Former Governor of Kaduna State and key member of the new African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nasir El-Rufai, has predicted that Tinubu will suffer a major humiliation in the 2027 election if he’s on the ballot, saying at best the President will come third in the first round of the election leading to a run-off without the president.
El-Rufai who made this known on Channels TV on Sunday, urged Tinubu to learn from the experience of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was defeated by the late President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 presidential election.
He said: “If you want to engage in self-delusion, you are free to do so. I will not tell you how we are going to win, but I tell you very clearly, the worst-case scenario in the 2027 elections is that no winner will emerge in the first round.
“We may have to go for a runoff, and Bola Tinubu will not be on the ballot for the runoff, 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, at best, be 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, I have the police, I have the army. “It’s like those who say Tinubu has never lost an election. That can be contested, but it’s okay. He’s a political strategist, he’s this, he’s that. Wait!”
He accused the President of mismanaging the economy, noting that 30 million more Nigerians had been impoverished in the last two years as a result of economic policy.
El-Rufai, who fell out with Tinubu after his nomination as a minister was rejected by the National Assembly, insisted that he would have resigned if he was made a minister in the Tinubu administration.
He said that serving as a minister under Tinubu was never his ambition, stating that Tinubu had begged him to join the cabinet but later changed his mind.
“I would have probably resigned if I was a minister in Tinubu’s government. I had no desire to be a minister. I don’t care what people are saying now. I have been a minister when I was much younger,” he said.
Besides, he accused the governor of Kaduna state, Uba Sani, of being behind the attack at the Kaduna ADC committee inauguration in Kaduna at the weekend. El-Rufai claimed that there was evidence that the state governor orchestrated the attack.
He said: “I have evidence that Kaduna State Governor is behind Saturday’s attacks. I will submit evidence to the IGP and other authorities if they care to investigate.”
El-Rufai who was instrumental to Sani’s emergence as Kaduna State governor in 2023, further said there was no dispute between him and the governor, declaring that Sani was never his friend.
