Former Governor Nasir El-Rufai has excoriated his successor, Uba Sani, for pandering to President Bola Tinubu.

Mr Sani, in an interview aired on TVC on Monday, slammed Mr El-Rufai and other opposition leaders for teaming up against Mr Tinubu, saying they are obsessed with power and cannot perform any better than the president.

“Most of these politicians that came out and say they are coming as coalition, they are politicians that were in government only less than two years ago.

“What did they do when they were in government? They were only fighting for power, not because they could do anything better,” the Kaduna governor said.

Mr Sani challenged M Tinubu’s critics to “rather work hard and present themselves in the next election” should they feel they can defeat Mr Tinubu or the ruling APC.

Replying via X on Tuesday, Mr El-Rufai accused the Kaduna governor of sycophancy, alleging that Mr Sani’s support for the president was connected to over N150 billion in federal reimbursements received by Kaduna in the past 18 months.

“Every day I see this governor embarrassingly and sycophantically rambling, I used to wonder why? However, confirming that federal government ‘reimbursements, interventions, and grants’ in excess of N150bn have been given selectively to Kaduna by Tinubu in the last 18 months now explains everything,” the former governor claimed.

Mr El-Rufai further said his successor can continue to defend Mr Tinubu by all means, insisting “the people of Kaduna state will judge at the right time and place.”

Mr El-Rufai, a chieftain of APC, alleged internal inconsistencies in the ruling party, accusing it of abandoning the fundamental ideals for which it was formed.

The former governor insisted his criticism of the ruling party and the Tinubu-led administration is targeted at making APC live up to its ideals and serve Nigerians better.