RETIREMENT OF GODFATHERS: NO APOLOGIES TO ANYONE: el-Rufai

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Kaduna state Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has said he owes no apologies to anyone regarding his advice to Lagos residents last week to discountenance godfathers in their political dealings.

The Governor, who spoke to State House correspondents on Monday after meeting behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, however, did not mention any name.

Recall that the Kaduna State Governor’s recent comments in Lagos were largely construed as a deliberate attack on the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who has a strong influence on political developments in the state.

But el-Rufai told journalists that he stood by what he said, even as he dismissed insinuations that he was at loggerheads with the party leadership.

He said: “I made comments in Lagos about how to retire godfathers. It is a template that we have used in Kaduna and it worked. If anybody thinks he is a godfather, the template may apply to him but I am not in dispute with anyone.

Pressed to know if he wanted Tinubu retired as the godfather of Lagos politics, the Governor said he was in same party as the former Lagos State governor, adding that they got along very well.

”But I don’t know if he is the godfather of Lagos, it’s up to him to say that. What I know for sure is that we have retired godfathers in Kaduna and I have told those that asked me the question that ‘there are six million registered voters in Lagos but only one million voted,’ in the last election.

”So there are five million people that you can bring into the electoral play ground and you can defeat anyone if you work hard’.

“It’s hard work, it’s four years. That is what I said and if anyone feels offended by that, that is his or her business.

“I have no apologies, I don’t apologise for my views. My views are thought-out and I put them there. I don’t have to explain anything to anyone. This is a democracy, and in a democratic space, there must be room for people to express their views.”

On why he was at the State House, the governor said: “I came to see Mr  President to brief him on the general security situation in Kaduna which I do from time to time and also to update him on the various initiatives by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the SSS, and the Army, with a view to improving the security situation in Kaduna in general and particularly along the Abuja-Kaduna road.

Reacting to el-Rufai’s statement yesterday, Publicity Secretary, Lagos chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said: “Talk is cheap, anybody can make any statement. They want to be like Asiwaju, they want to command respect, they want the world to accept them the way they have accepted Asiwaju, they want to be admired the way people admire Asiwaju.

“We follow our leader, Asiwaju, because he works for us, even when we are sleeping. We follow him because he has never disappointed us. We follow Asiwaju because he is focused and dynamic. We follow him because he is dependable.

”We follow him because he fights for us. We follow him because the man is a deep thinker. We follow Asiwaju because he values us without measure.”

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