Shehu Sani: How Uba Sani convinced me to return to APC

Former Kaduna Central senator, Shehu Sani, has explained why he returned to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Sani, who resigned from the ruling party over controversies surrounding the party’s primaries in 2018, later joined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He, however, secured the opposition party’s senatorial ticket but lost the 2019 election to Uba […]

Former Kaduna Central senator, Shehu Sani, has explained why he returned to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Sani, who resigned from the ruling party over controversies surrounding the party’s primaries in 2018, later joined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He, however, secured the opposition party’s senatorial ticket but lost the 2019 election to Uba Sani, the present governor of Kaduna.

Though elected together with former Governor El-Rufai under the APC in 2015, he felt out with the former governor in the buildup to the 2019 elections.

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

But speaking on Hard Copy, a Channels Television programme, the ex-senator attributed his return to the efforts of the governor.

He said he met with the governor where they agreed he should return to the APC, both being founding members.

“He (Sani), has been making consultations and building bridges across the state before we met.”

Explaining further, the former senator said, “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.

“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 former governor, Nasir el-Rufai.

“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.”

On El-Rufai who has of late become an ardent critic of his party, the former senator underscored his electoral value adding that he was responsible for the APC’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election.

He attacked El-Rufai 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?”