Shehu Sani: Why I returned to APC

Shehu Sani, the former senator, has shed light on his decision to rejoin the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

In October 2018, Sani, who previously represented Kaduna central in the senate, resigned from the APC over controversies surrounding the party’s primaries.

Sani later decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and secured the party’s senatorial ticket but lost the 2019 election to Uba Sani, the present Kaduna governor.

Speaking on Hard Copy, a programme on Channels Television, on Friday, the ex-senator said Uba Sani “mended bridges” to facilitate his return to the APC.

“A circumstance led to our mass exit from the APC sometime in 2018, and that circumstance has changed, and then we rejoined the APC in Kaduna state,” Sani said.

“First of all, I was a founding member of APC, particularly in Kaduna state. We established structures, and we did the campaigns and won the 2015 elections both at the senatorial and the governorship levels, and somewhere along the way, we parted ways with the governor (Nasir el-Rufai) in the state.

“We parted ways over differences that are both political, personal and also issues that affect the state, and for that reason we had to evict ourselves out of the party and then now we have a new governor who reached out to us.

“A governor who has been making consultations, building bridges across the state and then we also met and agreed that we should return to the party that we founded in Kaduna state.”

On February 16, 2025, Sani and some members of the PDP and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) joined the ruling APC in Kaduna.

SANI: APC LOST 2023 PRESIDENTIAL POLL IN KADUNA BECAUSE OF EL-RUFAI

The former senator said el-Rufai was responsible for the APC’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election.

Atiku Abubakar of the PDP garnered 554,360 votes, defeating Bola Tinubu, the APC candidate, who secured 399,293 votes to finish second, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party polled 294,494 votes to claim third place.

Sani criticised the former Kaduna governor for “failing” to reconcile the various factions within the APC in the state.

“From my understanding, the former governor of Kaduna state is disgruntled and pained—it’s part of the crisis of entitlement and expectations,” he said.

“But as I posted on my X page, Nasiru was governor for eight years and couldn’t deliver Kaduna to Tinubu. The results are there.

“If Nasiru claims he delivered for Tinubu, the figures say otherwise. For the first time, under him, APC lost all three senatorial seats to PDP. Out of 14 house of representatives seats, PDP won nine, Labour two, and APC only three.

“He also claims to have brought Uba Sani to office, but let’s check the numbers—PDP’s Isa Ashiru got 719,000 votes, Uba Sani 730,000, just 11,000 difference. Kaduna didn’t vote for Uba because of Nasiru; in fact, Uba lost votes because of him.

“This was a man campaigning for Uba on one hand while publicly ridiculing him on the other.

“Does he believe in reconciliation? When the APC crisis in Kaduna lasted seven years, the party sent Aminu Masari, Segun Oni, Inua Abdulquadri, and John Oyegun to mediate—he refused all.

“His refusal to reconcile with APC forces in Kaduna led to major losses. If he truly believes in reconciliation, why didn’t he practise it in his own state?”

El-Rufai has of late become an ardent critic of his party, accusing the APC of deviating from its founding principles.