El-Rufai asks Buhari to deal with overambitious APC party members

Kaduna State governor and a chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Nasir El-Rufai, has asked Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari to deal with the party members who are ‘desperate and overambitious.’

“It is my view that President Muhammadu Buhari must be firm and decisive in dealing with these overambitious elements that will make his second term difficult from day one unless curtailed,” El-Rufai said at an interactive session with members of The Bridge Club in Lagos.

“The President has to be very decisive in dealing with such people.”

Kaduna State governor said the party lost elections in some states during the last general elections because of the activities of members whom he claimed were busy scheming to position themselves for 2023.

“So, those 2023 aspirations had been busy at work, creating pockets of support that had unintended consequences. I can mention a few states that we lost because of these kinds of aspirations,” El-Rufai said.
He advised the party to live in peace of each other and focus on building a party envious to others.

“Whoever is the President, whoever is the governor continues to pursue these goals. The nuances of how to achieve the goals may differ from party to party but the goals will remain. We have not had that conversation and I believe it is time we began to have it,” El-Rufai concluded.

A staunch supporter of Buhari, El-Rufai himself had to battle competitions from at least two senators from his state to retain his control of Kaduna State.

He publicly fell out with senators Shehu Sani and Othman Hunkuyi. The two men later defected to the People’s Redemption Party and People’s Democratic Party respectively.

Sani later lost the bid to return to the Senate to Uba Sani of the APC, whom El-Rufai supported.

Regardless, that has not stopped Shehu Sani to continue criticising El-Rufai’s handling of the violence crises that have been bedevilling Kaduna State

(Nigerian Guardian News)