Kaduna State governor, Nasiru
El-Rufai, has said that governors and ministers under the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC) are rooting for President Muhammadu Buhari
to contest the 2019 presidential election.
El-Rufai, who made this known to State
House correspondents after a closed door meeting with the President in
the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, said the governors and the
ministers had resolved to draft the President into the race 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 President Buhari in 2019.
According to him, as a member of the
“Buharist group’’ he had no presidential ambition as being speculated
since he left the public service as minister of the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) in 2007.
“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 (Muhammadu Buhari) is looking very well, he is
recuperating very fast. My hope and prayer is he will contest in 2019,’’
the el-Rufai said.
The governor said he was in the
Presidential Villa to wish the president “very happy Sallah’’ and also
join him in performing the Juma’at prayer.
On the debate on restructuring the
country, El-Rufai, who is chairing the APC committee on true
federalism, said his committee would start public hearing on the matter
from September 18.
He said the committee had started
receiving a lot of comments and memoranda particularly from young people
who had never been part of the restructuring conversation. According to
him, the committee will have 13 sessions of public hearing across the
country.
“By the time we listen to Nigerians and
synthesize their views, we will write and make recommendations to our
party how to operationalise true federalism as we have promised in our
manifesto,’’ he said.
Source: Sun News
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