The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for president, Bola Tinubu, is being opposed by “elements” in the presidential villa who want him to lose the 25 February election, according to Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who said he will expose them.
In an interview with TVC News on Thursday night, Mr. El-Rufai claimed that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) introduction of a currency swap was intended to sway voters against the APC and was planned by groups determined to ensure that the APC presidential candidate loses the election.
According to PULSENETS, the CBN had set a deadline of 31 January for the usage of the previous naira notes when it first announced the new policy in October. The CBN chief, who announced the policy, had intended to run against Mr. Tinubu for the APC nomination but was forced to drop out under criticism from the people, who questioned the legitimacy of the bank chief becoming involved in politics.
Mr. El-Rufai claimed on Thursday that those who aren’t identified but are hiding behind President Muhammadu Buhari are serving their own interests by inciting voters to oppose the APC through the currency swap.
“We are not against the policy, cashless is the way to go, but you can’t do it in a few weeks. Allow time for every farmer, trader, student, and market woman in the village and to the city to be able to take their money in the banks and get new currencies or take the bullion van to them with the security and change their money.
“It is not everywhere that POS work, and it’s not everywhere you have bank branches. Let’s look for reasonable times according to the CBN Act before the legal tender ceases to exist,” the governor said.
The approach was supported by Mr. Emefiele and President Buhari, who said that three months was sufficient time for citizens to exchange their old notes for new ones. Millions of Nigerians have suffered due to the shortage of the new notes, with many having to wait for hours in lines to obtain cash.
On Wednesday, Mr. El-Rufai claimed that the Aso Villa cabal was conspiring against Mr. Tinubu because their preferred candidate had lost the APC primary. Although he omitted names, there have been claims that Mr. Emefiele was encouraged to run for the APC presidential nomination by close Mr. Buhari aides. The aides allegedly supported Senate President Ahmad Lawan, who finished fourth in the APC primary, after Mr. Emefiele withdrew from the race.
According to Mr. El-Rufai, the cabal members are only utilising the currency exchange programme to seek retribution against Mr. Buhari.
After the election, he claimed, those perpetrating harm on Nigerians in the president’s name will be made public.
“Unmasking them (cabals) is not as joyful as defeating them,” he said. “They will be unmasked in time. We have defeated them when they wanted their people in the national working committee of the APC. We have defeated them when they wanted their own anointed person to be the presidential candidate without due regard, due process or even respect for those of us who are governors, that put the party together, campaign for it and deliver the election twice.”
“We didn’t matter, we are governors and (people saying) governors are corrupt, they are bad, meanwhile, none of them has contested an election and won an election and if they did they won’t win.
“I have been elected twice with over a million votes as governor of Kaduna State, I can claim to speak for the people, (but) none of these (cabals) can. We will come to the unmasking stage; this is not the stage. The stage now is to draw the attention of Nigerians that there are elements that are doing this and they don’t mean well to our party, they want to incite voters against our party so that we lose the election.
“Now once Nigerians know that they will know where the funny decisions are coming from and once the election is done and settled, by the grace of God in about three weeks and I am confident, we are not sleeping, we are going to work hard until 27 February when the election results are out and by the grace of God, Bola Tinubu is elected and other candidates of the APC, then we will unmask them (Cabals),” he said.
