Nigeria Moving Backwards Under Tinubu-led APC Government, Says Ex-Kaduna Governor El-Rufai
El-Rufai added that Nigeria is worse off in terms of insecurity, economy and governance than it was under previous administrations.
Aformer governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has claimed that Nigeria is not progressing under the current government of President Bola Tinubu.
El-Rufai, who recently dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Social Democratic Party (SDP), accused President Tinubu’s administration of incompetence, nepotism and betrayal of the founding ideals of APC.
He mentioned this during an interview with Deutsche Welle Hausa in Katsina. El-Rufai was in Katsina on Monday, but the video of the interview was released Tuesday.
El-Rufai added that Nigeria is worse off in terms of insecurity, economy and governance than it was under previous administrations.
He alleged that the Tinubu-led administration was the most intolerant since the return to democracy in 1999.
He also accused Tinubu’s administration of being insensitive to the plight of ordinary Nigerians.
He said, “Ever since the assumption of office of Tinubu as Nigeria’s president, the country has begun to go backwards. Insecurity has increased, the economy is dwindling, affluent people are now poor, and ethnic profiling is on the rise.
“Whoever he is giving an appointment to must be someone he knows or from his tribe. They can dismiss that, but Nigerians are not stupid. There is no way your name is this, and they will say no, you are from Katsina,” he stated.
“This kind of injustice, ethnic profiling, and theft that we are seeing is not what APC was built on. What we planned when we started building APC was a platform for justice, equity, competence, and national integration. But today, we see nothing but sheer injustice, nepotism, and disregard for those ideals,” El-Rufai said.
He explained that those were the reasons behind his decision to join the SDP which he described as a party that would “rescue the masses from injustice.”
“So, whoever his party cheated or did something he felt was not right, the only party he sees is the SDP. So, don’t be surprised by the kind of people you see in this room and others that are not here — we are working together in broad daylight and midnight doing what we should do to strategise in order to salvage our people from what this government has put us through,” he stated.
Responding to concerns that his journey with the SDP could end up like his earlier alliance with the APC, El-Rufai insisted that it was the APC that strayed from its founding ideals, not him.
“I did not leave APC; it’s the party that left me. Since Bola Tinubu became president, the country has started to go backwards. We told them what they are doing is not good, and they are always behaving like nobody can tell them anything.
“Even when they deny the allegation of nepotism, people are not blind or stupid. When they see the names, they know where they come from,” he said.
El-Rufai recalled meeting with APC leaders like Bisi Akande, Adams Oshiomhole and Abdullahi Adamu to tell them that the party had deviated from its founding vision.
