I’d criticise Tinubu if I were in his cabinet, El-Rufai replies Bwala

The former governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, has responded to President Bola Tinubu’s special adviser, Daniel Bwala, who criticised him for his recent comment on the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

El-Rufai was reported to have slammed the APC, saying the political party has abandoned its ideals.

Speaking at a national conference in Abuja on strengthening democracy in Nigeria, El-Rufai described the state of governance and opposition in the country as a “national emergency.”

Responding to a post the former governor of Kaduna state shared on his official X account, Bwala asked if El-Rufai would have said the same thing about the APC if he had remained in Tinubu’s government.

“My senior brother, if you were to be in the government and cabinet, would you have held and expressed the same position? History is replete with examples. It is a government you participated in its formation that you now want to unseat,” Bwala wrote.

El-Rufai, responding to Bwala on Thursday morning, said he would have said and done the same if he were a member of Tinubu’s administration.

“Good morning, @BwalaDaniel. I was a cabinet minister 22 years ago and was clear to Asiwaju that I was not interested in any position in his future government,” the former governor wrote.

“The pathetic manner in all of you latter-day converts to the Tinubu government make an issue of something that I never wanted in the first place is perhaps a reflection of the level of your moral flexibility.

“If I had remained in the Tinubu government, I would have said or done the same on the tragedy within a party I was a founder of, and the government that emerged from it — first in private sessions with those concerned, and then go public if no remedial actions are taken. Go and check my public service record from 1998.

“I am only responding to you because I still think you are a decent person who may need a job, and not in the class of Wendell Simlin and that Kaduna pretender that our voters retired in 2019 — these clowns are political mercenaries that receive humongous monthly stipends from the security vote to be the first to jump on X and other platforms to defend everything the Asiwaju government does or fails to do, no matter how indefensible it may be.

“Enjoy your special adviser position, my brother, but remember that allegiance to God and country comes first in the human scale of accountability, before any person or authority.”