Former Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasiru El-Rufai, has said that he sought the permission of former President Muhammadu Buhari before he left the All Progressives Congress, APC, and joined the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
He spoke in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, monitored by our correspondent in Kaduna, yesterday.
According to him, there was nothing he does without seeking the consent and advice of Buhari.
He said: “The APC has derailed, the party is no longer abiding by its founding principles. Everyone is working for himself, looking for money. The government is commercialised, everything has a price tag.
Justice has been kept at bay, those who worked for the party were ignored instead of being compensated. If there is any position or appointment, they give it to a Lagos boy, etc.
“That is why we’ve been speaking, we spoke, we said this is not the party we know. The party is dead. I said the only option is for me to meet Pastor Tunde Bakare, because he dragged me into APC. He took me to Buhari. I did not join the APC because of Buhari, it was Pastor Bakare, who dragged me to APC and courtesy demands I should let him know.
“Buhari too, I told him I was leaving the party, I sought his blessings and prayers. He said he has given me his blessings and prayers. We are the ones in politics, he (Buhari) is now father of the land and has been praying for us, so what remains?
“I’ve publicly denounced my membership of the party, they can go and hold on to the party, they can eat the party alone like food,we’ve given up.”
Asked if he decided to leave the party to avoid being expelled, El-Rufa’i said it would have been much better for him to be expelled from the APC.
“That would’ve been much easier for me, but look at it, as I kept on saying, I did not leave the party, it’s the party that dumped me. Why did it left me? First of all, I was marginalized, not involved in all party activities. Not that I was invited and refused to honour the invite, I was completely sidelined.
“Secondly, what we had planned to implement when we form government, it’s not what’s being implemented,” he alleged.
On the widespread assertion that he left the party because he was not considered for the ministerial appointment, El-Rufa’i said that was just a popular view.
“But did I even look for the ministerial position? I know those who even paid money to be appointed as ministers.
“Yes, I was at the screening because the President begged me. It was in the public glare, not the two of us for him to say he had never begged me. It was in Kaduna where he begged me to come and work with him. Even then, I did not agree until when we sat down and he told me what he wanted. That the problem of electricity had refused to allow the country to progress. He said he would like to be the President that would finally resolve the power problem and he begged me to come and help him achieve that. I told him that I would look at the challenge he gave me and would consider working with him. I thought he meant it.”
