The Party Has Left Me Behind, El-Rufai Officially Leaves APC
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.
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.
