Former Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has maintained that he is not bothered by the wave of defections into the All Progressives Congress.
Speaking on a live programme monitored on Arise TV on Monday night, he said the incumbent president was giving the impression that his second-term mandate appeared settled, with serving governors in opposition parties joining the ruling party.
He, however, declared that “Tinubu can’t win, in fact, he will be lucky if he is third.”
The former governor, who accused the present administration of indifference towards the alarming security situation in the country, alleged that N100 billion has been taken from the Federation Account in the last 15 months without recourse to the federating states or appropriation by the National Assembly.
He said: “For the last 15 months, N100 billion is deducted from the Federation Account and sent to the security agencies. Why has there been no improvement? In 2024, over 2.2m Nigerians were abducted, 615,000 were killed. Is Nigeria at war? These numbers are worse than the 8 years of Buhari. In one year! This is data from Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, it is government data. This is money taken from Federation Account without appropriation by the National Assembly. So, the entire deduction and spending is unconstitutional. It is an impeacheable offence and it has been going on for more than 15 months. Where has that N1.5 trillion gone? Why is the security situation just getting worse? Why is this government asking communities to defend themselves?”
ALSO READ: 2027: Edo will give you 2.5 million votes, Okpebholo assures Tinubu
Speaking on the pending application for registration of the association, All Democratic Alliance (ADA), before the Independent National Electoral Commission, the former Kaduna State governor submitted that contrary to claims, the coalition being led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has not settled for ADA.
He further clarified that the coalition has not foreclosed the adoption of any of the existing registered political parties.
He said: “You don’t go to war with only one platform. A brand new party has no legacy challenge, it however takes time.
“But the existing new parties have been infiltrated by the Tinubu administration.
“We don’t believe that under Professor Mahmood Yakubu, INEC will register a new party. Yakubu isn’t Attahiru Jega and Tinubu isn’t Jonathan. Those were people in charge when APC was registered.
“The coalition hasn’t foreclosed new party registration and that’s why we sent the application.”
The former Minister of the FCT further clarified that, unlike in 2014 when opposition political parties merged to form APC, it is individuals that are in discussions to challenge the APC.
He assured that individuals with presidential aspirations in the coalition are willing to subordinate their ambitions to dislodge the APC, which he dismissed “as a collection of urban bandits.”
ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
