The governor of Kaduna said the northern elders are liars and would not be able to achieve “even a councilorship post” in an election.
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has referred to northern elders like Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar as “paperweights” who have no real political ability to affect the result of the next general elections.
Mr. El-Rufai, who is 63 years old, boasted in a BBC Hausa interview on Friday that he and the other northern governors now in power were the actual northern elders because they can influence elections in the area.
“I, too, am an older person; I, too, am 63; I, too, have offspring and grandkids.” And who exactly are these Elders of the North? That group needs to step up and run as a candidate in the next elections. Mr. El-Rufai said, “I got elected twice.”
“Ask people who claim to be elders if they have sought even a councilorship position.”
He went on to say that the people making these claims were “liars” and that the Northern Governors were, in fact, the true elders and leaders of the area.
Mr. El-Rufai alleged that certain political heavyweights in the north were trying to sabotage Bola Tinubu’s presidential ambitions because they were opposed to the transfer of power to the south.
These hypocrisies and conspiracies, it turns out, are the work of northerners. Mr. El-Rufai remarked that those who oppose a power transfer to the south and back Asiwaju Bola Tinubu are trying to paint the northern governors as ungrateful.
Kaduna’s governor said Mr. Tinubu deserved the North’s backing because of all the “wonderful acts” he had done for the area. In his opinion, nobody could stop Mr. Tinubu from achieving his goals, no matter how hard they tried.
Even with all the plots and schemes, I can assure you that we will win the 2023 election by the grace of God. Kaduna’s governor underlined that his state will repay Asiwaju’s kindness by doing good for the rest of Nigeria. “Because God knows our hearts; He knows our plans for Nigeria; He knows our plans for Northern Nigeria,” he said.
