“It is a complex society and it requires experience,” the 52-year-old said.
Consequently, the Kaduna helmsman said the aggrieved people were ganging up against the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The conspirators, according to him, were those whose candidates lost the APC presidential primary but who are still bitter.
According to him, these elements were hiding behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire to do what he thinks is right.
He said, ”I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries.
“They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed.
“In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200 billion for federal roads and then spend N2 trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.
“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as president. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention. The president has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”
El-Rufai’s outburst is coming a week after the ruling party’s presidential candidate said there were plans to stop him from winning the election.
Tinubu had said fuel scarcity and naira redesign were targeted at him.
Also, some members of the public, including APC’s PCC had recently blamed Emefiele, calling him different names for the Naira redesign.
The questions on the lips of impoverished and disgruntled Nigerians are, how are these notes getting into wrong hands? What are the inbuilt checks and balances by CBN to checkmate fraudulent acts of some of its staff? What are the security agencies doing, particularly with alleged culprits that were arrested? Why the policy summersault by CBN, particularly as it regards naira swap?
However, Kaduna state’s first citizen was of the opinion that his preference for a leader lay with the younger class but there were certain elements they lacked
“At the National level, I would have preferred a younger person but the reality in Nigeria is that the younger person must also have that varied experience that will enable him to hold the country together.”
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“It requires a track record of performance that maybe a 50-year-old cannot have and cannot convince the political class or general public.”
“Instinctively I will love to see younger people at different levels of leadership and we have tried to do that in Kaduna we brought in young people and they have performed wonderfully and a few have disappointed as is normal,” he said
