Tinubu Isn’t My Friend, Says El-Rufai

Malik Yahya/

Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has affirmed that National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was not his friend.

El-Rufai disclosed this in his remarks during a webinar to commemorate the 63rd birthday of Minister of Interior and former Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday.

His words, “I want to congratulate my brother, Ogbeni (Aregbesola), on his birthday. You know I’m your man any day. I’m not Asiwaju’s man and you are Asiwaju’s man, but I am your man any day. Asiwaju and I have differences but you and I have no differences.”

Speaking further, El-Rufai said the COVID-19 pandemic had revealed the state of healthcare facilities in Nigeria, while calling for urgent government intervention in the sector.

He said, “In my view, the lessons are that we are on our own. The rest of the world does not care. The rest of the world is becoming increasingly nationalistic.

“As a state government, we are even trying to get test kits for COVID-19 because America and Europe are buying up everything. Nobody cares about Africa.

“They only think of us when they want to test vaccines or when something dangerous is to be tried. So, we must be more nationalistic and try to develop our internal capacity to produce and be self-sufficient.

“Look at our health care system; we are struggling to deal with this pandemic.

“In our individual state, do we have a public hospital that can look after the governors? When I tested positive, I got treated by the public health system and here I am.”