Nasir El-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State, has voiced concerns about the ability of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to address the country’s challenges.
He also accused the party and President Bola Tinubu’s administration of attempting to dismantle opposition parties. El-Rufai expressed doubts about the state of opposition parties and criticized the governance style and quality in Nigeria, describing it as a national emergency.
The former APC founding member made these remarks during a conference in Abuja on Monday, focused on strengthening democracy in Nigeria.
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The event was organized by various organizations, including the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), and the National Peace Committee (NPC).
He said: “I no longer recognise the APC. No party organ of the APC has met for the past two years. No caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it is a zero-man show,” he added.
He reminisced that the APC was initially established with the aim of creating a progressive party dedicated to combating corruption, revitalizing the economy, and improving security.
However, he stated that these goals have since been neglected.
“The problems are still there. However, I no longer believe that my party believes in confronting those problems.
“So, the distance between me and APC is widening, but I remain where I am because these problems remain the living problems of Nigerians, and they have to be addressed, and the only way to address them is through the instrumentality of the political parties,” he added.
On the states of opposition parties, the former governor said, “The way and manner opposition political parties are being targeted for destruction and the style and quality of governance in this country today is a national emergency. It should concern everyone.
“And I think this is a problem for all of us to think about and play a role in changing it because, as His Excellency [Atiku] said, we stand the risk of losing democracy itself.”
According to him, a recent poll suggested that 75% of registered voters in Nigeria do not intend to vote in 2027, adding, “This is very dangerous, and I believe every voice must rise to fight for this democracy.
“For those of us in our 60s, we lived half our lives under military rule. We know what it is, and we don’t want a military rule, but we also don’t want civilians behaving like the military in their babbar riga and suits. So, this is a national emergency.”
Mr. El-Rufai specifically voiced concerns about the targeting of opposition parties in Nigeria, with particular emphasis on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“There are internal mercenaries in the PDP that have been hired, paid, or otherwise motivated to destroy the party.”.
He predicted that “the party is on its way to the grave, and it is most unfortunate.”
He also alleged that similar moves were being made towards the Labour Party, citing a conversation with Peter Obi, where Obi admitted, “I don’t know what is happening in the party that I contested for president.”
Mr El-Rufai further stated that “there seems to be a project to destroy all the opposition political parties” and insisted that the only viable option for the opposition is to unite and form a broad platform.
“We have to put aside our differences and create a broad platform that will do the driving of the military again because we are there almost again,” he said.
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