Already, following the long memo he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari, in September 2016, details of which was leaked to the media last month, there are moves by some All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftains, to block him from seeking a second term, and to also frustrate any effort that may see him replacing Buhari, as the party’s presidential candidate, should Buhari decide not to run in 2019.
Two persons, Saturday Sun further learnt, have been penciled down as possible replacement for El-Rufai, ahead of the Kaduna governorship contest. They are: current Senator, representing Kaduna North, Suleiman Hunkuyi and former House of Representatives member, Hon. Isa Ashiru. But for Buhari, it would have been difficult for El-Rufai to defeat Ashiru at the APC’s primary in the run up to the 2015 polls.
Ashiru is a member of the APC-Akida, while Hunkuyi, from his public appearance is not. But like all members of the APC-Akida, Hunkuyi too, Saturday Sun can reveal, is not pleased with the way El-Rufai is running the party and the affairs of the state.
Although, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, representing Kaduna North, who incidentally provided the structures that saw El-Rufai defeating Isa Ashiru, at the APC primary election in the build up to the 2015 elections, seems to be appearing in public with el-Rufai, Saturday Sun can reveal that at the appropriate time, Hunkuyi, would confront el-Rufai frontally for the governorship contest. If that happens, it would no doubt further deplete the support base of the governor.
Long before el-Rufai’s memo was leaked, he has been having a running battle with the APC faction in the state, known as APC Akida. Once the issue of the memo became public knowledge, the APC Akida came out publicly to upbraid el-Rufai, declaring that everything the governor accused Buhari of, he too was guilty of them.
Addressing a press conference last Sunday in Kaduna, Chairman, APC-Akida, Mataimaki Tom Maiyashi, said unless all aggrieved members are brought under one roof, the party was doomed in the state, adding that the governor was not the right person to write a memo to the President because, “It was a case of a pot calling the kettle black”.
He further said that the Kaduna governor lacks the moral standing to raise the issues he raised in the memo as his approach to governance was not different from the observations he made in his memo to President Buhari.
[post_ads_2]
