Immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, a party he co-founded, for the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
The Kaduna Governor dropped the bombshell on X on Monday saying that after wide consultations, he had come to the conclusion that the APC was no longer the same Democratic entity he used to love.
Specifically, he cited a growing misalignment between his personal values and the current direction of the APC as the primary reason for his decision to quit.
What next? You may be tempted to ask el-Rufai.
The former Kaduna Governor didn’t keep his fans guessing. He added up everything and said that after consultations with his mentors, colleagues, and loyalists, he decided to settle for Social Democratic Party, SDP, in preparation for the 2027 general elections.
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El-Rufai expressed his disappointment with the APC’s leadership, accusing the party of straying from the progressive ideals of its founding members.
“As a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC),” he said, “I have fond memories of working with other compatriots to negotiate the merger of political parties that created the APC. Since 2013, I have hoped that my personal values and those of the APC will continue to align until I choose to retire from politics.
“Developments in the last two years confirm that those who currently control and run the APC do not desire to acknowledge, much less address, the party’s unhealthy situation. I have raised concerns in private and, more recently, in public regarding the party’s capricious trajectory. Therefore, at this point in my political journey, I have come to the conclusion that I must seek another political platform to pursue the progressive values I cherish.
“Founders rightly feel attached towards institutions they helped create, but one must be pragmatic enough to admit when a divergence appears unbridgeable. I have diligently served the APC and made my contributions to its viability as a political platform, but I recognize that the party has since strayed and left me stuck in the vision of its well-meaning founding fathers and mothers. As a loyal party man, I worked to help secure the APC’s election victories in 2015, 2019 and 2023. I was one of the many governors elected on the party’s platform in 2015 and 2019 that stood for certain democratic and progressive principles to advance nation-building.”
