Kaduna state governor, Nasir el-Rufai,has said that the naira redesign policy is not part of the manifesto of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), but a personal decision.
He also alleged that some “elements” in Aso Rock were working against the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Wednesday, el-Rufai also the governor said these persons, whose identities he did not disclose were aggrieved that Tinubu defeated their candidate in the APC presidential primaries, adding that they were hiding behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire to do what he thinks is right.”
El-Rufai 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”.
Speaking further, he said the ruling party advised the president to remove the fuel subsidy, which he described as a “Nigeria problem”.
El-Rufai said Buhari retained the subsidy because he believed that its removal would have negative effects on Nigerians.
The governor said, “The problem is not the APC government but the people of Nigeria who are not willing to face the truth. People are paying N300 to N500 per litre in part of the country and they have to queue for hours to get this all because of this unsustainable and broken down subsidy regime that we have chosen to maintain for the past 50 years. It has not worked.
“It is not an APC problem, it is a Nigeria problem because today if president Buhari said remove subsidy, the NLC will be out on the street protesting. We have had that anytime the price slightly increases.
“It is a national conversation. The presidential candidates, including Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Bola Tinubu have said they will remove the fuel subsidies. “They have to unless the country will go bankrupt. The next government must remove it otherwise the country will collapse.
“This fuel subsidy requires a national conversation. It is not a partisan thing, it has been going on for years, we tried to solve it under the Buhari administration but we were sabotaged and we are where we are.
El-Rufai said further that, “If you were at our party, we didn’t promise that we were going to keep the fuel subsidy or redesign the currency. It isn’t in our manifesto. You need to separate the personal decisions of some people in the villa from the manifesto f the party. It is important to understand that.”

