Full Transcript: What El Rufai said about Peter Obi, Tinubu, 2023 elections in controversial video

Malam Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, has come under fire in recent days after a video clip of him boasting about the promotion of a Muslim-Muslim government in Nigeria surfaced on the internet.

In the viral video, El-Rufai spoke in Hausa to some Muslim clerics about why he chose to lead a Muslim-dominated government in Kaduna State.

The former governor also boasted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the last Presidential election with a Muslim-Muslim ticket of Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima because Muslim clerics prayed and promoted the Muslim-Muslim agenda.

El-Rufai also discussed the defeat of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and how the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was silenced

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Premium Times obtained a full version of the video, which has since been transcribed into English for everyone’s benefit.

“Now, much has been said about the federal government.” Professor Akintola is correct; we, the APC governors, decided that the South should produce the next president because that was the promise made. It was a verbal agreement, but only God knows whether it was written or verbal. We said no when we discovered that some people were plotting for a northerner to be the next president. We are not like this. We are Muslims, northerners with traditions, and we will not back down from our commitments. We declined. That was the initial step.

“Then, when they agreed with that or realized they couldn’t do anything, they backed down.” We sat down to decide who would be able to win the seat because he has what it takes to win an election, and secondly, we can put an end to religion and ethnicity politics in this country. We chose Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu). When we decided to back Asiwaju, I was not on good terms with him; we were feuding. However, Professor Akintola arrived with their leaders from Lagos and congratulated us on our decision to select a Southerner. They claimed that the Yoruba of the south-west face difficulties. When a Muslim wishes to run for office, some will advise him not to because he will not win. They believed that because only a Christian from the south-west could run, a Muslim from the north was chosen as his vice. They claimed it had not happened since Abiola and that they wanted to recreate it. We asked them to go decide who would compete, and they chose Asiwaju. I told them I wasn’t on good terms with him, but he (Akintola) suggested we reconcile for the sake of Islam, and I agreed.

“When Asiwaju got the ticket, we knew he’d have no choice but to pick a Muslim as his vice; otherwise, he’d lose the election.” As I previously stated, politics is all about calculation; there is no room for error. God is aware of our intent. And I swear to God, we didn’t do it for personal gain; we did it for the greater good. I and the governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, did not do it for personal gain. Maybe the others needed something, but Matawalle and I did it to put an end to the religious conflict and give Muslims in the south-west a sense of belonging to rule. And God… despite the religious squabble, God chose Asiwaju as the victor.

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“What we’ve been able to achieve in Kaduna, we’ve now done on a national scale.” There is no liar who can claim to be a Christian politician and win the election. Peter Obi tried it, but he ended up here. That is no longer the case. They’ve remained silent. CAN has remained silent since the appearance of Asiwaju. This is how the country can maintain peace and stability. Everything will return to normal if we repeat the process. That’s exactly what we did. And some of us believe we’ve completed our task. Asiwaju won, and we did our part. Our request is that you pray for him to find the right people to work with.”