Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna state, says the distance between him and the All Progressives Congress (APC) is “widening”.
El-Rufai, a chieftain of the APC, spoke on Monday at the national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria held in Abuja.
The ex-governor criticised the party for allegedly straying from its core values and promoting “ineffective” leadership.
The former minister of the federal capital territory (FCT) said the various organs in the party have not been holding meetings, adding that the leadership is running the APC like a “one-man show”.
“I am the founding member of the APC. But frankly, I no longer recognise the APC. No party organ has met in two years — no caucus, no NEC, nothing. I don’t even know if it is a one-man show. It is a zero-man show,” he said.
“Though I am the founding the member, the party has left me behind. I’m still there where we were. We wanted to form a progressive party that will fight corruption, revamp the economy and restore security to Nigerians. That was the objective of forming our party.
“But where is the APC today? I don’t recognise it like I said. It has left me behind. I still believe that the purpose of political contestation in Nigeria still remains revamping the economy, restoring security and fighting corruption. The problems are still there.
“You cannot afford to have illiterates, semi-illiterates, and cunning people as your leaders. This is why we end up with the poor leadership we have today.
“The problems that led to the creation of the APC remain unresolved but I no longer believe the APC is interested in addressing them. The distance between me and the party is widening.”
El-Rufai noted the need for opposition parties to unite and form a viable coalition to keep the ruling party in check.
“There are internal mercenaries in the PDP, hired and motivated to destroy the party. The Labour Party is also facing similar issues. Peter Obi himself told me: ‘I don’t know what’s happening in the party I contested for president’. There seems to be a deliberate project to destroy opposition parties,” he said.
Early this month, el-Rufai held a “strategic meeting” with Hamza Al-Mustapha, ex-aide to the late Sani Abacha; Shehu Gabam, national chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PDP); and other politicians in the nation’s capital.
Segun Showunmi, a former spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar campaign organisation, said the meeting was to strategise ahead of the 2027 elections.
Since 2023, there have been speculations that el-Rufai has been working to pitch his political tent elsewhere.
The rumours gained traction after el-Rufai could not scale through the ministerial screening hurdle.
The senate had withheld his confirmation over petitions filed against him, while the former governor was not confirmed for a ministerial position despite being nominated by President Bola Tinubu.
