Why APC Governors Are Fighting Buhari Over Old Naira Notes

Many are still grappling to understand the undercurrents that led Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State to take on his onetime mentor, President Muhammadu Buhari.

The relationship between Buhari and El-Rufai had not too long ago  been projected by the graphics of the governor kneeling to greet the president during recent encounters.

For those who knew of the difficult relationship between the governor and Buhari prior to the formation of the All Progressives Congress, APC, especially during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the image of El-Rufai curtsying to Buhari was shocking.

As with many in the Obasanjo inner circle, El-Rufai was seen as one of those who putdown Buhari as a tribal bigot, intellectual dullard, and loner.

However, on the way to taking power, Buhari appeared to swallow all the jibes as he put forward a façade of forgiveness as many of those who in the past kicked at him gravitated towards him in the runup to the 2015 election.

Your correspondent is now informed that after the 2019 election that the façade began to disappear.

The Buhari cabal following the second-term inauguration was quick to fence out El-Rufai.

Presidential Villa sources say that the recent diatribes from El-Rufai had long been expected. Indeed, one source told your correspondent that more vehement attacks from other governors once thought as mentees of President Buhari are expected.

If fencing out El-Rufai by the villa was the reason for his recent volte-face and infidelity towards the Buhari leadership, gravitating towards Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has been shocking for many.

Especially shocking given the past denunciations of the Tinubu brand by the Kaduna governor.

Many still recollect how El-Rufai in May 2019 went on a lecture circuit in Lagos teaching rebels in Lagos on how to dethrone political godfathers.

He is alleged to have further lured Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to rebel from the Tinubu fold.

We are now understanding that El-Rufai also played a crucial role in the failure of the APC governors to reach an agreement on the presidential aspirant to support ahead of the national convention of the party.

The governors had everything going their way just before the convention to the extent that President Buhari had to plead with them to concede to him the grace to produce his successor just as all the two-term governors had been able to do in their respective states.

However, it was at that point that the ranks of the governors was broken. Some suggest now that Governor El-Rufai who surprisingly had gotten into a relationship with Tinubu did not help to advance the cordiality of the governors to produce Buhari’s successor from their ranks.

It was at that point that Governor Kayode Fayemi who was seen as among the top contenders to emerge from the ranks of the governors threw in the towel.

With the governors in disarray, it was easy for Tinubu to push through and get the ticket in spite of the alleged misgivings of Buhari.

In the near or immediate future, the role that El-Rufai truly played in helping Tinubu to emerge as the presidential candidate of the APC will emerge.

It is now generally speculated that should Tinubu win the election next week, that El-Rufai would play a major role in the national security architecture, having reportedly been ruled out for the position of Central Bank governor.

That post it is said would go to a developmental economist underlying the fact that Governor Godwin Emefiele’s days at the CBN are numbered at the CBN in a Tinubu presidency.

It was as such not surprising that El-Rufai was the one delegated by Tinubu to answer the question on insecurity at the Chatham House lecture last December.

Remarkably, in his Thursday evening broadcast countering the order earlier given by President Buhari, the Kaduna State governor directed those in the state to continue to use the old N500 and N1,000 notes.

Some have alleged that the assertions of the governor amount to treason. But these forget that democracies are not bound by the words of a president as he is not a sovereign.

But whatever, given the altruistic intentions on the naira redesign policy many who had in the past looked towards El-Rufai for his managerial competence are wont to ask why he would pander to the music of those intent on fostering a regime of corruption?

Besides El-Rufai, Governor Ganduje a man who had also shown devotion to Buhari has also openly come out to attack the president underlying the fact that the rebellion is systemic. It is a fight by the corrupt political class to buy the mandate of the people.

It is also worthy to note that while Ganduje and El-Rufai may be actively playing the Tinubu card that the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar is not idling away as the crisis overwhelms the ruling party.

Your correspondent understands that at least one northern APC governor is also actively working for Atiku in a game of wits that may this week push the party to the brinks.

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday decide on the issue of the Old N500 and N1,000 notes.

Already there are fears that some bad eggs in the judiciary are also interested in this naira battle. It is alleged that those bad eggs in the judiciary who may have also have deposits of old N500 and N1,000 notes gotten from corrupt politicians to overturn justice and elections are also in a quandary.

Like the corrupt politicians, the corrupt judicial officers also have a stake in the old N1,000 notes putting to light the fact that the fight happening in the public space is certainly not for the masses.

If it were, we would have seen the battle scars of these latter-day activists in their agitations against fuel shortage, university shutdowns, insecurity and such.

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