The
newly-elected governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Kaduna
State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party of
today is a “criminal” party.
El-Rufai
said the PDP he belonged to was different from the one being headed by
President Goodluck Jonathan, saying the party no longer had respect for the
rules and processes.
He said, “It
is a big mistake to say that the PDP of 2003 is the same as the Jonathan’s PDP.
“The PDP
that I was a member had rules and processes. Let me give you one example. As a
minister of FCT, I demolished a house belonging to the Chairman of the PDP.
“Today, no
minister of the FCT can touch the house of a member of the PDP National
Executive Committee. The PDP in 1999 was not the same as the PDP of today. The
PDP of today is a criminal PDP.
“They have
no regard for rules. They say that they are Peoples Democratic Party but they
have no regard for the people and democracy.
“I was
minister on the platform of the PDP but I was not a minister because I was in
PDP. I was a minister on merit.”
He said he
was not appointed a minister as a member of the PDP but as a technocrat.
El Rufai,
who spoke during a courtesy visit to the correspondent chapel of the Nigeria
Union of Journalists in Kaduna on Saturday, said the incumbent Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili
and himself were appointed by Obasanjo as “technocrats” and not on the basis of
political party membership.
“The
minister representing Kaduna State was Nenadi Usman, because the governor of
Kaduna as at that time disowned me and said that I did nothing for the party.
But Obasanjo told him that ‘whether you like it or not this man is going to be
minister because I have a special assignment for him,’” he said
.jpg)
0 Comments