The Kaduna State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency has waved off the defection of Nasir El-Rufai to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Although the Presidency and APC admitted that El-Rufai had a constitutional right to do so, they predicted that the former Kaduna State governor would fail in his decision to join forces bent on defeating President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.
Also yesterday, Senator Shehu Sani said El-Rufai will have no political relevance in Kaduna State in 2027.
He added that his exit from the APC would strengthen the party because the people he chased away from the party have returned and are working with Governor Uba Sani.
Presidential spokesman Daniel Bwala: “It (defection ) is simply an inordinate ambition that is destined to fail.”
The President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said it was no surprise that El-Rufai ‘’is going about everywhere to campaign against the President’’ because he was not made a minister.
The Kaduna chapter of the APC said it would not lose sleep over the defection of El-Rufai who served as governor between 2015 and 2023 on the party’s platform.
The former governor yesterday announced his decision to leave the ruling party for the SDP via a post on his verified Facebook page.
In the post titled “Nigeria Update: Onwards to the future,” he accused APC’s current leadership of deviating from its founding principles and disregarding internal democratic processes.
The former governor cited a growing misalignment between his values and the current direction of the ruling party as the primary reason for his decision.
“The developments in the last two years confirm that there is no desire on the part of those who currently control and run the APC to acknowledge, much less address, the unhealthy situation of the party,” El-Rufai said.
He added that he had privately and publicly raised concerns about what he described as the party’s “capricious trajectory.”
