Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufa’I, said on Friday the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors and ministers have resolved to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to contest the 2019 presidential election. and that Aishat Alhassan, the Minister of Women Affairs whose recent comments on Buhari’s possible 2019 ticket has been generating controversy, did not support Buhari’s candidature in 2015. El-Rufa’i, who made this known to State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Buhari in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the governors and the ministers made the call as members of the “Buharist Group.”
The “Buharist Group” is an association of APC governors and ministers, whose primary aim is to promote and defend the perceived socio-political interests of President Buhari. The governor dismissed the assertion that he was being groomed to replace Buhari in 2019. According to him, as a member of the “Buharist group’’ he has no presidential ambition as being speculated since he left the public service as minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in 2007. He said: “My name has continuously been mentioned as a presidential aspirant since 2007 after my years in the FCT, there is nothing new about that.
“What I want to say here very, very clearly is that I have never been a presidential aspirant. I have never even been a gubernatorial aspirant. I am governor today by the grace of God because President Buhari called me and said go and run for Governor of Kaduna State. As far as 2019 is concerned, my position is the President (Buhari) is looking very well, he is recuperating very fast. My hope and prayer is he will contest in 2019.”
On the recent comments attributed to the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aishat Alhassan, El-Rufa’i said Nigerians should not be surprised or shocked over her utterances, saying in the APC she was never in the Buhari camp. Aishat Alhassan had on Wednesday told the BBC Hausa Service that she would rather resign as minister than abandon former Vice President Atiku Abubakar “if he decides to run for presidential elections in 2019.” However, El-Rufa’i said Alhassan neither supported Buhari’s candidature during the APC National Convention nor voted for him during the party primaries. “This has always been her position because from time she has never supported Buharism or what Buhari stands for.
“Being part of Buhari’s government is a different thing because government sets policies and if you are a minister you execute the policies. You can execute those policies while pursuing a different brand of politics,’’ the governor added. El Rufai, who said he was in the Presidential Villa to wish the President “very happy Sallah’’ and also join him in performing the Juma’at prayer, said it was the President’s prerogative to either retain or remove the minister from the cabinet.
He said: “Look, you can retain a person in the cabinet even if he doesn’t support you but adds value to the country. Because this is a government, it is not a political group fighting for some political progress. If Jummai Alhassan is coming as Minister of Women Affairs and adding value to the government and the people of Nigeria it is the President’s prerogative to retain her despite her political views.”
NAN
