Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai has confirmed that former President Muhammadu Buhari endorsed his decision to leave the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
In an interview with BBC Hausa service, el-Rufai said: “I met with him (Buhari) on Friday and informed him of my plans to leave the party. I sought his blessings and prayers and told him about the new party I intended to join. He gave me his full support and wished me well.”
The former two-term Kaduna state governor dismissed insinuation in some quarters that his defection from APC was driven by bitterness because he was not appointed a minister in the Bola Tinubu’s government.
He stressed that he did not lobby for a position in Tinubu’s cabinet and could not have been bitter for not getting any.
“Tinubu publicly appealed to me in Kaduna to work with him. Even then, I didn’t immediately accept.
“We later had a private discussion where he explained that resolving Nigeria’s persistent power supply issues was a key priority for his administration.”
El-Rufai said that he agreed to support Tinubu based on the president’s commitment to tackling the power sector crisis.
“I believed he was serious about addressing this challenge. That’s why I agreed to consider working with him.”
He expressed disappointment in Tinubu’s leadership, saying however that he had no regrets backing him in the 2023 presidential election.
“I’m not bitter, but I’m disappointed,” Peoples Gazette quoted him as saying in Hausa language.
