Nasir El-Rufai, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress and a former governor of Kaduna State, has defected from the ruling party to the Social Democratic Party.
The well-known politician stated that his choice was primarily motivated by a growing discrepancy between his personal ideals and the APC’s current course.
This was revealed by El-Rufai in a press release posted on his X Twitter on Monday. In it, he bemoaned the APC’s leadership and charged that it had deviated from the progressive principles of its founders.
I remember working with fellow citizens to negotiate the political party merger that resulted in the creation of the All Progressives Congress (APC), of which I am a founding member. I had hoped since 2013 that the APC’s ideals and my own will remain consistent till I decide to leave politics.
The past two years’ events have demonstrated that the people in charge of the APC do not want to admit or even deal with the party’s ill state. I have voiced my concerns about the party’s erratic direction both privately and, more lately, publicly. Consequently, at this stage of my political career, I’ve decided that I need to look for a different political platform in order to forward progressive ideals.
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,” he stated.
The former Kaduna governor maintained that he had submitted the resignation letter from the ruling party, adding that his consultations with his mentors, colleagues, and loyalists made him settle for SDP in preparation for the 2027 general election.
“Without prejudice to this decision, as a member of the SDP, I will focus on engaging with and persuading other opposition leaders and parties to join us and congregate under a unified democratic platform to challenge the APC in all elections and bye-elections between now and 2027 by the Grace of God,” he said.
He, however, enjoined his supporters and other Nigerians to join his new party in an attempt to bring back Nigeria as a beacon of pride for Africans and the black race.
