El-Rufai Says Defection To SDP Is To Run Away From Godfathers

By Ayodele Oni

Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, has explained that his own move from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was the first step in his attempt to address Nigeria’s challenges by moving away from the influence of godfathers in politics.

He downplayed the significance of recent high-profile defections to the All Progressives Congress (APC), stating that these moves will not deter his efforts to find solutions to Nigeria’s problems.

He disclosed this during a visit to Kano, where he met with the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, and Social Democratic Party (SDP) leaders.

According to him, each governor has one vote and that elections are won by the people, not politicians.

“It’s good for headlines, it’s good to sell your media, but on the ground, politically, if you don’t have the people, you can have as high a profile as possible, you are nothing.

“The issue is who can solve the problem of Nigerians and communicate it to them such that on Election Day they will be motivated to come out and vote for that person.”

El-Rufai added that the SDP remained focused on grassroots mobilisation rather than courting political bigwigs.

“What we want to do is to give all Nigerians interested in leadership and politics equal opportunity to show that he can do better than what we have. Because clearly what we have is not good enough.

“The SDP is concerned with finding solutions to Nigeria’s problems and giving opportunity to those that the godfather-type of party politics has totally sidelined and excluded.

“Every Nigerian agrees that what we have now is not good enough and there are many talented Nigerians out there that don’t even want to think about going into politics or public service because they think you need to have a godfather, or you need to have tons of money.

“We want to remove all these things and unleash the competitive energy of Nigerians, to being their best to the politics and public service.

“This is our goal. As far as I am concerned, the defection of high-profile politicians is not the issue. The issue is who can solve the problem of Nigerians and communicate it to them such that on Election Day they will be motivated to come out and vote for that person.”