• South-west, Tinubu’s supporters playing with fire, he says
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
A former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has said that the relationship between the President Bola Tinubu and the north has deteriorated in less than two years into his administration, warning that he might be given the Goodluck Jonathan’s treatment ahead of the 2027 elections.
Recently, the former governor had been attacking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the policies of Tinubu-led Federal Government, even as political gladiators across the party continue to mull the idea of floating a coalition capable of defeating APC.
However, El-Rufai fired another salvo in a post via his verified X handle on Tuesday titled, ‘2027: South West, Tinubu’s supporters playing with fire – Part 1.’
He stated: “It is actually premature to be talking about 2027 elections less than 2 years into our first tenure, but what is happening in the political arena is forcing me to speak to it, for as they say, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.
“As an APC member, I naturally would want my party to win re-election in 2027. However, as a realist, I have my concerns.”
El-Rufai recalled that during the 2019 party primaries, he saw the way the All Progressives Congress (APC) party was handling the primaries, and wrote that if the party wasn’t careful, it could go the way of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which lost power after 16 years.
He said he predicted then that if APC didn’t return to its promised progressive path and ideology and instead stayed obsessed with just winning elections at any and all cost, just like the PDP, the ruling party could lose power at the federal level by 2031.
El-Rufai added: “When I wrote that we were not faced with the current situation we are faced with. Indeed, I never imagined that we would be in the current situation any time soon, surely not under President Bola Tinubu.
“Note: I am not talking about the present economic situation and the likes. I am talking about the current and increasing ‘ghaghagha’ in our party and among APC members and supporters of the PBAT administration.
“Incidentally, many Nigerians have a short memory. Permit me to juggle the memories of some short memories and uninitiated political neophytes.
“Many will recall that, as we approached the 2023 presidential election, with the conduct of some individuals, I desperately cautioned that we should be careful and not play with the North.
“Somehow, common sense prevailed, and we succeeded, unarguably and undeniably with the unquantifiable help of the north (the records of the election results proved so).
“Less than 2 years into the tenure, we are witnesses to how the relationship between the north and President Tinubu or rather his administration is quickly deteriorating, driven by the words and conduct of unfortunately, many from the president’s geopolitical zone and tribe. Truth be told.
“I have read and heard the arrogant posturing and braggadocio by some people whom I refer to as political rabble rousers, but I get more worried each day as it keeps looking more and more like a movie we had seen before.
“May I remind some persons that more than the performance or lack thereof of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration, it was his attitude, and that of people around him, towards the north that ultimately brought him down and by extension the PDP that had boasted that it would rule Nigeria for 60 years.”
El-Rufai stated that in the lead up to the 2015 presidential election, in spite of the popularity of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and the gathering of political heavyweights under the umbrella of the then newly formed APC, one key factor that led to former President Jonathan and the PDP losing that election was underestimating the north and the disrespect and insult directed towards to north.
This, he said, was notably led by the then first lady and accentuated by elements from the South-south geopolitical zone and particularly his Ijaw kinsmen, many of them with little or no political weight and many of whom were “living full time in NICON and Sheraton Hotels, Abuja then (with newly found free money)”.
The former governor noted that funny enough, many of these individuals contributed little or nothing to Jonathan’s victory in 2011.
El-Rufai emphasised that indeed, many of them forgot that it was the agitation by groups like the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), spearheaded by the likes of Pastor Tunde Bakare, himself, late Yinka Odumakin and co that eventually led to then Vice-President Jonathan becoming the acting president in the first place following the incapacitation of former President Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.
