March 10, (THEWILL) – Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has disclosed that Governor Mai Mala Buni would not return as Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).
The governor, who stated this on Channels Television programme, Politics Today, said President Muhammadu Buhari approved Buni’s removal shortly before he travelled to the United Kingdom (UK) for a routine medical check-up.
He also confirmed that there were plans by the Yobe governor’s supporters to scuttle the party’s national convention slated for March 26.
Buhari, according to him, had directed the Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani-Bello, to take over the party’s leadership.
El-Rufai said: “Buni is gone, the Secretary is gone. Governor Bello is in charge and he has the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari and 19 governors. Buni can only return as Governor of Yobe State, but never as chairman of our party.
“President Buhari ordered his removal and this has been implemented. Governor Bello has taken over and things are moving according to plan.
“The party will be restored and convention will take place as scheduled. The 19 governors and their deputies are solidly behind this move.
“Buni and his people got a court order to stop the convention, but hid it.”
Speaking on the 2023 general elections and the chances of the party, the governor boasted that APC would win the 2023 presidential election, saying the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and others cannot match the ruling party next year.
“APC is still the party to beat. We are going to win the presidential election as well as the majority of the governorship seats.
“I think Nigerians expect much more than we have done, but if Nigerians reflect deeply and compare with the other party, we are still a better choice. All the other parties cannot match us anywhere”, he added.
On the zoning of Presidential slot of the party to the South, he said, “Our expectation is that our presidential candidate will come from somewhere in the south”, adding that it would now be left to the southern caucus of the ruling party to decide which part of the area the candidate will come from.
“It is up to the southern caucus of the APC to now propose to us an acceptable candidate”, he explained.
Asked if he regrets being the Kaduna State Governor since it was President Buhari that talked him into taking up the challenge, El-Rufai said, “I’ve no regrets whatsoever. I think we’ve transformed the State in many ways, brought progress in many areas. I’ve no regrets. I’ve paid a personal price, but that’s life.
“I mean, whatever you do that raises the life of humanity, it feels like something that brings back positive feedback. I’m quite satisfied and I feel that we’ve done a decent job in Kaduna, so I’ve no regrets whatsoever.
“And I ask Nigerians to pray for all of us for Almighty God to choose a successor in Kaduna that would be even better than I tried to do.”
The Governor also denied the rumour that he had already anointed his very good friend to take over from him when he leaves office in 2023.
“I’ve not. I’ve not anointed anybody. Stories go round. There are some that say I’ve anointed my deputy governor and there are some that say I’ve anointed my Commissioner for Finance and there are some that say I’ve anointed my Commissioner of Budget and Planning, there are all kinds of stories arounds, but…I don’t want to anoint anyone.
“I think the leadership…our first eleven as I called it, the core leadership of Kaduna State, would sit and debate this and see whether we can come up with one person we think is a worthy successor and what that person would do to carry the rest of the team together.
“We have our core team. We’ve started meeting regularly and even our senators join from Kaduna. We discuss this regularly and at some point, we’re going to make that decision, but we’ve not anointed anyone.
“If I tell you I don’t have preferences I would be lying. I do have preferences, but because I’m human, even though I have preferences, I’m still praying that God chooses the right person for Kaduna State.
“Because for me, Kaduna is more important than anything, including myself, friendship and any preferences I may have and I’m human only God knows the best person to succeed me. I’m only human.
“My preference is in our core team, that is the first eleven. I said core team because these are the guys that worked with me since 2014 to organise our party, organised our campaign and we won and got elected.
“So, they know all the policies we formulated and implemented. So, they’ll not come and have about-turn changing direction.
“This is why I said our core team. Some are in the cabinet and some are in the National Assembly, but we have our core team and we’ll keep discussing. The reason I want someone from our team to succeed us is because I want continuity.”
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