By G9ija
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has said that the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, was fully in support of the ambition of the presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 polls, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
It spoke against the backdrop of a video in which el-Rufai said he told Tinubu that old men should not be in politics.
The video, which was not dated or the occasion stated, had el-Rufai, who spoke in Hausa language, saying Tinubu disagreed with him.
Reacting to it, the Assistant Director, Media and Publicity of the APC PCC, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, dismissed the video.
In a statement he personally signed on Saturday, Ajiboye said: “Our attention has been drawn to a redacted video of Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, in which he spoke about an informal debate in the All Progressives Congress on whether the older politicians should give way to the younger ones.
“The governor said Asiwaju was aware of the debate. We want to make it crystal clear that it is normal in any political organisation to engage in such dialectics. El-Rufai did not commit any sin by making his view known.
“We also want to make it crystal clear that the video was part of a longer version, from which mischief makers extracted the trending segment.
“It was recorded in May this year before the presidential primaries of the party, which Tinubu won by landslide, beating the younger turks in the party.
“However, in politics, as soon as a candidate emerges from a political party after each primary, everyone rallies round the candidate to work for the party and ensure its success at the general elections.
“Governor El-Rufai has done no less. He is fully in support of Asiwaju Tinubu. He is committed to Tinubu’s election next February.
“He is one governor Asiwaju believes will play an important role in his incoming administration, as Asiwaju demonstrated in Kaduna last October, begging El-Rufai to forget going abroad for another degree.
“Mischief makers excerpted the video to continue to push their fallacious narrative that Asiwaju, a 70 year-old is not strong to govern Nigeria.
“For the umpteenth time, we want to state without equivocation that Asiwaju is strong enough to go through the rigours of the campaigns. He has been attending meetings, campaigns, town hall events and attending to people, back-to-back.”
