Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has formally pitched his tent with the African Democratic Congress, months after parting ways with the All Progressives Congress. His registration was completed at the ADC office in Unguwar Sarki Ward, where he also received his membership card.
El-Rufai arrived with a group of loyal supporters, including some former aides and local government chairmen. Addressing party officials and supporters — among them the ADC Vice Chairman (North West), Hon. Jafaru Sani, and National Membership Secretary, Senator Sadiq Yar’adua — he confirmed his new political affiliation.
“I’m a bona fide member of the African Democratic Congress,” he said, explaining that efforts to form a broader coalition had stalled after the SDP allegedly refused to cooperate. According to him, “The SDP would not agree to open up to the coalition leadership because the government has bribed and compromised some of the leaders. Happily, the ADC agreed to the terms and conditions of the coalition leadership.”
El-Rufai noted that the conclusion of pending by-elections and local contests had cleared the way for his official entry into the party. He also commended organisers for putting the event together at short notice, adding, “I was informed at 6 pm yesterday to be here at 4 o’clock. And I managed to get here.”
Shifting to the political landscape in Kaduna, El-Rufai urged residents to register with the ADC, stressing the need for change. “I want to call on all citizens of Kaduna State of 18 years and above to come out en masse and register with the African Democratic Congress,” he said. He added that the party aims to recreate its 2015 electoral breakthrough, recalling how it ousted what he described as the “incompetent, thieving, stealing and corrupt PDP administration.”
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He also criticised the APC-led government in Kaduna, accusing it of abandoning its mandate. “We contributed to bringing them into office. We therefore have a duty to contribute to sending them back home before they go to prison,” he declared.
At the registration event, El-Rufai was assigned membership number 000002, while the coalition’s Vice National Chairman (North West) received number 000001 as the state’s first registrant.
El-Rufai’s defection follows his March 10 resignation from the APC, in which he cited a deepening rift between his values and the party’s current direction. In that letter, he warned that the party had strayed from its founding principles, saying, “Developments in the last two years confirm that there is no desire on the part of those who currently control and run the APC to acknowledge, much less address, the unhealthy situation of the party.”
He added that repeated attempts to alert the party’s leadership — both privately and publicly — were ignored. El-Rufai, a key architect of the 2013 opposition merger that birthed the APC, lamented that the party had drifted far from its original vision.