The All Progressives Congress (APC) has criticized the immediate past governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, for attacking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu.

The national vice chairman of the APC (southeast), Dr Ijeoma Arodiogbu, described El-Rufai’s criticism of Tinubu and the NSA during a Monday night interview on Arise TV, as pathetic.

The former Kaduna governor supported some of Tinubu’s reforms but argued that their implementation and sequencing were flawed, affecting economic stability.

“So, I have issues with many of them, and I’m in touch with many senior officials of the administration, and I give them my opinion privately.”

Nasir El-Rufai also explained why he fell out with NSA Nuhu Ribadu and Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna state. The former governor explained that Governor Sani was supporting Ribadu against him to actualise the NSA's presidential ambition in the 2031 election.

In his interview, the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) hinted at leaving the ruling APC, adding that the party had already abandoned him.

In a swift reaction to the development, Arodiogbu described the ex-governor as a grudging man whose selfish expectations were not met by Tinubu's administration.

Arodiogbu downplayed any possible impact of El-Rufai's departure from the ruling APC. He stated thus: “El-Rufai is a grudging man. I think his personal expectations and selfish needs of the government were not met.

So, he’s grudging for that. Nothing less than this is expected. That could also define what he meant by that the party left him.

He didn’t leave the party.” Speaking further, the APC vice chairman said the former governor wouldn’t pose any form of threat to the party, adding that the APC was unbothered about losing El-Rufai to the opposition camp.

The APC chief said El-Rufai was pained because he was losing his loyalists to the APC, The Punch reported. “It is not a threat at all.

So, you can see the optics are very clear. So, if everybody, if every politician of note in the states is defecting to the APC, what do you expect? So, El-Rufai’s support amounts to nothing.’’