘‘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.
‘‘And 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.’’
According to him, ‘‘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 why primary responsibility. 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 are the fifth columnists.
”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,” he noted.
Aisha’s action might not come to many as a surprise, as she had in the past said that President Buhari’s administration would have done better if not for two powerful persons.
Tinubu’s Fears
The APC presidential candidate of the ruling party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had alleged that the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to redesign the N200, N500 and 1,000 banknotes and the current fuel scarcity in the country were contrived to sabotage his victory at next month’s election.
Tinubu said he would win, despite the disruptions.
But in a swift reaction to Tinubu’s comments, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, alleged that the APC candidate was frustrated by his inability to stop the cashless policy and currency redesign of the CBN.
Atiku said the monetary policies would curb vote buying and enhance the credibility of next month’s election, claiming Tinubu has begun crying over his imminent defeat due to frustration of his strongest strategies.
Adopting a cautiously belligerent tone, Tinubu told a mammoth crowd of APC members and supporters at the party’s presidential campaign rally in Abeokuta that the fuel scarcity and naira redesign project were artificially created to discourage people from voting for APC.
He said the target was to deny him victory at the February 25 Presidential election.
In a vague reference to those he referred to as the powers that be, Tinubu wondered why the fuel scarcity, which began in October last year, had not abated.
The rally held at the MKO Abiola International Stadium, Abeokuta was attended by APC leaders at the state and the national levels.
Tinubu alleged that some powerful individuals in the country were behind the fuel crisis and scarcity of the new naira notes, saying they intend to scuttle the coming election.
However, the APC presidential candidate called on the citizens to remain resolute and resist any attempt to stop the elections. He described the forthcoming elections as “a revolution” that would usher in new government.
Tinubu stated, “We will use our PVCs to take over government from them. If they like let them create fuel crisis, even if they say there is no fuel, we will trek to vote. They are full of mischief; they could say there is no fuel. They have been scheming to create fuel crisis, but forget about it. Relax, I, Asiwaju, have told you that the issue of fuel supply will be permanently addressed.
“Whoever wants to eat the honey embedded in a mountain won’t worry about the axe. Is that not so? And if you want to eat palm kernel, you would bring stone and use it to break it, then the kernel will come out.
“Let them increase the price of fuel, let them continue to hoard fuel, only them know where they have hoarded fuel, they hoarded money, they hoarded naira; we will go and vote and we will win. Whatever their plans, even if they changed the ink on Naira notes, it will come to naught. We are going to win. Those in the PDP will lose.”
Tinubu added, “I am homeboy. I have come here, you will not be put to shame. We will take over the government from them, the traitors who wanted to contest with us. They had no experience.
“The great Nigerian youth, the great Nigerian students, the confident Nigerian youth. This is a revolution. This election is a revolution. They are plotting, but they will fail. They said fuel price will increase and reach N200 per litre. Go and relax.
“They don’t want this election to hold, they want to scuttle it. Do you agree?” he queried.
