Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna says though the ruling All Progressives Congress has not met Nigerians’ expectations, the party will win the 2023 presidential election and the majority of governorship elections in 2023.

“I think Nigerians expect much more than we have done. But if Nigerians reflect deeply and compare with the other party, we are still a better choice,” Mr El-Rufai said. 

Mr El-Rufai disclosed this in an interview with Channels TV on Wednesday night. 

“I believe that in 2023, the APC is going to win the presidential election as well as the majority of the governorship elections,” Mr El-Rufai said. 

Mr El-Rufai’s statement came amid worsening economic hardship and insecurity despite repeated promises by President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime to turn things around.

According to a report by Brookings Institution under Mr Buhari’s watch, Nigeria displaced India to become the world’s poverty capital in 2018.

“At the end of May 2018, our trajectories suggest that Nigeria had about 87 million people in extreme poverty, compared with India’s 73 million. What is more, extreme poverty in Nigeria is growing by six people every minute, while poverty in India continues to fall,” the report said. 

Mr Buhari’s regime said it had lifted 10.5 million Nigerians out of poverty. In contrast, the World Bank said seven million Nigerians dropped below the poverty line due to worsening inflation in the country in 2020. 

Recently, with the regime’s importation of contaminated petrol, the ruling APC has rubbed salt into the wounds of Nigerians as fuel scarcity has persisted for weeks disrupting commercial activities and increasing traffic snarls.