Ordinarily, I could not have chipped in anything concerning the exit of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the APC as I am not a politician. More so, I’m not his spokesperson.
However, I have some reservations on what Governor Nasir El-Rufai, of Kaduna state said in this regard.
First and foremost, El-Rufai was Atiku’s boy based on his confession about 10 years ago in Ganye Town, when the Gangwari Ganye conferred the prestigious title of Sardauna on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
On that day, Governor El-Rufai, then Director-General of Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), told the whole world that Atiku Abubakar was his mentor and that he was instrumental to his appointment as DG of the Bureau by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Secondly, based on certain indices, I stand to be corrected, the overwhelming support President Muhammadu Buhari enjoyed in 2015 has diminished and a lot of permutations like what Asiwaju Bala Ahmed Tinubu said that there is no any automatic ticket for Buhari.
El-Rufai’s assertion that he is a Buhari apologist is merely to use the popularity of the President to have a second term, which from indices may not be possible in Kaduna state due to his anti-people policies.
In fact, El-Rufai is luring President Buhari to support some of his anti-people policies like his recent threat of sacking about 20,000.
What the governor should realise is in democracy one is at liberty to belong to any political party of his choice as well as to defect from one party to another just like El-Rufai left PDP where he was even appointed as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
In fact, as FCT minister, the level of destruction and anti-people policies he initiated endeared him to his then boss, Obasanjo. But later he called Obasanjo unprintable names in his book “The Accidental Civil Servant.”
The likes of El-Rufai cannot make it in politics without the Buhari’s “SAK”. But this time around, the people would not be disposed to such, even if the President asks them to do so.
Governor El-Rufai is brain behind the problem of Nigeria Ports Authority and Intels Logistics taking into cognizance that NPA Managing Director was his protégé and she is doing his bidding. He perceived Atiku Abubakar as stumbling block to his ambition if President Buhari is not going for second term.
El-Rufai was the same person that said Buhari, then CPC presidential candidate would never become President when he was in PDP but now, he is at the fore front protecting the same person, that is a politician for you.
Therefore, the exit of Atiku Abubakar should not give him sleepless night. He should stop attacking the former vice president as politics is a game of numbers, whoever gets the highest number of votes wins.
Even if they are not on the same page now, it should not be a matter of life and death that El-Rufai can be using every fora to lunch attack on the former for leaving APC.
Usman Santuraki,
Jimeta, Yola
