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Says He Would Have Resigned as Minister Even If Appointed
- Safiu Kehinde
Former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has reiterated that President Bola Tinubu will be voted out by 2027, regardless of the amount of government machineries that he control.
El-Rufai stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics yesterday.
Speaking on the chances of Tinubu winning the 2027 general election considering the number of state governors now under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the former chieftain of the party maintained that the number of state governors does not determine victory in Presidential election.
He recounted how he and the President lost their respective states to the opposition parties during the 2023 general election.
“They can believe what they want to believe. They can engage in self-dellusion. They can use the carrot and stick tactics to lure governors or intimidate them into joining.
“They will do all that but at the end of the day, the Nigerian voters will decide based on President Tinubu’s performance and the performance of governance.
“It is not a governor moving to a party that will make that party win elections. I was governor of Kaduna state. I was one of Bola Tinubu’s biggest campaigners, but I couldn’t deliver the state to him.
“Bola Tinubu himself couldn’t win his state with his own governor in place. So, these things are not as theoretical as people want them to be. If you want to indulge in self-delusion, you are free to do so.” He said.
While refusing to disclose how the new coalition African Democratic Congress (ADC) will defeat the APC-led administration, El-Rufai claimed that the 2027 general election will be decided by round-off with Tinubu failing to advance to the stage.
He held that the President would end up as second runner-up, stressing that he has no pathway to victory.
El-Rufai challenged Tinubu to invite former President Goodluck Jonathan and ask him how he was defeated in 2015 despite having the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Police, Army, and other government agencies under his control.
“I will not tell you how we are going to win. But I can tell you very clearly and I’ve said this before and I will say it again, the worst-case scenario in the 2027 election is that no winner will emerge in the first round.
“We will have to go for round off and Bola Tinubu will not be on the ballot for that round off because he will at best be third in the election.
“He has no pathway to win. I have done the maths. I have done the analysis. He cannot. He will be at best third.
“But he can deceive himself. He may think oh you know, I have money, because they have taken all the money in the country, I have INEC, Police, Army.
“You know what, President Tinubu, invite President Jonathan for a chat and ask him if he didn’t have all these in 2015 and we got him out.
“Tinubu has never election, that can be contested. I Nasir El-Rufai has said if you want to learn a lesson, invite President Jonathan over a cup of coffee and ask him what happened in 2015.” He said.
Reacting to question as to whether he would have refrained from criticising the Tinubu-led administration if he had been made Minister, El-Rufai claimed he would have resigned and criticised the government.
The ex-Kaduna governor held that he had no desire to become a Minister while boasting of the works he did during his tenure as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister.
“If I was Minister, I would probably have resigned. I would have resigned and said the same thing. People think that this Minister is a big deal. I was Minister when I was 43 years old. They are still talking about what I did in the FCT.
“People forgot that I left the FCT 2007. I left the FCT 18 years ago. And I had no desire to be Minister. I didn’t want anything. People can say all sort of things.
“They are free to do so. As, I said, people’s opinion of me doesn’t make me lose any sleep. I don’t care. I know who I am.” He added.