Unlike many of the advanced nations whose political systems are mainly driven by party ideology, Nigeria’s democracy has not been particularly favourable to the advancement of party ideology. This has been said to be largely responsible for the proliferation of capricious policies and its attendant political instability in the country.
The recent controversies and pandemonium that have emerged based on the persisting fuel crisis in the country and the redesign of Naira notes may not be detached from the failure of instituting an ideology-based governance in the country.
The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai shared insights on emerging issues around the Naira redesign and fuel subsidy removal while featuring as a guest on the morning show of Channels Television on Wednesday.
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Mr El-Rufai stated that keeping fuel subsidy and redesigning the Naira was never part of the Agenda of the All Progressive Party (APC). According to the Kaduna State governor and bonafide member of the APC, the decision of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and the manifesto of the party connote two different things. As such, some of the decisions taken by the government of the day cannot be summarily interpreted as representing the posture or plan of the party.
He said, “The president is not on the ballot. The president has his tenure up to 29th May. He may not want to remove subsidy. If you look at our manifesto, we never promised to keep petroleum subsidy, we never did. Our party never promised to redesign the currency. It’s not on our manifesto.
“You need to separate the personal decisions of some people in the villa from the manifesto of the party. It is important to understand that.”
Reacting to a question on weather there is a division between the APC members and the non-APC members of the government in the (Aso Rock) villa, Mr El-Rufai simply responded, “Most of them are not (APC members). And that’s what’s interesting.”
El-Rufai also expressed his concern that certain individuals within the present government are strongly pushing for the APC to go out of power in the forthcoming general elections due to selfish interests. “I believe there are elements in the villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way.” governor El-Rufai said.