We are not against El-Rufai’s policies because of appointments – Hakeem Baba
//Godwin Ekosin, Kaduna//
ALL Progressives Congress (APC) Stalwart in Kaduna, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, on Monday cleared the air on the rumour making the round that APC AKIDA – True APC in Kaduna State, is against policies of Governor Nasir El-Rufai because they were not appointed commissioners, saying all of them are already above 60 and would not have interested in such positions.
The former interim management committee Chairman of APC in the State hinted the newsmen in his office that the concern of APC Akida (a faction of APC in Kaduna) is to have a successful and credible political party that can go beyond 2019 in the State because the party is already been damaged due to lack of accessible leadership.
According to him, “in Kaduna State, we have been blessed with many people who can contribute in many positive ways, but the system has locked out all these people out and what we see inside is not sufficient to run APC that will do justice to the people of Kaduna State.
“We don’t want a situation whereby 2017, 2018 so much damage has been done to APC in Kaduna State that somebody will just walked in and take over the government of Kaduna State. We want another APC government to come and build on what Governor El-Rufai has done and that is why we are jealously guarding the success and integrity of the party. We also want to redeemed the damages that has been done between the governor and some members of the party.
“What we are agitating for is a united party so that our enemies, PDP, will not have to use our disunity against us in 2019.
“We are not treating the government of Kaduna State as enemies. We are not fighting a war with Kaduna State. We recognize that Malam Nasir El-Rufai is the Governor and will be Governor till 2019. We recognized the fact that he has to run government but we insist that there are certain things that are wrong. He needs to listen to certain voices that will improve the quality of governance. We believe that our party is not functioning and we insist that it must be made to function as a party.” he added.
The former secretary to the Kaduna State government, Baba-Ahmed also spoke on his recent visit to El-Rufai during Ramadan, stating that his faith as a Muslim is first and very important to him than politics.
Baba-Ahmed was known to be a key stakeholder in the APC AKIDA in Kaduna State which appears not to be on the same page with Governor El-Rufai as it frown at the government policies and style of leadership.
The APC stalwart however said though the invitation for the break of fast by the Governor which he described as symbolic turned out to be good as the Governor saw the need to resolve and look into the problems rocking the party and issues to do with policies of government of Kaduna State.
He said, “sitting with the Governor of Kaduna State to break a fast during the holy month of Ramadan is not wrong in the eyes of God, not wrong politically and does not compromise AKIDA in anyway.
“I went there as a Muslim who is invited by another Muslim to break a fast, so it has nothing to do with politics. This is faith and my very important to me than politics. I’m a Muslim first, a Nigerian second and third a politician. And I have no apologies to offer anybody. I was invited by the governor to break fast. Not to go, I would have offended God. And would have played into hands of people who say we are irresponsible. The Governor wants to sit down with us, he has reached out to us. A few weeks ago, he was abusing us in Giwa and now he is inviting us to come and break fast and we are not turning up to break our fast with him. That would have been irresponsible. So I went there because it was the right to do. I went there because I wanted to show that what is going on between AKIDA as a platform and the government of Kaduna State is not war and we are not enemies.
“And I went there because in the event that it provided an opportunity to begin to engage, we are willing to engage. And as it turned out, it was a good thing because we have a good meeting and we have an understanding that in the next few days the government of Kaduna State and some of us will sit down and begin to explore how we can resolve the problem within the party. And the issues to do with policies of government of Kaduna State.
“I have also given reasons for going to break fast with the Governor to the leadership of AKIDA. I have explained the rationale behind going there. And I’m happy to say that virtually everybody is satisfied that I did not breach the principles of AKIDA. I did not compromise.”
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