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El-Rufai commissions projects in Rivers, hails Wike over agitations for Southern Presidency, Tinubu’s victory

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Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai has lauded his Rivers counterpart for supporting power rotation to Southern Nigeria.

El-Rufai claimed that the residents of the oil-rich South-South state chose “quality over political sentiments” when he commissioned the Eneka-Igbo Etche Link Road in the state’s Obio-Akpo Local Government Area, on Thursday.

“I want to, on behalf of our presidential candidate and our party, thank you and the good people of Rivers State for making the right choice of voting for Aiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” said El-Rufai, a powerbroker in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“It is the first time since the Fourth Republic started in 1999 that the PDP was unable to get 25% in Rivers State. It shows that the people of Rivers State can differentiate and they know when to vote for quality and they voted quality over political sentiments. We want to thank you for providing that leadership, Governor Wike.”

El-Rufai, on Thursday, also said he deferred his visit to Rivers State till after the elections so that no political connotation would be attached to his visit.

He said Nigeria belongs to all and urged the PDP governor to continue to work together with the Northern APC governors who backed power shift to Southern Nigeria.

Read also:KADUNA: Aisha Yesufu counters el-Rufai, accuses him of nepotism

“This country belongs to all of us and we have a duty to do all that it takes to make Nigeria an egalitarian, progressive and prosperous society,” the Kaduna governor said.

“As you rightly pointed out, we may be from different parties but we share a few things in common: we are Nigerians and we believe in Nigeria, we are governors and we belong to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and in our forum, we try to learn from one another.

“We have a peer review mechanism in which we draw lessons. And for me, it is important to visit Rivers State to see what lessons we can learn from your efforts at infrastructural transformation and human capital development,” El-Rufai added.

In May of last year, Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was defeated by former vice president Atiku Abubakar for the PDP’s nomination for president.

Wike had maintained that power should return to the south after the eight-year presidency of the current Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, who is from Katsina State in the North-West geopolitical zone, and had been outspoken in his opposition to Atiku’s bid for the presidency in 2023.

To forward his agenda, Wike organized the G5 with four other PDP governors, including Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Samuel Ortom of Benue, and Seyi Makinde (Oyo).

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