Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has said his support for the Muslim-Muslim ticket adopted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election was not motivated by religion but was a political strategy.
El-Rufai, who made an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, confirmed he backed the decision, describing it as a deliberate plan to secure electoral victory.
“It was a political strategy; it was a strategy to win the election; it was not a religious strategy. When you are contesting an election, you look at every variable, every index, every criterion that will help you win. It has nothing to do with religion,” he said on Sunday.
The former Kaduna governor argued that fears over religious exclusion were unfounded, citing his experience in Kaduna, where he also ran on a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“So long as we continue to speculate on these issues, we will not solve them. We have done a Muslim-Muslim ticket now. Tell me in what way Christians are now short-changed; nothing. No leader that wants to succeed will limit his choice of appointees to a particular religion or ethnicity.
“If you want to succeed, you have to diversify. Now we have cured the fear and the love for the Muslim-Muslim ticket. It has been done, buried, and gone. I did a Muslim-Muslim ticket in Kaduna; I want to know which Christian in Kaduna was short-changed because of it,” he added.
In the build-up to the election, the APC’s choice of President Bola Tinubu, a Muslim from the South-West, and Kashim Shettima, a Muslim from the North-East, generated mixed reactions.
The decision drew criticism from Christian groups, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), who described it as insensitive and a threat to national unity.
In the February 2023 presidential election, Tinubu was declared winner with 8.79 million votes, defeating Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 6.98 million, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who garnered 6.1 million.
Despite opposition challenges in court, his victory was upheld, and he was sworn in on 29 May 2023 as Nigeria’s 16th president.
Meanwhile, El-Rufai, on Sunday said that his successor, Senator Uba Sani, is not his friend.
El-Rufai, 65, who was instrumental to Sani’s emergence as Kaduna State governor in 2023, however, dispelled rumours of a rift between him and the governor.
There were reports that the duo were at loggerheads following El-Rufai’s criticisms of the Federal Government’s policies and the Kaduna State Government.
But speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said both men were never friends.
El-Rufai said, “I’ve not fallen out with the governor. No, he is not my friend. He was my boy, my mentee. We have not fallen out. I still don’t speak with him,” he stated.
“My biggest pride in life is that I have encouraged and elevated many people to greatness, some even greater than me, and I am very proud of it.
“But when a person derails, when he doesn’t do the right thing, because I contributed to getting him there, I am prohibited from commenting? Is that what the country has become?
During the interview, he accused the governor of being behind the attack at the Kaduna African Democratic Congress (ADC) committee inauguration in Kaduna last Saturday and other opposition politicians in the state.
El-Rufai claimed that there was evidence that the state governor orchestrated the attack.
He said, “I have evidence; Kaduna State Governor is behind Saturday’s attacks. I will submit evidence to the IGP and other authorities if they care to investigate.”
He further lamented that “the policing system has collapsed in Nigeria,” alleging that police operatives were watching when the opposition figures came under attack.
Chaos erupted at the official inauguration of a transition committee jointly set up by opposition parties in Kaduna State last Saturday, after suspected political thugs invaded the event.
El-Rufai, who has since dissociated himself from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is one of the leaders of the opposition coalition that chose the ADC as its political platform for the 2023 general elections.