{"id":194271,"date":"2026-02-10T09:54:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:00:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T10:00:44","slug":"el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu","title":{"rendered":"El-Rufai breaks silence on why he fell out with Tinubu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has clarified the reasons behind his reported differences with President Bola Tinubu, stressing that the disagreement was never personal.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview with Trust TV, El-Rufai said he and Tinubu never had a close personal relationship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was never Tinubu\u2019s friend. We never had a personal relationship like the one I had with General Buhari,\u201d El-Rufai said.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that his initial support for Tinubu was driven by principle rather than personal affinity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was approached by certain Islamic stakeholders from the southwest to support the emergence of a southwest Muslim presidential candidate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is how the discussions started. As governor of Kaduna and one of the founders of APC, I knew there was an understanding that after 8 years of Buhari, power would return to the south. It wasn\u2019t about Tinubu; he was merely an accidental beneficiary,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>El-Rufai emphasized his commitment to party unity once Tinubu won the APC primaries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a principle of mine to fight for the candidate of my party in every election, whether I like the candidate or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that he emerged as the party\u2019s candidate meant I would give everything to ensure he won,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The governor further explained that his differences with Tinubu were rooted in governance philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t fall out; we didn\u2019t find areas of agreement. I am in government to serve the public and deliver results not to enrich myself or appoint cronies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe philosophy of this government is contrary to everything I\u2019ve been taught as a Muslim, a northerner, and a Nigerian. They came to govern the cake, to enrich themselves. We are different people parallel lines that will never meet,\u201d El-Rufai said.<\/p>\n<p>He also noted that even if he had accepted Tinubu\u2019s publicly offered ministerial position, he would have left the government due to those fundamental differences in philosophy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has clarified the reasons behind his reported differences with President Bola Tinubu, stressing that the disagreement was never personal. Speaking in an interview with Trust TV, El-Rufai said he and Tinubu never had a close personal relationship. \u201cI was never Tinubu\u2019s friend. We never had a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":194270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-194271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>El-Rufai breaks silence on why he fell out with Tinubu - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has clarified the reasons behind his reported differences with President Bo ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"El-Rufai breaks silence on why he fell out with Tinubu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has clarified the reasons behind his reported differences with President Bo ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T08:54:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T10:00:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770717531.979624.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"El-Rufai breaks silence on why he fell out with Tinubu\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-10T08:54:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-10T10:00:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu\"},\"wordCount\":342,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770717531.979624.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-breaks-silence-on-why-he-fell-out-with-tinubu\",\"name\":\"El-Rufai breaks silence on why he fell out with Tinubu - 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