KEY POINTS

• Salihu Lukman says Nasir El-Rufai’s defection was premature.
• Lukman raises concerns about SDP’s leadership and future direction.
• El-Rufai cites a misalignment with APC’s values as his reason for leaving.

A former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has expressed concerns over former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s decision to defect to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), calling it premature.

Lukman, who previously served as the Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, said El-Rufai’s exit was not part of the collective political strategy they had envisioned.

Speaking in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Monday, he admitted that while he had anticipated El-Rufai’s eventual departure, he expected more patience before making such a move.

“It was expected, especially after his interview on Arise TV. The signs were there. But my expectation was that he should have been a bit patient so that we could leave as a group based on ongoing negotiations,” Lukman said.

Despite their political differences in the past, Lukman acknowledged his long-standing relationship with El-Rufai, noting that they both hail from Kaduna State and shared political history within the APC.

However, he emphasized that he hoped the defection would not derail ongoing efforts to realign political interests within the party.

“My hope is that his decision will not lead to a division in what we are trying to build. At the end of the day, we should be able to reconcile and work together under a common platform,” he added.

Concerns about SDP’s leadership and political future

While discussing whether he and other northern elites might follow El-Rufai to the SDP, Lukman raised concerns about the leadership of the opposition party.

According to Punch, he stated that the key issue was whether the SDP would align with the conditions they believed were necessary for a credible political platform.

“The challenge is whether the SDP will submit itself to some of the conditions we believe are necessary.

Unlike conventional politicians who are only interested in winning elections, some of us believe the focus should be on creating real political competition,” he said.

Lukman criticized the current state of political affairs, pointing out that the APC, which once campaigned on a platform of “change,” had failed to end the culture of candidate imposition.

“The challenge with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was the imposition of candidates. But when the APC promised change, the expectation was that things would be different. Unfortunately, it has become worse,” he said.

He went further to predict that if the situation remained unchanged, President Bola Tinubu would automatically emerge as the APC candidate for the next election, while first-term governors and legislators in the party would be guaranteed reelection, regardless of their performance.

The reason El-Rufai left the APC

On Monday, El-Rufai, a founding member of the APC, officially announced his defection to the SDP.

He cited fundamental differences in values and a growing misalignment with the APC’s direction as his primary reasons for leaving.

While Lukman did not outrightly rule out the possibility of joining El-Rufai, he emphasized that a move to the SDP would depend on whether the party met specific conditions that would make it a credible alternative.

“We are in discussions, no doubt about that. If they meet the conditions tomorrow, then fine,” he said.

As Nigerian politics continues to shift, El-Rufai’s defection raises questions about the APC’s internal unity and whether more defections could follow ahead of the next general elections.