The verbal war between the Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, and his immediate predecessor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai appears to have escalated on Tuesday.
The former governor accused the incumbent governor of sycophancy.
The former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and estranged chieftain of the All Progressives Congress posted the remark on his X handle on Tuesday.
His remarks were on the heels of comments attributed to Governor Sani, where he dismissed Nasir El-Rufai and other politicians who assembled last week in Abuja at a national conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria.
The former governor had dismissed the APC as a one-man show.
“I no longer recognise the APC.
“No party organ has met in two years, no caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it’s a zero-man show.”
But speaking on a TVC programme, the Kaduna Governor described the appraisal of the APC and, by extension, President Bola AhmedTinubu’su’s administration as misplaced.
He said: “I can tell you as a member of APC, we have been engaging ourselves. I cannot say we are perfect— but I can say that most of the people that are making the comments (against Tinubu’s administration) are also members of our own party,” the Kaduna governor said.
“I can say it was really unfortunate because some of them were even calling for people to come out and take laws into their own hands, oppose the government in a way that I feel is undemocratic.
“Of course, I also want to make it clear here that if you ask me when a democratic dispensation, and we have virtually just two and a half years to the next election, and any politician who feels he is popular or he can defeat Bola Ahmed Tinubu or APC —I think they need to go and work very hard and present themselves in the next election, which will be 2027.”
El-Rufai, in his reaction, claimed that his successors were cringing before Tinubu because of alleged financial inducement from the Presidency.
He further said the electorate in the North West state would decide the fate of Senator Sani at the right time.
This was posted in a post on his official Facebook page on Tuesday, @NasirEl-Rufai.
“Every day I see this governor embarrassingly and sycophantically rambling, I used to wonder why? However, confirming that the Federal Government ‘reimbursements, interventions and grants’ in excess of N150bn have been given selectively to Kaduna by Tinubu in the last 18 months now explains everything.
“By all means, defend Asiwaju for the conditional cash transfer. Asiwaju has earned it, coming from you. The people of Kaduna State will judge at the right time and place. Have a nice day.”
