{"id":60207,"date":"2025-01-30T10:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T10:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=60207"},"modified":"2025-01-30T10:16:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T10:16:26","slug":"el-rufai-responds-to-bwala-stands-firm-on-apc-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/01\/30\/el-rufai-responds-to-bwala-stands-firm-on-apc-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"El-Rufai to Bwala: My Critique of APC  Stands Firm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai has responded to Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser on Policy Communication to President Bola Tinubu, following a public exchange over the governance of Nigeria and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).<\/p>\n<p>On January 28, during a national conference in Abuja focused on strengthening democracy, El-Rufai expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the APC.<\/p>\n<p>He revealed that he no longer recognizes the party, citing its departure from its founding principles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a founding member of the APC, but frankly, I no longer recognize it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No party organ has met in two years \u2014 no caucus, no NEC, nothing. I don\u2019t even know if it is a one-man show. It is a zero-man show,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Bwala questioned whether El-Rufai would maintain his critical stance if appointed to Tinubu\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy senior brother, if you were part of the government and cabinet, would you have held the same position? History is replete with examples,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n<p>El-Rufai clarified that he has no intention of joining Tinubu\u2019s government, stressing that he had previously expressed his disinterest in a government role, even when serving as a cabinet minister 22 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way you, later-day converts to the Tinubu government, make an issue out of something I never wanted in the first place reflects your moral flexibility,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>He also affirmed that his criticisms of both the APC and Tinubu\u2019s administration would remain unchanged, regardless of his involvement in government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I had remained in the Tinubu government, I would still speak out about the tragedy within a party I helped found,\u201d El-Rufai added.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, El-Rufai condemned political loyalists who defend government actions for financial benefit, referring to them as \u201cpolitical mercenaries\u201d who accept security votes in exchange for uncritical support.<\/p>\n<p>Concluding, El-Rufai advised Bwala to prioritize loyalty to God and country over personal allegiances: \u201cEnjoy your special adviser position, my brother, but remember that allegiance to God and country comes first in the human scale of accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai has responded to Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser on Policy Communication to President Bola Tinubu, following a public exchange over the governance of Nigeria and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). On January 28, during a national conference in Abuja focused on strengthening democracy, El-Rufai expressed dissatisfaction [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":60208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60214,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60207\/revisions\/60214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}