“We Are Parallel Lines That Will Never Meet”-Rufai Says He Was Never Friends With Tinubu

• El-Rufai says he by no scheme had a private or political relationship with President Tinubu, insisting his give a enhance to correct thru the 2023 campaign became based mostly solely mostly on birthday celebration theory.
• He criticized the administration’s governance philosophy, declaring their values are essentially incompatible.

Dilapidated Kaduna Train Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has clarified that he has by no scheme had a private or political relationship with President Bola Tinubu, declaring that their paths respect been by no scheme supposed to align.

Speaking in an interview on Have confidence TV, El-Rufai brushed off claims suggesting he and Tinubu respect been visitors or political allies.

“I judge it’s crucial to net this clarification. There is an assumption that I became ever Tinubu’s excellent friend. I became no longer. We by no scheme got along with Tinubu. We by no scheme had a private relationship,” he mentioned.

El-Rufai explained that his role in Tinubu’s 2023 presidential campaign became pushed by birthday celebration theory and discipline within the All Progressives Congress (APC), no longer non-public loyalty.

“For me, Tinubu became in the beginning lawful an aspirant of the birthday celebration. I became approached by definite Islamic stakeholders from the Southwest and requested to give a enhance to the emergence of a Southwest Muslim presidential candidate,” he mentioned, noting that his give a enhance to became based mostly solely mostly on an thought that vitality would shift to the South after Buhari’s eight-year tenure.

He added, “It is a theory of mine that I warfare for the candidate of my birthday celebration in each election to safe, whether or no longer I love the candidate or no longer. Tinubu emerged because the candidate, and I gave all the pieces to net sure he received. And that’s what I did.”

On the other hand, El-Rufai mentioned their fundamental differences in values and governance philosophies made lengthy-term alignment no longer likely.

“We didn’t drop out. We lawful might perhaps maybe perhaps moreover no longer score areas of settlement. There became no equilibrium. We couldn’t agree,” he explained, criticizing the Tinubu administration’s approach.

“I’m in govt for birth, for outcomes and efficiency. Public carrier is no longer about making money for your self. It’s no longer about stealing. It’s no longer about appointing your cronies or your tribesmen,” he mentioned.

El-Rufai extra disclosed that even though he had licensed a ministerial appointment, he wouldn’t respect stayed lengthy, emphasizing that the administration’s philosophy conflicted with his suggestions.

“Despite the truth that the offer that Tinubu made to me to be a minister had long previous thru, I would respect left the govt. scheme assist. The philosophy of this govt is opposite to all the pieces I if truth be told respect been taught as a Muslim, as a northerner, and as a Nigerian,” he mentioned.

He concluded, “These guys didn’t attain to govern. They came to counterpoint themselves, pure and simple. We are varied other folks. So it’ll aloof no longer surprise any one that is aware of me and is aware of Tinubu to judge about that we are parallel lines that can by no scheme meet.”