Governor Nasir El Rufai has said he wasn’t referring to Bola Tinubu, APC National leader, when he commented on godfatherism in Lagos state.
Okay.ng reported that El-rufai during a an event organised by the Bridge Club in Ikoyi, Lagos, revealed tactics ‘political godfatherism’ can be eliminated in the state.
He said:
“Godfatherism, this is Lagos… let me tell you something sir; you know, Kaduna state used to be like that.”
“There were three or four politicians in Kaduna that you could not become anything unless you had them on your side. Those were the godfathers of Kaduna politics and you had to carry them along and you know, the three words, ‘ them along’ mean paying them regularly.
“But we chose a different path and the long and short of it now is that after this election in 2019, we have retired all of them; we had to.
“Many of the godfathers are either on paper or in the mind of people in politics. They are defeatable. We retired four of them in Kaduna state within a four-year time and they are gone. One of them boasted that he put me in the government house and he would take me out.”
But, speaking while receiving 121 members-elect, who were on consultation tour of Northwest on Friday at the Government House chamber in Kaduna, El-rufai clarified his comment, saying:
“That was not an attack on Asiwaju, it was a generic statement, but the whole thing took a media frenzy because to some people Asiwaju is a meal ticket.”
“Let me tell you, because of that, some people started confessing to me that Asiwaju should be dealt with.
“They said Asiwaju wants to finish you, he has been abusing you, we should finish him by finishing his man, Femi Gbajabiamila.”