El-Rufai Reacts To Reported Plan To Run Against Tinubu Under Another Party In 2027

A former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, has reacted to reports that he plans to dump the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a bid to run for the presidency against President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

This was fuelled by his recent meetings with opposition figures, including a visit to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

During the visit to the SDP national secretariat in Abuja, he was received by the leadership of the party led by the National Chairman, Alhaji Shehu Gabam.

Also during the week, el-Rufai hosted suspended Senator Abdul Ningi.

The representatives of Bauchi Central Senatorial District, who was suspended for claiming that the 2024 Budget was padded, is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Responding to the insinuations that el-Rufai intends to dump the APC and run for the presidency in 2027, his media aide as governor, Muyiwa Adekeye, said on his X handle: “I consider the most recent speculations about Malam Nasir @elrufai as reflecting an unhealthy obsession with politics. People have personal histories and relationships that predate political affiliations. It cannot be a hallmark of civilisation to have friends from within only your political party. When people visit each other or mingle across party lines, it is because human relationships exist, distinct from the political or the partisan.

“Malam Nasir @elrufai is a senior member of the APC, one of the signatories to its merger documents, and a significant contributor to the party’s demonstrated viability. These contributions do not require that he treats friends as anathema on account of politics or maintains an antiseptic distance from them.

“Malam Nasir @elrufai hosted some friends to Iftar on Tuesday, 19 March 2024. NSA Nuhu Ribadu was at the Iftar with a senior APC figure like Alh. Kashim Imam. SDP National Chairman Shehu Musa Gabam was among the friends who partook in the Iftar. Gabam was not accused of considering crossing over to the APC on account of that.

“When Malam Nasir @elrufai visited Gabam the next day, he was merely returning a visit to a friend who happens to be SDP chairman. Malam El-Rufai is known for being open and forthright. If he had any political decisions to make, it would not be in character to let them be subject to speculation.

“Unfounded speculations about Malam Nasir @elrufai have become an industry that has delivered tons of lies and clickbaits in the last 18 years. This is unlikely to abate anytime soon, given the persistent obsession of its purveyors who relish in negativity and their tireless indulgence in conflating assumption with fact. A recent instance was when he visited former presidents late in 2023 to explain his Nigerian governance study book project covering each of their tenures, the speculators said it was about politics! That is why it is sometimes necessary to clarify matters lest the unwary be taken in.”