…It shows APC is in disarray, says Makarfi
From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District (APC), Senator Shehu Sani, has described Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s letter to President Muhammadu Buhari as disloyal and disrespectful to the President and leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Senator Sani while reacting yesterday to El-Rufai’s letter, said the governor who accused him sometimes ago of being disloyal to APC for speaking out his mind, had done the worst than he did, adding that if his own utterance was blunt, El-Rufai’s was dubious.
In the same vein, former governor of Kaduna State and chairman, Caretaker Committee of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi noted that the letter was an indication that APC is in disarray.
Speaking to journalists, Senator Makarfi, said that the ruling party is rubbing its internal disunity on PDP so as to leave it in pieces for political interest.
Senator Sani on his own said, “The governor is entitled to his own opinion and perception but the contradiction and irony of it are basically two: first is that he accused me of being disloyal and disrespectful to the President and the party for speaking out my mind; And now he has done his own cunningly by criticising the President and the party, disguised it as a memo and leaked it out to the press; that also qualified him as disloyal and disrespectful. The difference is that mine is blunt while his is dubious.
“Secondly, for all the issues he raised against the President, his own is worse in his space of governance, whether it’s the existence of cabal or politics of exclusion or incompetence or public perception.
The difference is that the President is tolerant to criticism and alternative views.
“The governor recently said I’m in the habit of criticising him because I want to be governor of Kaduna State, that means logically he is now leaking memo to attract popular sympathy and carve an image of ‘a competent alternative’ to Baba. Those who cared to know about my little history know that I don’t call a spade a pestle or a spoon.
“The governor always recommended that our party should punish me for criticising him; now that he has fired a cruise missile at the President through a deliberately leaked memo, he should also be treated same.
“If our able party chair will give me five strokes of the cane for speaking out, the governor should be given thrice of that for “leaking out”.
“It’s often said that look at the message and not the messenger, but there are times that you can only decipher the message by looking at the messenger.”
Senator Makarfi in his own reaction said the development was a pointer to internal wrangling within the ruling party.
His words: “Go back to what I said before, you will know that APC is divided into groups, and there is a fight within itself, and those who are ambitious and over ambitious for power, are not only doing destructive activities within APC, they are also doing destructive activities within the PDP.
“And it is unfortunate that the public establishments are used against opposition party in Nigeria. One of the first, (go back to the APC government), it doesn’t seem to be a central command, people are on their own. Under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, you dare not do this, under Umar Musa Yar’Adua you dare not do this, even under Goodluck Jonathan, people were called to order. But we have a situation whereby almost everybody is on his own; you create an empire for yourself, and go the way that you want. And this is not the way to run a country, it is not good.”