Presidency and All Progressive
Congress are yet to come to terms with reality of what befell them after receiving
a damming latter written by Kaduna state governor, mallam Nasir El-rufai, alleging
that the president and its party’s handling issues of governance in Nigeria was
very poor, and that which was leaked to the media since on Thursday and has
been trending
In the memo, dated September 22,
2016, but which went viral Thursday, el-Rufai,
a dye-in-the-wool loyalist of Buhari, noted that his warning became
necessary, because his political future was intrinsically tied to that of
Buhari, adding that: “poll after poll in Kaduna State, before and after the
2015 elections, clearly shows that my fate, politically and otherwise, is
uncannily tied to yours. If you do well, I stand to benefit immensely. If you
do not do well sir, whatever I try to do in Kaduna matters little to my present
and any future political trajectory.”
“There is a perception that your
ministers, some of whom are competent and willing to make real contributions,
have no clear mandate, instructions and access to you. Ministers are
constitutional creations, Mr. President, and it is an aberration that they are
expected to report to the Chief of Staff on policy matters,” el-Rufai noted.
He also echoed the insinuation in
some quarters that appointments into
Buhari’s government was lopsided, in favour of a particular section of
the country, saying: “There is a strong perception that your inner circle or
kitchen cabinet is incapable, unproductive and sectional. The quality and the
undue concentration of key appointments to the North-East and exclusion of
South-East are mentioned as evidence of this.”
Shocked by the turn of events, APC
National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said that the memo from el-Rufai
to the President needed to be scrutinized, stressing that the national
leadership of the party would study it even though he described it as the
governor’s legitimate views.
Chief Odigie-Oyegun and the
National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, who reacted to the
bomshell, stated that given the number of pages and the issues raised, the
National Working Committee (NWC) of the party would need some time to do a
scrutiny of it.
Assuring that the party would make
its comments public after studying the memo, the ruling party also stated that
the legitimate views of the governor had turned out to be of concern to Nigerians.
In his words: “We will evaluate it and comment later publicly. We thought it
was a private memo to the President, but we will look at it and if we have any
suggestions to make, we will make them later. It concerns Nigerians and his
legitimate views, which he has expressed. We will see how it concerns us, the
party and the nation and if there is need, we will comment on it subsequently.”
Similarly, APC spokesperson, simply
quipped: “We are just studying it and we will respond very soon. It is a 30
-page memo, therefore we have to study it conclusively.”
Kaduna based lawyer, Mr. Wahab
Page, said the Kaduna State governor, and exhibited rare courage in the face of
sycophancy by writing the letter to President Buhari over the inability of the
ruling party to manage expectation of Nigerians after two years in office.
This was even as the governor’s
aides yesterday kept mute over the issue, and completely refused to say a word
about the letter.
Ditto the Special Adviser on
political matters and inter-governmental affairs, Honourable Uba Sani.
Attempts to get presidential
spokesmen, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, to respond to the issues raised in the
letter did not yield any response as they refused to speak on the matter. A
highly placed official in the presidency, however, said the President was
shocked that the content of a supposed private letter to him was leaked to the
media
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