What has been discussed in political circles in hushed tones and which was released through innuendoes last week Thursday, by the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, at a campaign rally in Abeokuta, was, yesterday, elevated to national discourse, by Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.

Insinuations have been rife within the APC, as well as among the opposition elements, that President Muhammadu Buhari might not have shown enough support for his party’s presidential candidate, Tinubu.

Appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, el-Rufai belled the cat, when he pointedly said some people in the Presidential Villa (Ask Rock) are working against Tinubu and plotting his failure at the polls.

El-Rufai also revealed that the said individuals, who he didn’t mention, had their candidate during the APC presidential primary, but the candidate did not win. He added that those individuals are hiding behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire to do what he thinks is right.

Tinubu had at the keenly contested presidential primary in June, trounced top aspirants including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President Ahmad Lawan; former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Labour Minister, Chris Ngige; among other party stalwarts.

He said: “I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primary.

“They are trying to get us to lose the election and they are hiding behind the President’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed.

“In fact, I had a discussion with the President and showed him why it had to go. Because, how can you have a capital budget of N200 billion for federal roads and then spend N2 trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the President in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, but it changed.

“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the President. People are blaming the CBN Governor for the currency redesign, but no. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as President. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention. The President has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”

According to him, the policy of currency redesign at this moment is the idea of few people in the Presidential Villa, and was never the policy of the APC.

“I must say that the naira redesign and fuel scarcity is the handiwork of fifth columnists because they want to bring the country down, otherwise, why must redesigning of naira be the priority of the Federal Government at this time.”

BUT in a swift reaction, the Federal Government debunked insinuations that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and a cabal in the Presidency is working to sabotage the electoral chances of Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election.

Briefing newsmen after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in the State House, yesterday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who had kept sealed lips after last week’s outbursts by Tinubu, affirmed that President Buhari was committed to ensuring free and fair election, adding, “If there’s anybody working against a candidate we don’t know officially.”