“I Know People Who Paid For Ministerial Appointments Under Tinubu Govt – El-Rufai

Former Kaduna State Governor; Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has stated that he knows people who paid to be appointed as ministers in the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Bola Tinubu.

He claimed that the APC had strayed from its core values and that his departure was not due to his own ministerial experience.

In an interview with the BBC Hausa, El-Rufai stated that he would have found it easier if the party had fired him, as it would have relieved him of the burden of explaining his departure.

He insisted that the APC abandoned him and its founding members, not that he left the party.

In response to a query about whether he expected people to think he left the APC because he wasn’t nominated as a minister, El-Rufai said, “Did I seek to be a minister? I know people who paid to get ministerial appointments.”

He acknowledged that he was dissatisfied with the manner he had been treated, but he said he did not regret backing President Bola Tinubu’s ambition. “I didn’t regret supporting Tinubu’s presidential ambition, but I feel disappointed,” said El-Rufai.

He also bemoaned the fact that the APC has devolved into a party where private interests now control politics, making it hard for people who contributed to its achievements to be acknowledged or compensated.

“The APC abandoned the ideals that led to its formation. It has abandoned the people. Everyone is now pursuing personal interests and wealth. The government has become a business enterprise where everything has a price,” he stated.

In support of his assertion that the party no longer supports justice and fairness, he stated that a small group of people from Lagos were controlling important appointments in the current administration.

There is no justice. Those who worked for the party are not recognized, let alone rewarded. Appointments are now controlled by a select group from Lagos. The party is dead.”

El-Rufai claimed that before departing the APC, he sought the advice of several political leaders, including Bisi Akande, Tunde Bakare, Abdullahi Adamu, Adams Oshiomhole, and former president Muhammadu Buhari.